TIME FOR US TO GO.—P. 64
In one of his admirable papers, “At the Sign of the Ship,” published in the Cornhill Magazine, Mr. Andrew Lang, in discussing Sea Songs, wrote the following:—
“In an unpublished play by Mr. Henley and Mr. R. L. Stevenson, a play called Admiral Guinea, that veteran ruffian, Mr. Pew of Treasure Island, makes his appearance. He has been a sailor of Admiral Guinea’s in the slave trade, and he haunts the evangelical and remorseful Admiral like an evil conscience, singing snatches of the following ‘Slaver’s Song.’ Mr. Henley has kindly copied out the whole piece, which was published in Mr. Leland’s ‘Captain Jonas Fisher’ in Temple Bar about fourteen years ago. Whether the ballad is traditional and collected by Mr. Leland, or whether to himself is due the great credit of the authorship, I am not aware.”
Truly I am not the author of the song which I picked up in Philadelphia before the War, nor do I know who wrote it. I am tolerably certain, however, that I, having slightly retouched it, republished it in Temple Bar as quoted. There are, however, others besides Mr. Lang who think I wrote it, so I give it here in order to make truth known, but chiefly because it is in keeping with other specimens of sailors’ lyrical folk-lore in these pages, and will be acceptable to all who like such ballads.