STEPHEN LOMAS: Music

• MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)
• MP3 play whole song, lo-fi (modem)

I play this as an instrumental but the lyrics are beautiful in themself.
The words contain more than a cursory reflection on Australia's convict past. They refer to real people, places & events. Patrick Logan was the Commandant at the Moreton Bay Penal Colony from 1826 until his death in 1830, murdered while on a surveying trip. Officially he met his fate at the hands of Aborigines
though some infer that he was slain by some of his convict charges who invented the Aboriginal involvement as a cover.
I play this as an instrumental but the lyrics are beautiful in themself.
The words contain more than a cursory reflection on Australia's convict past. They refer to real people, places & events. Patrick Logan was the Commandant at the Moreton Bay Penal Colony from 1826 until his death in 1830, murdered while on a surveying trip. Officially he met his fate at the hands of Aborigines though some infer that he was slain by some of his convict charges who invented the Aboriginal involvement as a cover.
A tale of woe & suffering such as this can be quite depressing. However I have always felt positively moved by the restitution of peace suggested in the last two lines - a better idea than inflaming hate.
It is indded unfortunate that in our modern world we can find parallels to this tale. In particular Moreton Bay brings to mind the desperate situation of Australian David Hicks & his fellow sufferers at Guantanamo Bay. Apparently Patrick Logan is with us again in the Pentagon, the White House and in Canberra.

One Sunday morning as I was walking
By Brisbane Waters I chanced to stray
I heard a prisoner his fate bewailing
As on the sunny river bank he lay
I am a native of Erin's island
And 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 Macquarie
At Norfolk Island & Emu Plains
At Castle Hill, and at Toongabbie
At all these settlements I’ve worked in chains
But of all the places of condemnation
And penal stations of New South Wales
To Moreton Bay I have found no equal
Excessive tyranny each day prevails

For three long years I was beastly treated
And heavy irons on my legs I wore
My back with flogging was lacerated
And often painted with my crimson gore
And many a man through downright starvation
Lies mouldering now underneath the clay
And Captain Logan he had us shackled
To the triangles at Moreton Bay

Like the Egyptians and ancient Hebrews
We were oppressed under Logan's yoke
Till a native black lying there in ambush
Did deal 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 will fade from mind