JIM JONES (BOTANY BAY)



Come and listen for a moment, lads, and hear me tell me tale,

How across the sea from England, I was condemned to sail.

Well, the jury found me guilty, and then says the judge, says he,

"Oh for life, Jim Jones, I'm sending you across the stormy sea.

But take a tip before you ship to join the iron gang,

Don't get too gay in Botany Bay, or else you'll surely hang.

Or else you'll surely hang, says he, and after that, Jim Jones,

It's high up on the gallows tree, the crows will pick your bones."



Well, our ship was high upon the seas when pirates came along,

But the soldiers on our convict ship were full five hundred strong;

Oh, they opened fire and somehow drove the pirate ship away

But I'd rather joined that pirate ship than gone to Botany Bay.

With the storms a-ragin' 'round us, and the winds a-blowing gales

I'd rather drowned in misery than gone to New South Wales,

There's no time for mischief there, remember that, they say

Or they'll flog the poaching out of you down there in Botany Bay.

Well it's day and night the irons clang and like poor galley slaves

Oh we toil and toil and when we die must fill dishonored graves;

But it's bye and bye I'll slip me chains and to the bush I'll go

And I'll join the brave bush rangers there, Jack Donahue and Co.

And some dark night when everything is silent in the town,

I'll shoot those tyrants one and all, I'll gun the floggers down.

Oh, I'll give the Law no little shock, remember what I say

And they'll yet regret the sent Jim Jones in chains to Botany Bay.



Recorded by Ian Robb, Hang the Piper (Folk Legacy)

@Australia @outlaw @transportation

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