Adding to my last post -- That Buryeson did not call attention to the relationship to "Oh Susannah" may not seem so strange in that he also does not compare the next song to "De Camptown Ladies" etc. He notes,

"The "hoodah day," etc., I have spelt according to the way those words sounded to me when the chorus was sung, but I have no idea of their meaning or source, if, indeed, they ever had any meaning."

Here is the text to his SACRAMENTO, based on the "Ratcliffe Highway" or "Fireship" theme:

BLOW FOR CALIFORNIA.

We're bound for California I heard the old man say;
To me hoodah, to me hoodah.
We're bound for California this very good day.
To me hoodah, hoodah day.
Blow, boys, blow for California;
there is plenty of gold, so I've been told,
on the banks of the Sacramento.

As I was a-walking one day up and down
I spied a gay damsel she seemed outward bound.

I fired my bow-chaser, the signal she knew;
She backed her main topsail, for me she hove to.

I hailed her in English, she answered me thus:
My name is Sally Gubbins, and I'm bound on a cruise.

Then I gave her my hawser and took her in tow,
And into an alehouse together we did go;


And drank ale and brandy till near break of day,
When I went a-rolling down home Tigerbay.

She had rifled my lockers while I filled my hold,
And aboard of my packet I had for to scull.

With a hookpot and pannikin I got under weigh
Seven bells in the morning, the very next day.

And when I have finished a-singing my song
I hope you'll excuse me if I have sung wrong.

She was a fine frigate you must understand,
But one of those cruisers who sail on dry land;

A reg'lar old fire-ship, rigged out in disguise,
To burn jolly sailors like me, damn her eyes.

We're bound for California this very good day;
We're bound for California I hear them all say.