Moreton Bay Chords

Key: C Verse 1: C Am F C Am Dm One Sunday morning as I went walking, by the Brisbane's waters I chanced to stray, C Am C F C I heard a convict his fate bewailing, as on the sunny river bank he lay; C Am C F I am a native of Erin's island but banished now to the fatal shore, C Am C G C They tore me from my aged parents and from the maiden I do adore. Verse 2: C Am F C Am Dm I've been a prisoner at Port Macquarie, Norfolk Island and Emu Plains, C Am C F C At Castle Hill and cursed Toongabbie, at all those settlements I've worked in chains; C Am C F But of all those places of condemnation, in each penal station of New South Wales, C Am C G C To Moreton Bay I've found no equal: excessive tyranny there each day prevails.

Verse 3: C Am F C Am Dm For three long years I was beastly treated, heavy irons on my legs I wore, C Am C F C My back from flogging it was lacerated, and often painted with crimson gore, C Am C F And many a lad from downright starvation lies mouldering humbly beneath the clay, C Am C G C Where Captain Logan he had us mangled on his triangles at Moreton Bay. Verse 4: C Am F C Am Dm Like the Egyptians and ancient Hebrews, we were oppressed under Logan's yoke, C Am C F C Till a native black who lay in ambush did give our tyrant his mortal stroke. C Am C F Fellow prisoners, be exhilarated, that all such monsters such a death may find! C Am C G C And when from bondage we are liberated, our former sufferings shall fade from mind.