Oh then the gallant Rainbow
Sailed where the rover laid;
“Where is the captain of your ship?”
The gallant Rainbow said.
“Here am I,” says Captain Ward,
“My name I never deny;
But if you be the King’s good ship,
You’re welcome to pass by.”
“Yes, I am one of the King’s good ships,
That I am to your great grief,
Whilst here I understand you lay
Playing the rogue and thief.”
“Oh! here am I,” says Captain Ward;
“I value you not one pin;
If you are bright brass without,
I am true steel within.”
At four o’clock o’ the morning
They did begin to fight,
And so they did continue
Till nine or ten at night.
[Says Captain Ward unto his men,
“My boys, what shall we do?
We have not got one shot on board,
We shall get overthrow.]
“Fight you on, fight you on,” says Captain Ward,
“Your sport will pleasure be,
And if you fight for a month or more
Your master I will be.”
Oh! then the gallant Rainbow
Went raging down of the main,
Saying, “There lay proud Ward at sea,
And there he must remain.”
“Captain Wake and Captain Drake,
And good Lord Henerie,
If I had one of them alive,
They’d bring proud Ward to me.”
Appended was this editorial note: “The date of Captain Ward is approximately established by Andrew Barker’s ‘Report of the two famous Pirates, Captain Ward and Danseker’ (Lond. 1609, 4to), and by Richard Daburn’s ‘A Christian turn’d Turke, or the tragical Lives and Deaths of the two famous Pyrates, Ward and Dansiker. As it hath beene publickly acted’ (Lond. 1612, 4to).