I poked around a little bit to find the "Clar de Track" song cited in Lovell's article (entry) on "bullgine."

It is supposed to have been contained (among other places) in a work called NEGRO SINGERS' OWN BOOK, from circa 1846, as well as 1848's NEGRO FORGET-ME-NOT SONGSTER. I cannot find/access either of those.

However, an 1851 text by Willis connects it to "Old Dan Tucker", and Mahar's recent book on minstrelsy says "Clar de Track" was a parody version of "Old Dan Tucker" (1843).

One can imagine how the phrase, "Clear the track, let the bulgine run" might have been fit over the chorus of "Dan Tucker" after the whole "Get out de way, get out de way!" bit.

The tunes and prosidy of this minstrel song and the chantey are not very similar, however.

I'm still sticking to my theory that the chantey was an original creation based only on scraps of minstrel song-y phrases. :)

Gibb