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Come and listen for a moment, lads |
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And hear me tell my tale |
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How across the sea from England |
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I was condemned to sail |
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Now the jury found me guilty |
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Then says the judge, says he |
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"Oh, for life, Jim Jones, I'm sending you |
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Across the stormy sea |
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But take a tip before you ship |
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To join the iron gang |
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Don't get too gay in Botany Bay |
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Or else you'll surely hang |
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Or else you'll surely hang", says he |
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"And after that Jim Jones |
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It's high above on the gallows tree |
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The crows will pick your bones". |
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And our ship was high upon the sea |
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When pirates came along |
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But the soldiers on our convict ship |
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Were full five hundred strong |
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For they opened fire and somehow drove |
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That pirate ship away |
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But I'd rather have joined that pirate ship |
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Than gone to Botany Bay |
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With the storms ragin' round us |
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And the winds a-blowin' gale |
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I'd rather have drowned in misery |
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Than gone to New South Wales |
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There's no time for mischief there they say |
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Remember that, says they |
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Or they'll flog the poaching out of you |
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Down there in Botany Bay. |
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Now it's day and night and the irons clang |
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And like poor galley slaves |
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We toil and toil, and when we die |
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Must fill dishonored graves |
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And it's by and by I'll slip my chains |
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Well, into the bush I'll go |
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And I'll join the bravest rankers there |
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Jack Donohue and co |
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And some dark night, when everything |
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Is silent in the town |
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I'll shoot those tyrants one and all |
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I'll gun the floggers down |
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Oh, I'll give the land a little shock |
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Remember what I say |
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They'll yet regret they've sent Jim Jones |
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In chains to Botany Bay. |
