01-26-2012, 05:51 AM
Here we sit with these chains on our hands and our feet,
For the theft of a loaf, it’s a high price to pay –
No jury to hear us, no judge to entreat.
We were hungry and cold; we had nothing to eat,
The sentence was given, lives stolen away –
Here we sit with these chains on our hands and our feet.
Seven hundred and fifty souls sensing defeat,
What horrors unknown lurked in Botany Bay?
No jury to hear us, no judge to entreat.
Set sail from Plymouth the "mighty" First Fleet,
Crammed tight in the hold, we could do naught but pray –
Here we sit with these chains on our hands and our feet.
HMS Sirius, arms incomplete,
Flagship of misery, led us away –
No jury to hear us, no judge to entreat.
With never a clue of the fate we would meet,
Frightened, we hope for a brighter new day –
Here we sit with these chains on our hands and our feet,
No jury to hear us, no judge to entreat.
*On 26th January, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip's 11 ships disgorged their 277 marines, civilians, officers' wives and children, along with 753 convicts and their children, 7 horses, 29 sheep, 74 pigs, 6 rabbits (thanks England!) and 7 cattle upon the shores of New South Wales, thus establishing the colony that would in 1901 become Federated as the Nation of Australia. On that First Fleet, belowdecks of the Scarborough sailed one Edward Miles (or Moyle, he was illiterate). In 1803, having worked off his sentence and earned himself a grant of land, he married Susannah Smith and my family was established in The Great Southern Land. Foreigners -- especially the English -- often poke fun at Australians for being descended from convicts, but now they're paying a fortune to come here themselves, so who's laughing now you Pommy gits? :p
Happy Australia Day!
For the theft of a loaf, it’s a high price to pay –
No jury to hear us, no judge to entreat.
We were hungry and cold; we had nothing to eat,
The sentence was given, lives stolen away –
Here we sit with these chains on our hands and our feet.
Seven hundred and fifty souls sensing defeat,
What horrors unknown lurked in Botany Bay?
No jury to hear us, no judge to entreat.
Set sail from Plymouth the "mighty" First Fleet,
Crammed tight in the hold, we could do naught but pray –
Here we sit with these chains on our hands and our feet.
HMS Sirius, arms incomplete,
Flagship of misery, led us away –
No jury to hear us, no judge to entreat.
With never a clue of the fate we would meet,
Frightened, we hope for a brighter new day –
Here we sit with these chains on our hands and our feet,
No jury to hear us, no judge to entreat.
*On 26th January, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip's 11 ships disgorged their 277 marines, civilians, officers' wives and children, along with 753 convicts and their children, 7 horses, 29 sheep, 74 pigs, 6 rabbits (thanks England!) and 7 cattle upon the shores of New South Wales, thus establishing the colony that would in 1901 become Federated as the Nation of Australia. On that First Fleet, belowdecks of the Scarborough sailed one Edward Miles (or Moyle, he was illiterate). In 1803, having worked off his sentence and earned himself a grant of land, he married Susannah Smith and my family was established in The Great Southern Land. Foreigners -- especially the English -- often poke fun at Australians for being descended from convicts, but now they're paying a fortune to come here themselves, so who's laughing now you Pommy gits? :p
Happy Australia Day!
It could be worse