“With twenty-five soldados, he came on board, so pleased,
And said ‘Maldito, Yankee,—again your ship is seized.
How many sailors have you got?’ Said Folger, ‘Ten—no more,’
To the Captain Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador.
“‘But come into my cabin and take a glass of wine,
I do suppose, as usual, I’ll have to pay a fine:
I’ve got some old Madeira, and we’ll talk the matter o’er—
My Captain Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador.’
“And, as over the Madeira the Captain-General boozed,
It seemed to him as if his head were getting quite confused;
For, it happened that some morphine had travelled from ‘the Store’
To the glass of Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador.
“‘What is it makes the vessel roll? What sounds are these I hear?
It seems as if the rising waves were beating on my ear!’
‘Oh, it is the breaking of the surf—just that, and nothing more,
My Captain Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador!’
“The Governor was in a sleep, which muddled up his brains;
The seventy men had caught his ‘gang’ and put them all in chains;
And, when he woke the following day, he could not see the shore,
For he was away out on the sea—the Don San Salvador.
“‘Now do you see the yard-arm—and understand the thing?’
Said rough, old Folger, viciously—‘for this is where you’ll swing,
Or forty thousand dollars you shall pay me from your store,
My Captain Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador!’
“The Captain he took up a pen—the order he did sign—
‘O my, but Señor Yankee! You charge great guns for wine!’
Yet it was not until the draft was paid, they let him go ashore,
El Señor Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador.
“The greater sharp will some day find another sharper wit;
It always makes the Devil laugh to see a biter bit;
It takes two Spaniards, any day, to comb a Yankee o’er—
Even two like Don Alonzo Estabán San Salvador.”