This poem originally appeared in the Australian Town and Country Journal in June 1879 with the accompanying author's note:
'Dear Sir, - I send herewith some verses specially written for the TOWN AND COUNTRY. The lyric is founded on an old Celtic legend called Hy-Brasil. The legend says that when Adam and Eve were turned out of the garden, it was taken away and placed as a floating island in the Sunset seas. Many of the old Irish monks believed this story; and, it is related that more than one of them sailed west in search of it. Hy-Brasil was the name given to this fabulous floating Paradise. - Yours, Henry Kendall. Camden Haven, June 3, 1879.'