'Twas years ago on the Spanish Main
We captured a merchantman of Spain--
Killed the mate and the captain too,
Scuttled the ship with her bloody crew.
Then pulled away with her treasure chest
And caught a wind sou'west by west.
We sailed at length to a desert land,
Dropped our anchor in shimmering sand.
We took four slaves the chest to bear,
And craftily buried the treasure there...
Just four black slaves, the Skipper and me,
Alone on that isle in the southern sea.
CHORUS
Six paces west of the banyan tree,
One to the right and then take three
Past a rock that's shaped like a fish's fin;
Ten to the left--and there dig in.
Yo ho! Yo ho! Yo ho!
We hid that chest, and we hid it well.
We knifed the slaves so they wouldn't tell.
It was only me and the Skipper knew.
And we hid the secret from the crew.
Then one black night, in a racing tide,
I jostled the Skipper over the side.
Now not a soul but Pol and me
Knows of that chest in the far south sea.
The slaves won't tell, nor the Skipper sly,
Nor Pol won't tell, nor neither will I.
I would if I could, but I can't, because
I don't know where that island was!
CHORUS
It's six paces west of a banyan tree,
It's one to the right and then it's three
Past a rock that's shaped in a fishy style;
Then ten to the left--but where's that isle?
Yo ho! Yo ho! Yo ho!
--Author: LeRoy W. Snell
--Source: OCR scan of a copy of text typed on a manual typewriter by LeRoy Behling (with some minor corrections for OCR and typing errors and to clean up the formatting)