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Farewell unto the people,
Farewell unto the hills and valleys,
Farewell to the life that I still wish to live.
I have no want to be leaving, I am forced for to go,
Forced by the cruel landlords, with no mercy to show.
As I look over the dockside at those weeping below,
They’ll soon be forced to join me, I know it will be so.

C
H      When the last ship leaves the quayside,
O      When the last ship leaves the key
R      When the last ship sets sail,
U      Will the passengers wave?
S      Or will there be no one left to wave to?

They crammed us in the hold,
Huddled closer than the spawning salmon,
No air and no light and a smell beyond compare.
Four weeks out of Greenock we were rife with disease,
There were forty souls on our deck consigned beneath the seas.
We prayed for some small mercy, our suffering to ease,
But the lord, like the captain, was deaf unto our pleas.

  CHORUS

Half of us endured,
To put foot upon the land of promise,
Half-starved and exhausted and too late to plant crops.
To survive we’d no choice, but our labour to sell,
Slaves to our old landlords, who owned our new land as well.
It would take no great seer, our fortunes to tell,
Our hope for a paradise turned to living in hell.

  CHORUS

(Repeat 1st Verse & Chorus)
 

Now read the Background to this song....

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