PETER AMBERLY

My name is Peter Amberly I give you to understand,
I was born on Prince Edward Island in that fair and virtuous land;
In eighteen hundred and eighty when the flowers were a brilliant hue,
I left my native country my fortune to pursue.

I landed in New Brunswick that lumbering country,
I hired to work in the lumbering woods down by the Miramichi.
I hired to work in the lumbering woods, they cut the tall spruce down,
While loading sleds all from the yard, I received my mortal wound.

There’s danger on the ocean where the waves roll mountains high,
The danger on the battlefield where angry bullets fly;
The danger in the lumber woods, they cut the tall spruce there,
And I have fallen victim to that great monstrous snare.

Here’s adieu unto my father, it was him that sent me here,
It was him who drove me here to die by his treatment too severe;
It is not right to press a boy, or try to keep him down,
For it will make him leave his home when he is far too young.

Here’s adieu unto my dearest friend, I mean my mother dear,
She reared a son that fell as soon as he left her tender care;
But little did my mother think when she first sang my lullaby,
What country I would travel or what death would I die.

Here’s adieu unto Prince Edward Island and the Island girls so true,
Long may they live to roam the shore where my first breath I drew.
No more I’ll see those lofty ships as they go sailing by,
With banners floating in the breeze above their canvas high.

And when I’m dead and buried, there’s one thing that I crave,
To have the Holy Father place a blessing on my grave;
It’s near the village of Boiestown where my mouldering bones do lay
To await Saviour’s coming on the resurrection day.