Henry Morgan                                                David Seitz

Most of the song uses a D chord  - lift  and hammer the first and second fingers off and on the chord to get the moving melody.

    D            Dsus4    DwithA(stretch your pinky to an A on the first string. Heh heh heh)     

A glorious one         was               

G on 7th fret (looks like a D chord but is played on the 7th fret)  D(on 5th-like an A slid up – I only play the first 3 strings) C (on 3rd fret-like an A slid up)  D

promised  

                         G     D  C  D 

(like this)            Promised

 

D

In Jamaica in Sixteen seventy     Rang a call to gather all pirates

Plans would be made for the upcoming campaign

              D        Dsus4    DwithA                G    D     C D 

And a glorious one          was                    promised

G(on 7th)                 D

Panama City was gonna be sacked

           C                                                             D

Henry Morgan himself would be leading the pack

          C                                                 D

The crew only knew they’d go for a Southern prize

          C                                     D

The rumor was Fort San Lorenzo

 

The plans were worked out and the men boarded ship

A breeze whipped up from the North

Up came the anchors as they hoisted the sails

And the menacing ships ventured forth

Soon to the shores of the isthmus they came the skull and crossbones flying

Fort San Lorenzo was but a pawn in their game in which many good men would lay dying

At the mouth of the Chagres up high on the hill the cannons rule over the bay

Morgan came at the fort from the Jungle side and the walls came down in just one day

When the dawn broke and the vultures were soaring the dry season day had begun

The Spanish lost more than a fort on that day Henry Morgan and the British had won

 

Morgan recalled several years before when he had put Portobelo to burn

The governor in the city had taunted him and

                                                                                                  C                   D

Morgan had vowed to return to show that man what a fool he was to laugh at Henry Morgan

 

They struggled their way up the Chagres. 

At the mule trail in Cruzes they stopped

They walked across the divide down  to the other side

And there they laid eyes on the treasure they sought

 

Morgan and his men found ranches there with herds of the governors cattle

They feasted for a day and they were ready they say to find glory or death in battle.

The Spanish marched out in large boxes of men, the way war was customarily fought

They considered the pirates dishonorable men for they hid in the bushes and slaughtered the Spanish one by one

 

They stopped and they stared as the smoke rose before them like a tornado twisting and turning

Soon they saw flames leaping up to the sky   Panama City was burning

 

For a full two months longer the pirates stayed on 

Like a lingering festering boil

They tortured and abused all their captives

Till there was no one and nothing left whole.

 

History always gets cloudy when the stories are passed down through the children

A brave victory or a shameful defeat depends on the view of the spokesman

The Incas the Aztecs and the Mayans had all paid a price for their gold.

And now the conquering Spanish had fallen themselves for the same old reasons

Violence it seems was a part of the times with slavery and warfare abounding

Did we learn anything or will history’s ring send up spinning round and round again