32 THE WHALE AND 



South Sea Coral Island. Lonely Rimatara. 



CHAPTER II. 



CORAL ISLAND OF RIMATARA. 



Hnppy they were, and without a care, 

 Who had made their home forever there ; 

 Happy they were, and calm and free, 



Living upon their island-home, 

 Whose beach was girt with a silvery sea, 



That sprinkled it ever with starry foam. 

 Their life was a moving melody, 

 Their season a long serenity. STORY. 



THE first view we have of the Commodore 

 Preble is as she is lying off and on the lone 

 island of Rimatara, in quest of the fresh sup- 

 plies which whalemen covet in order to keep 

 at bay the scurvy. This is one of those fas- 

 cinating South Sea Islands, which, on their 

 first discovery by Europeans in the latter part 

 of the last century, quite turned the heads of 

 many, and at once started so much speculative 

 nonsense and sentimentality about primeval in- 

 nocence and bliss embosomed in the Pacific. 



A coral rock, by gentle Nature made 

 Verdant and beautiful, through tropic sun, 



And fertilizing rain, and grateful shade ; 

 Placed far amid the melancholy main. 



