OR

CHRISTIAN AND HIS COMRADES.

BY THE

RIGHT HON. LORD BYRON.

THIRD EDITION.

LONDON, 1823:

PRINTED FOR JOHN HUNT,

22, OLD BOND STREET.

14

Stabitwoek

Muneben

The foundation of the following Story will be found partly

in the account of the Mutiny of the Bounty in the South

Seas (in 1789) and partly in " Mariner's Account of the Tonga Islands."

THE ISLAND.

CANTO I.

I.

THE morning watch was come; the vessel lay
Her course, and gently made her liquid way;
The cloven billow flashed from off her prow
In furrows formed by that majestic plough;
The waters with their world were all before;
Behind, the South Sea's many an islet shore.
The quiet night, now dappling, 'gan to wane,
Dividing darkness from the dawning main;
The dolphins, not unconscious of the day,
Swam high, as eager of the coming ray;
The stars from broader beams began to creep,
And lift their shining eyelids from the deep;
The sail resumed its lately shadowed white,
And the wind fluttered with a freshening flight;

10