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I was sitting by my fireside, I was sitting all alone,
I was thinking on my countrymen and where they had to roam;
From England to America, from China to Japan,
Wherever you'll go you'll surely find the boys from Newfoundland.
They're the pride of every nation, kind fortune on them shines,
They climbed the heights of Alma and they crossed the River Nile;
They sailed out to Vancouver, you will find it on the roll,
With Perry's expedition they went nearest to the pole.
And away out in South Africa where the fir trees do grow high,
They shouldered guns and bayonets those fierce Boers made to fly;
With guns as loud as thunder they stretched out o'er the plain,
Those gallant sons from Terra Nova fought for England's claim.
They sailed out to Cape Breton's shores where iron steel is rolled,
And far beneath the Canadian soil they're digging for the gold;
With Nelson at Trafalgar they would make the Frenchman yield,
They're sleeping in their watery graves the boys from Newfoundland.
They trod the northern ice floes where the polar bears do roam,
Where the walrus, hood, and white coat make their little home;
They fished the western Grand Banks on every shoal and bank,
Those hearty toilers of the deep fished on the Flemish Cap.
No country can feel prouder, no country of its own,
They been through all of Providence, been in the tower at Rome;
They were even in Jerusalem, I heard the clergy tell,
They crossed the river Euphrates, they were down to Jacob's well.
Oh, now my song is nearly ended, I've one sad tale to tell,
Down in the mines at Cobalt one of my comrades fell;
His age it was just twenty-one, he was scarcely in his bloom,
On the eighteenth day of January he was summoned to his doom.
Now that my song is ended, and I think I have done well,
My nation and my birthplace I'm going for to tell;
I pitched on every nation I thought kindly of its race,
I am a Newfoundlander, I belong to Harbour Grace.
Sung by Martin Reddigan (1903-1980) of Calvert, NL, and published in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
