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| THERE was a captain-general who ruled in Vera Cruz, | |
| And what we used to hear of him was always evil news: | |
| He was a pirate on the sea—a robber on the shore, | |
| The Señor Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador. | |
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| There was a Yankee skipper who round about did roam; | 5 |
| His name was Stephen Folger, and Nantucket was his home: | |
| And having gone to Vera Cruz, he had been skinned full sore | |
| By the Señor Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador. | |
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| But having got away alive, though all his cash was gone, | |
| He said, “If there is vengeance, I will surely try it on! | 10 |
| And I do wish I may be damned if I don’t clear the score | |
| With Señor Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador!” | |
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| He shipped a crew of seventy men—well-armëd men were they, | |
| And sixty of them in the hold he darkly stowed away; | |
| And, sailing back to Vera Cruz, was sighted from the shore | 15 |
| By the Señor Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador. | |
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| With twenty-five soldados he came on board so pleased, | |
| And said, “Maldito Yankee—again your ship is seized. | |
| How many sailors have you got?” Said Folger, “Ten—no more,” | |
| To the Captain Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador. | 20 |
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| “But come into my cabin and take a glass of wine. | |
| I do suppose, as usual, I ’ll have to pay a fine: | |
| I have got some old Madeira, and we ’ll talk the matter o’er— | |
| My Captain Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador.” | |
| |
| And as over that Madeira the captain-general boozed, | 25 |
| It seemed to him as if his head was getting quite confused; | |
| For it happened that some morphine had travelled from “the store” | |
| To the glass of Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador. | |
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| “What is it makes the vessel roll? What sounds are these I hear? | |
| It seems as if the rising waves were beating on my ear!”— | 30 |
| “Oh, it is the breaking of the surf—just that and nothing more, | |
| My Captain Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador!” | |
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| The governor was in a sleep which muddled all his brains; | |
| The seventy men had got his gang and put them all in chains; | |
| And when he woke the following day he could not see the shore, | 35 |
| For he was out on the blue water—the Don San Salvador. | |
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| “Now do you see that yard-arm—and understand the thing?” | |
| Said Captain Folger. “For all from that yard-arm you shall swing, | |
| Or forty thousand dollars you shall pay me from your store, | |
| My Captain Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador.” | 40 |
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| The Capitano took a pen—the order he did sign— | |
| “O Señor Yankee! but you charge amazing high for wine!” | |
| But ’t was not till the draft was paid they let him go ashore, | |
| El Señor Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador. | |
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| The greatest sharp some day will find another sharper wit; | 45 |
| It always makes the Devil laugh to see a biter bit; | |
| It takes two Spaniards any day to come a Yankee o’er— | |
| Even two like Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador. | |
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