MORETON BAY

Moreton Bay
by ANONYMOUS

One Sunday morning as I went walking
 by Brisbane waters I chanced to stray,
And I heard a convict his fate bewailing
 as on the sunny river bank he lay:
'I am a native of Erin's island,
 though banished now from my native shore;
They tore me from my aged parents
 and from the maiden whom I do adore.

'I've been a prisoner at Port Macquaire,
 at Norfolk Island and Emu Plains,
At Castle Hill and at cursed Toongabbie,
 at all those settlements I've worked in chains;
But of all places of condemnation
 and penal stations in New South Wales
To Moreton Bay I have found no equal,
 excessive tyranny each day prevails.

'For three long years I've been beastly treated
 and heavy irons on my legs I wore;
My back with flogging is lacerated
 and often painted with my crimson gore.
And many a man from downright starvation
 lies mouldering now underneath the clay;
And Captain Logan he had us mangled
 at the triangles of Moreton Bay.

'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 monsters such a  death may find!
And when from bondage we are liberated
 our former sufferings shall fade from mind.'