Try also:

Percy French and His Songs, edited by James N. Healy (Cork: The Mercier Press, 1966)

Chronicles and Poems of Percy French, edited by Emily Lucy (French) Daly [his sister Mrs. de Burgh Daly] (Dublin, The Talbot Press Limited, 1922)


I tried to piece this together from several snippets. I'm not sure it will be right; lines or verses may be out of order; it may be incomplete, etc.

RAFTING DOWN THE RIO

COME sit beside the fire, old friend,
And dream that bamboo stems
Have risen up around us
'Mid flowers that shine like gems.
And we are back in fairyland,
And thro' the golden haze
We're rafting down the Rio —
In the old Jamaica days.

Oh ! the old Jamaica days !
Faintly through that leafy maze
Comes the croon of Creole melodies
As down the stream one strays;
Till the fireflies sparkle round us
In those darkened water ways,
And we're rafting down the Rio —
In the old Jamaica days.

In those mighty mountain ranges
What memories lie hid,
Through the stricken streets of Kingston
Stalks the ghost of Captain Kidd.
While a phantom Henry Morgan
Sets Port Royal in a blaze,
As we're rafting down the Rio —
In the old Jamaica days.

Oh ! the old Jamaica days !
Faintly through that leafy maze
Comes the croon of Creole melodies
As down the stream one strays;...