In the summer of 1876, Robert Louis Stevenson made a trip by canoe from Antwerp through northern France. Accompanying him was his friend Walter Simpson. Written when he was twenty five and published in May of 1878, An Inland Voyage was Stevenson's first published work. "We are travelers in the wilderness of the world-travelers with a donkey." So Robert Louis Stevenson wrote to a friend on completing this enchanting account of a journey in rural France in 1878. Alone with his pack-donkey Modestine, and showing total disregard for discomfort, Stevenson relishes to the full his walking tour of the Cevennes. Freedom was the important thing: "I blessed God that I was free to wander, free to hope, and free to love." This diary will find many kindred spirits.