"For in emigration the young men enter direct by the shipload on their heritage of work; empty continents swarm, as at the bosun's whistle, with industrious hands, and whole hew empires are domesticated to the service of man." -Robert Louis Stevenson, The Amateur Emigrant The Amateur Emigrant from the Clyde to Sandy Hook (1895), by Robert Louis Stevenson is the first book (followed by Across the Plains and the Silverado Squatters) in a trilogy the author wrote about his journey from Scotland to California in 1879-1880. In this volume, he describes the first leg of his trip, made by ship from Europe to New York City. Stevenson depicts the crowded conditions he experienced in steerage with others who, like him, were poor and sick. At the conclusion, the author also offers his usual sharp-eyed observations, which, in this case are of New York and New Yorkers.

An account of Robert Louis Stevenson's twelve day journey from New York to California in 1879, interwoven with a history of the building of the transcontinental railroad and the settling of the West.

"America was to me a sort of promised land; 'westward the march of empire holds its way'; the race is for the moment to the young; what has been and what is we imperfectly and obscurely know; what is to be yet lies beyond the flight of our imaginations. . . " Robert Louis Stevenson, The Amateur Emigrant Across the Plains with Other Memories and Essays (1892) by Robert Louis Stevenson is the second book in a trilogy that began with The Amateur Emigrant and ended with The Silverado Squatters and in which the author described his travels in the United States. Each of the 12 chapters is a self-contained essay that discusses a particular aspect of what Stevenson observed as he traveled by train from New York to California. They give a fascinating view of what travel was in the late Victorian period from the perspective of a Scottish visitor.

On 23 September 1878 Stevenson set out from Le Monastier in the Haut Loire, to tramp through the wild region of the Cevennes. His only companion was a small donkey to carry basic necessities, and a commodious "sleeping sack". In the next 12 days, at a pace dictated by the donkey and carrying most of the supplies himself, he travelled 120 miles across rivers, mountains and forests. His stylish and witty account was published in 1879.

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