AN UNDISCOVERED ISLAND. 185 



III. 



Be not afraid ; the isle is full of noises, 



Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not. 



Sometimes a thousand twanging instruments 



Will hum about mine ears ; and sometimes voices, 



That, if I then had waked after long sleep, 



Will make me sleep again ; and then, in dreaming, 



The clouds methought would open, and show riches 



Ready to drop upon me ; that, when I waked, 



I cried to dream again. 



WHEN the sun rose the next morning, we rose 

 with it, eager to explore our little world about which 

 the sea never ceased to sing its mighty hymn of 

 solitude and mystery. There was something im 

 pressive in the consciousness of our isolation ; be 

 tween us and any noise of human occupation the 

 waters were stretched as a barrier against which all 

 sound died into silence. There was something 

 enchanting in the beauty and strangeness of this 

 tiny continent, unreported by any geography, un 

 marked on any chart save that which a few possess 

 as a kind of sacred heritage, untraveled as yet by our 

 eager feet. There was something thrilling in the 

 associations that touched the island with such a light 

 as never fell from sun or star. With beating hearts 

 we set out on that wondrous exploration. Who 

 does not remember the thrill of the first discovery 

 of a new world ; that joy of the soul in possession 

 of a great new truth which passes all speech ? 



