| |
(A.D. 1800)
YOUR jar of Virginny | |
| Will cost you a guinea | |
| Which you reckon too much by five shillings or ten; | |
| But light your churchwarden | |
| And judge it according, | 5 |
| When I’ve told you the troubles of poor honest men. | |
| |
| From the Capes of the Delaware, | |
| As you are well aware, | |
| We sail with tobacco for England—but then, | |
| Our own British cruisers, | 10 |
| They watch us come through, sirs, | |
| And they press half a score of us poor honest men! | |
| |
| Or if by quick sailing | |
| (Thick weather prevailing) | |
| We leave them behind (as we do now and then) | 15 |
| We are sure of a gun from | |
| Each frigate we run from, | |
| Which is often destruction to poor honest men! | |
| |
| Broadsides the Atlantic | |
| We tumble short-handed, | 20 |
| With shot-holes to plug and new canvas to bend, | |
| And off the Azores, | |
| Dutch, Dons and Monsieurs | |
| Are waiting to terrify poor honest men. | |
| |
| Napoleon’s embargo | 25 |
| Is laid on all cargo | |
| Which comfort or aid to King George may intend; | |
| And since roll, twist and leaf, | |
| Of all comforts is chief, | |
| They try for to steal it from poor honest men! | 30 |
| |
| With no heart for fight, | |
| We take refuge in flight | |
| But fire as we run, our retreat to defend; | |
| Until our stern-chasers | |
| Cut up her fore-braces, | 35 |
| And she flies off the wind from us poor honest men! | |
| |
| ’Twixt the Forties and Fifties, | |
| South-eastward the drift is, | |
| And so, when we think we are making Land’s End, | |
| Alas, it is Ushant | 40 |
| With half the King’s Navy, | |
| Blockading French ports against poor honest men! | |
| |
| But they may not quit station | |
| (Which is our salvation) | |
| So swiftly we stand to the Nor’ard again; | 45 |
| And finding the tail of | |
| A homeward-bound convoy, | |
| We slip past the Scillies like poor honest men. | |
| |
| Twix’ the Lizard and Dover, | |
| We hand our stuff over, | 50 |
| Though I may not inform how we do it, nor when. | |
| But a light on each quarter | |
| Low down on the water | |
| Is well understanded by poor honest men. | |
| |
| Even then we have dangers, | 55 |
| From meddlesome strangers, | |
| Who spy on our business and are not content | |
| To take a smooth answer, | |
| Except with a handspike … | |
| And they say they are murdered by poor honest men! | 60 |
| |
| To be drowned or be shot | |
| Is our natural lot, | |
| Why should we, moreover, be hanged in the end— | |
| After all our great pains | |
| For to dangle in chains | 65 |
| As though we were smugglers, not poor honest men? | |
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