SONGS FROM THE SOUTHERN SEAS.
THE KING OF THE VASSE.
A LEGEND OF THE BUSH.
MY tale which I have brought is of a time
Ere that fair Southern land was stained with crime,
Brought thitherward in reeking ships and cast
Like blight upon the coast, or like a blast
From angry levin on a fair young tree,
That stands thenceforth a piteous sight to see.
So stands this land to-day beneath the sun,—
A weltering plague-spot; while not any one
Of all the Christian lands upon the earth,
Not e'en the rock that last had ocean birth,
Would call her sister,—she, the fairest shore
In all the Southern Ocean o'er and o'er.
Poor Cinderella! she must weep her woe,
Because an elder sister wills it so.
