The earliest version indexed by the Traditional Ballad Index (1922) is in Louise Pound, American Ballads and Songs, # 55, pp. 127-128, titled "The Creole Girl" (1 text).

THE CREOLE GIRL

Over swamps and alligators I'm on my weary way
Over railroad ties and crossings, my weary feet did stray.
Until the shades of evening some higher ground I gained.
'Twas there I met a Creole girl on the lakes of Ponchartrain.

"Good eve to you, fair maiden, my money does me no good;
If it were not for the alligators I would stay out in the wood."
"O welcome, welcome, stranger, although our house is plain;
We never turn a stranger out'on the lakes of Ponchartrain."

She took me to her mother's house and treated me quite well.
Her hair in flowing ringlets around her shoulders fell.
I tried to paint her beauty, but I found it was in vain,
So beautiful was the creole girl on the lakes of Ponchartrain.

I asked her if she would marry me, she said that never could be.
She said she had a lover, and he was far at sea.
She said she had a lover and true she would remain,
Till he came back to her again on the lakes of Ponchartrain.

"Adieu, adieu, fair maiden, I never will see you more,
I'll never forget your kindness in the cottage by the shore.
At home in social circles, our flaming bowls we'll drain.
We'll drink to the health of the creole girl on the lakes of Ponchartrain."

https://archive.org/details/americanballads00poungoog

-Joe-