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60 SONGS AND BALLADS
Whose justice appears
In such great affairs, Who will for Amboina plague them and their heirs : For he that did cumber his conscience with gilt, In shedding of blood, his own shall be spilt.
In this cruel contest (our fortune was such),
We tooke seventeen men-of-war from the Dutch,
And likewise (as then the occasion requir'd,
And as God would have it) fourteen more were fir'd.
At Amboina, when
They tortur'd our men, They look'd not to have the same paid them agen : With fire and with water their sinews they crack't, In fire and in water they dy'd for the fact.
According as our God of battel commanded, The best of their vessels were fir'd and stranded; All ships, men-of-war ; for what power hath man To fight with that army, when God leads the van ? They steere and they stem, But 'twas so extream, But men were neer dying, with killing of them; They lost, when the muskets and cannons so thunder'd, Twice so many thousand, as we have lost hundred.
'Twould make a brave Englishman's heart leap to see't, But forty ships made an escape of their fleet; Which our men pursue with much courage and strength 'Tis doubtless but we shall surprize them at length ;
If God be our guide,
And stand by our side, We shall be befriended with fair wind and tide; If Providence prosper us with a good gale, The Dutch, nor the devil shall ever prevaile.
Prince Rupert like lightning flew through their fleet, Like flame mix'd with powder, their army did meet, Ten thousand slain bodies the ocean orespread, That in few hours distance, were living and dead ;
Their Admirals all,
Save one, there did fall, And death had command like a chief general. Brave Smith in the Mary did shave out his way As reapers do wheat, or as mowers do hay. |
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