St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1892-08-20
THE FLIGHT OF THE "AKM-
STRONG" PRIVA7EER.
Tell the story to your sons
Of the gallant days of yore!
When the brig of seven guns

Of the gallant days of yore!
When the brig of seven guns
Fought the fleet of seven score.
From the set of sun till morn, through the lone
September night
Ninety men against two thousand, and the
ninety won the fight
In the harbor of Fayal the Azore.
Three lofty British ships came a-sailing to
Fayal;
One was line-of-battle ship, and two were
frigates tall;
Nelson's valiant men of war, brave as Britons
ever are,
Manned the guns they served SO wellat Abou-
kir and Trafalgar.
Lord Dundonald and his fleet at Jamaica lar
Waited, eager for their coming, fretted sore
at their delay.
There was work for men OF mettle ere the
shameful peace was made.
And the sword was overbalanced IN the sordld
scales of trade;
There we're rebel knaves to swing, there were
prisoners to bring
Home in letters to Old England for the glory
of the King!
And the setting of the sun and the ebbing OF
the tide
Came the great ships one by one, with their
portals open wide,
And the cannon frowning down on the castle
and the town
And the privateer that lay close inside.
Came the eighteen gun Carnation, and the
Rosa, torty-four,
And the triple-decked Plantagenet an admi-
rails pennon bore:
And the privateer grew smaller as their TOP
masts lowered taller,
And she bent her springs and anchored by
the castle on the shore.
spake the noble Portuguese to the stranger;
"Have no fear;
They are neutral waters these, and W ship
is sacred here
As if fifty stout armadas stood to shelter you
from harm,
For the honor of the Briton will defend you
from his arm"
But the privateersman said, "Wen we know
the Englishmen,
And their faith is written red in the Dartmool
slaughter pen.
Come what fortune God may send, we will
fight them to the end,
And the mercy of the sharks may spare us
then"
"Seize the pirate where she iesl" cried the
English admiral:
eff the Portuguese protect her, all the worse
for Portugal"
And four launches at his bidding leaped i'm
patient for the fray,
Speeding shoreward where the Armstrong
grim and dark and ready, lay.
Twice she hailed and gave them warning; but
the feeble menace scorning,
On they came In splendid silence, till a cables
length away
Then the Yankee pivot spoke; Pico's Thousand
echoes woke;
And four baf1ed, beaten launches drifted help
less on the bay.
Then the wrath of Lloyd arose till the ior
oaredagain,
And he called out all his launches and be
called five hundred men;
And he gave the word ssNo quarter!" and he
sent them forth to smite.
Heaven help the foe before him when the
Briton comes in might!
Heaven helped the little Armstrong in hel
hour of bitter need;
God Almighty nerved the heart and guided
well the arm of Reid.
Launches to port and starboard, launches for
ward and aft,
Fourteen launches together striking the little
craft.
They hacked at the boarding-nettings they
swarmed above the rail-
But the Long Tom reared from his pivot ant
the grape-shot fell like hail;
Pike and pistol and cutlass, and hearts that
knew not fear,
Bulwarks of Drawn and mettle, guarded the
privateer.
ANA ever Wnere nght was Hefcest, tne form OF
Reid was seen;
Ever where foes drew nearest, his quick SWORD
fell between.
Once in the deadly strife
The boarders' leader pressed
Forward of all the rest
Challenging life for life;
But ere their blades had crossed,
A dying sailor tossed
His pistol to Reid, and cried,
CHOW riddle the lubber's hide!'
But the privateersman laughed, and flung the
weapon aside,
And he drove his blade to the hilt, and the
foeman gasped and died.