There is a version of this New Brunswick/P.E.I song in the database, named Peter Emberly, and I have also e-mailed Dick another version I know. However thinking that it is best to have as many versions as possible, so that we may decide on what verses we'd prefer to sing, I post this one too. There is a long version in the Helen Creighton Collection. Versions have been sung by Ryan's Fancy, Tamarack (to a slower and probably more suitable tune), The Calamity Brothers, and lately Fergus O'Byrne and Jim Payne on their CD Wave Over Wave. The name is sometimes rendered "Amberlay", but it seems that "Emberlay" is correct, and one version says where he is buried in case you want to look up his tombstone. The Prince Edward Island Music Series Vol. I (whence this comes) states "It is generally accepted that John Calhoun of Boiestown, New Brunswick, authored this song, although some insist that it is from the pen of Larry Gorman. Peter Emberlay died in a logging accident near Boiestown. He was born in Prince County, P.E.I." I have never seen anything which purports to be the author's original version.
Note: "Miramichi," a region of northern New Brunswick so named for the famous salmon river, is pronounced MARE--a--MA--SHEE."
PETER EMBERLAY
My name is Peter Emberlay As you may understand I was born on Prince Edward Island Close by the ocean strand In eighteen hundred and eighty-two When the flowers were a brilliant hue I left my native counteree My fortune to pursue.
I landed in New Brunswick That lumbering counteree I hired to work in the lumbering woods Just south of the Miramichi I hired to work in the lumbering woods Where they cut the tall spruce down While loading sleds out in the yard I received my fatal blow.
Farewell to Prince Edward Island, Cradled in the blue No more I'll roam your sandy shores Where my first breath I drew No more I'll see your gallant ships As they go sailing by With banners fluttering in the breeze Above their masts so high.
Farewell unto my father It was he who drove me here I could not get along with him For his treatment was severe It is not right to force a lad Or to try to hold him down For that will drive him from his home To a fate of sad renown. ^^^