, Byron was profoundly impressed by Mariner's report of the scenery
and folklore of the _Friendly Islands_, was "never tired of talking of
it to his friends," and, in order to turn this poetic material to
account, finally bethought him that Bligh's _Narrative_ of the mutiny of
the _Bounty_ would serve as a framework or structure "for an embroidery
of rare device"--the figures and foliage of a tropical pattern. That, at
least, is the substance of Clinton's analysis of the "sources" of _The
Island_, and whether he spoke, or only feigned to speak, with authority,
his criticism is sound and to the point. The story of the mutiny of the
_Bounty_, which is faithfully related in the first canto, is not, as the
second title implies, a prelude to the "Adventures of Christian and his
Comrades," but to a description of "The Island," an Ogygia of the South
Seas.

It must be borne in mind that Byron's acquaintance with the details of
the mutiny of the _Bounty_ was derived exclusively from Bligh's
_Narrative_; that he does not seem to have studied the minutes of the
court-martial on Peter Heywood and the other prisoners (September,
1792), or to have possessed the information that in 1809, and, again, in
1815, the Admiralty received authentic information with regard to the
final settlement of Christian and his comrades on Pitcairn Island.
Articles, however, had appeared in the _Quarterly Review_, February,
1810, vol. iii. pp. 23, 24, and July, 1815, vol. xiii. pp. 376-378,
which contained an extract from the log-book of Captain Mayhew Folger,
of the American ship _Topaz_, dated September 29, 1808, and letters from
Folger (March 1, 1813), and Sir Thomas Staines, October 18, 1814, which
solved the mystery. Moreover, the article of February, 1810, is quoted
in the notes (pp. 313-318) affixed to Miss Mitford's _Christina, the
Maid of the South Seas_, 1811, a poem founded on Bligh's _Narrative_, of
which neither Byron or his reviewers seem to have heard.

But whatever may have been his opportunities of ascertaining the facts
of the case, it is certain (see his note to Canto IV. section vi. line
122) that he did not know what became of Christian, and that whereas in
the first canto he follows the text of Bligh's _Narrative_, in the three
last cantos he draws upon his imagination, turning Tahiti into Toobonai
(Tubuai), and transporting Toobonai from one archipelago to
another--from the Society to the Friendly Islands.

Another and still mor