Summer Islands, or more properly, Somers' Islands, from Sir George
Somers, who was cast away on the coast early in the seventeenth
century, and established a colony there.

[2] 'Bacchus yield': from the palmetto, a species of palm in the West
Indies, is extracted an intoxicating drink.



CANTO II.

Of their alarm, and how their foes
Discover'd were, this Canto shows.


Though rocks so high about this island rise,
That well they may the num'rous Turk despise,
Yet is no human fate exempt from fear,
Which shakes their hearts, while through the isle they hear
A lasting noise, as horrid and as loud
As thunder makes before it breaks the cloud.
Three days they dread this murmur, ere they know 80
From what blind cause th'unwonted sound may grow.
At length two monsters of unequal size,
Hard by the shore, a fisherman espies;
Two mighty whales! which swelling seas had toss'd,
And left them pris'ners on the rocky coast.
One as a mountain vast, and with her came
A cub, not much inferior to his dam.
Here in a pool, among the rocks engaged,