In order to escape the police and bailiffs, Peter takes a steam ship which is wrecked. He is washed ashore in America and found by Yankees who take him to the local magistrate.
I LEFT my native shore last May ;
A steam ship swept me through the ocean,
Over mighty hills of sea;
Of which, dear Pat, you have no notion.
The thunders rowled, the billows howled-
The storm growled, I yowled beside them-
The lightning flashed, the ingins smashed ;
The captain swore that ills betide him.
(Spoken). Och, Paddy avourneen(1) ! that was the day of sorrow intirely : I thought id was all up wid me ; and so it was ; for, conshumin' to the bit, bite, or sup, I let down for siven years afore, that didn't cum gallopin' up, and makin its escape, as if a whole brigade of polis was shootin' and proddin' it afore them : id tuck the most infernal canther that was ever seen : con-found me ! Paddy, bud id cum tro' me like an express through a counthry village.
In that miserable misery, I cried out-
Chorus. "Och, captain," sis I, "if here I die,
Curse the polis and bailiffs(1) ever ;
For they are they, who drove me away- [Note 056.1]
I'll never forgive them ; curse them!-never."
Up went the ship ; " oh dear I" sis I ;
Up went my accounts that very minnit ; [Note 056.2]
Then down to ------------- ! or very nigh,
I thought, by gosh I was half-way in it.
The big waves broke our mast of smoke, [Note 056.3]
It was no joke, at dead of night, then ;
For sails and riggin' ; both danced a jig in
The gale, beneath the moon's dim light, then.
(Spoken). Oh, by the powers ! Paddy, id was the d.--'s own wady-bucketty ; shure enuff : one minnit we wor catchin' " Mother Cary's chickens," [Note 056.9]
amongst the tundher and lightnin', up stairs in the clouds ; and the neit, "our poor devoted bark" [Note 056.4] was dancing a horn-pipe on the back of a whale, as large as the Plains of Connamarah, at the bottom of the grea, deep.
There is no use in talkin,' Paddy-the waves bet Banaher, [Note 056.5]
aye, an' bet our unfortunate ship to baby rags, with a vengeance. In that miserable misery I cried out-
Och, captain, &c.
The captain cried "mate" I shouted "dhrink ;"
The ship has struck-shell go assundher-
We reel upon the grave's thin brink ;
That moment our cargo was boults of tundher,
The ingins melted, the hail-stones pelted ;
And faith I felt it, dear Paddy, quarely ;
The vessel parted, and so I started
For shore, on my stick, that morning early.
(Spoken). Och, millia murther(1)
Paddy asthore id was terrible to hear the tundher firing away as iv there wasn't a tar gate in the whole world, for id, bud our poor ship : id bet the peelers¹ 'shootin' all to pieces, (do ye take ?) bad scrant(1) to the bit, dear brother, bud if you was to see me hidin' in the great big chimney, like a pick-led herring, [Note 056.6]
(for the win blew id down,) bud you'd pity me above all things. Id was in this miserable misery, peepin' out of the great tube, I cried out-
Och, captain, &c.
I lay quite dead upon the strand ;
The Yankees(1) found me like Gul'ver long ago,
Choaked with pits of filthy sand : [Note 056.7]
They spooned it out, as this my song shew,
I'm now quite well, but cannot tell
How does poor Nell, I love'd so long, tho',
You can write, to-morrow night,
And tell you'r ever, Peter Strongbow.
(Spoken). Dead as a door nail, Paddy, my belly as full of salt wather as if I was begotten an' born in the deep oshun ; an' my mouth as full of mud an' sand as it used to be wid the praties(1) and milk, long ago ; an' every, bit of life smothered in me, lyin' like a hake on the shore, fryin' undher the 'Merikin sun.-
Firein' to the bit o' me knew where I was, 'tal a batch av Yankee doodles [Note 056.8] cum acrass me and hoist me away a-fore a majisthrate to give an account ov myself.
Och the divil a ha'porth I could tell him, bekase av the stuffing ; do you see ?
So in this miserable misery, I cried out-
Och, brother, &c.
J. F.