Ballad of Moreton Bay

[Verse 1]
One Sunday morning as I went walking
By Brisbane waters I chanced to stray
I heard a prisoner his fate bewailing
As on the sunny riverbank he lay
I am a native of Erin's island
And banished now from my native shore
They tore me from my aged parents
And from the maiden whom I adore

[Verse 2]
I've been a prisoner at Port Macquarie
At Norfolk Island and Emu Plains
At Castle Hill and that cursed Toongabbie
At all those settlements I've woked in chains
But of all places of condemnation
And penal stations of New South Wales
To Moreton Bay I havе found no equal
Excessive tyranny еach day prevails

[Verse 3]
For three long years I was cruelly treated
And heavy irons on my legs I wore
My back from flogging was lacerated
When begged to stop they would offer more
And many a man from downright starvation
Lies mouldering underneath the clay
And Captain Logan, he had us tortured
At the pillories down at Moreton Bay

[Verse 4]
Like the Egyptians and ancient Hebrews
We were oppressed under Logan's yoke
Till a native black lying there in ambush
Did give our tyrant his mortal stroke
My fellow prisoners be exhilarated
That all such tyrants such death may find
And when from bondage we're liberated
Our former sufferings shall fade from mind

[Outro]
One Sunday morning as I went walking
By Brisbane waters I chanced to stray
I heard a prisoner his fate bewailing
As on the sunny riverbank he lay