G'Day All,

we seem to have lost track of our cannibal, and his island. I went looking for "King of the Cannibal Islands" and found that I had the tune (from the Scottish Students' Songbook, ~ 1890) but no words - the songbook merely had it as the tune for a newer song.

This suggests that it was already quite old but well-known in 1890. I think I will have to start looking at books from the mid to early 19th century. I mentioned another song using the tune (early Pommy whingeing, written on the way out to Australia) and I will post the words of that to a new thread: Lyr, Add: Pommies' Lament.

This song must be from the convict era (~ before the 1850s) since it talks about having convicts working the farm ... as well as the depradations of bushrangers and hostile natives ... and rapacious land-agents.

Enjoy - it may be at least related to the song you were after.

Regards,

Bob Bolton