St Ignatius College - Ignatian Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

Page 31 text:

Si mf. nth tif llc ir' tx s THE PIRJTE 29 Careless grown, from a safety known through many a drunken night, XYe stretched one eve in a spot alone where the swelling waves of the ocean shone And sang to sleep with its eadent moan and the tropie moon alight Then past the guns of the harbor stole A British frigate with bristling tiers, That had bought with the price of a judas' soul, The silence that lulled our fears. They inuttled the beat of their marching feet where our beacon sinouldered brightsd Till l roused to see their ntuskets shine Around our canip in a deadly line And I read the doom of those lads of mine. lYith never a chance to fight. My pistol rang and up we sprang, our naked weapons drawn, And into our midst the hot lead sang as broke the flash of their 'colleys elang To sting, like the hidden serpents tang, and palsy the sailors' brawng I saw my brothers ghastly face Go down in a swath of falling inen, The bullets path like a crimson trace Front forehead to riven chin. And the scattered few of our fifty-two on the blades of the soldiers gone, Save one round dozen that fought their way Down to the rim of the saving bay: That clanibered aboard and sailed away. Into the good red dawn. One round dozen that bared their blades, when frigate and fort were pastg One round dozen that bared their blades. and swore, by llfhoever would be our aids,

Page 30 text:

Ellyn igirate Fifty and two of a 1-irate crew, we had scoured the south- ern main: Fifty and two whose pennon Flew wherever the breath of a trade wind blew, Whose sinister craft the galleons knew and the frigates chased in yain. And every shore our pathway turned, .Xnd every road we crost Could point our track in hamlets burned And stately vessels lost. Uve showed our mast to the cringing' craft, a mile from Port of Spain Uni' guns made liortsniouthis turrets rock .X frigate shrank from our battle shock XYhen we fought through the line at Boston Dock And were off to the seas again. And from eyery raid a trip we made to the port of Sant Mariel The only spot where the pirate paid for wine or food or hostel shade, NYht-re, rousing. play ed the roving blade that had scourged the stretching sea kinder their fortress guns we rode, Unharnied, though they knew our trade And the booty our courage won, they stowed In the coffers our hearts had made: Gaily we spent to the last red cent, our bountv full and free. I Smiling, they won our blood-bought jack, Safe from the fear of storm and sack, That the stranger knew: and paid us back From the measure of treachery.

Page 32 text:

30 THE ICI.X'.+1Tf,4,Y That Sant Marie, its men and maids, Sl1OUld THSTC Ol OUT wrath at last. There was a mansion upon the hill, Vllhose silence we never had broke, A village of lyinej spies to kill, A host for our fire and smoke. A Ave, we swore that day they would Pai' H114 PHY- IWW' ever the fates should cast: Their blood should wash the stain away, From the mansion hill to the reekin! haf' Or all that stood on our dcili that 'IEW lVould swing from a irigate mast. NYe schemed and planned and gathered a band. a stanch two hundred strong. Tron of heart and steel of hand, the hawks of whatever warrior land, Till the barque of the corsair at last was manned to avenge the corsair's wrong. Into the fortressed gate we ran, llut their guns roared long' and true And crumpled the swarthy rover man As their iron missles flew. Out of the bay we dragged our way, crippled we limped along: Sternwards, red ran the reeling' tide lYhere the scuppers dripped from our sunclered side Till, distant, the fire of the foeman died, Like a red triumphant song. long months more, while safe ashore, we built our shat- tered crew, Ancl wakened again our cannon's roar, the beacons on many a far-otli shore, 'XVriting' again the pirate lore, the nierchant's cruisers knew. Then they fitted a frigate at Sant Marie, Four long rows of cannon mouth,