An unexpected turnaround

For three long years I was beastly treated, and heavy irons on my legs I wore My back from flogging was lacerated, and oft times painted with my crimson gore And many a man from downright starvation, lies mouldering now beneath the clay And Captain Logan he had us mangled, all at the triangles of Moreton Bay Like the Egyptians and ancient Hebrews, we were oppressed under Logan’s yoke Till a native black lying there in ambush did deal this tyrant his mortal stroke My fellow prisoners be exhilarated that all such monsters such a death may find And when from bondage we are liberated our former sufferings will fade from mind (from the convict ballad, ‘Moreton Bay’, c. 1830, anon)