Mutiny on the Bounty

‘When Bligh in stern reproach demanded where

Was now his grateful sense of former care?

Where all his hopes to see his name aspire,

And blazon Britain’s thousand glories higher?

His feverish lips  thus broke their gloomy spell,

“ ‘Tis that! Tis that! I am in hell! In hell!” *

* Christian then said “Come Captain Bligh, your officers and men are now in the boat, and you must go with them: if you attempt to make the least resistance, you will instantly be put to death…’

The text of poetry and associated note above is from Lord Byron’s “The Island, or Christian and his Comrades”.  Byron’s poem is found in “The Poetical Works of Lord Byron”, which includes notes compiled by Sir Walter Scott.  The Mutiny on the Bounty occurred on April 18, 1789.