1786, Boswell, Life Of Johnson, Volume 5 Chapter , Probably he had been thinking of the whole of the simile in Cato, of which that is the concluding line; the sandy desart had struck him so strongly.
1871, James Fenimore Cooper, Wyandotte Chapter , We are like people on a desart island, out here in the wilderness--and if ships won't arrive to tell us how matters come on, we must send one out to l'arn it for us.
