This is different from any other version of Botany Bay I have found at Mudcat. Its chorus also begins with “A-cruising we will go” which is why I have included it here.

From Selected Songs Sung at Harvard College: From 1862 to 1866, “Privately Printed” (Cambridge: John Wilson and Sons, 1866), page 23:


BOTANY BAY.

Of all my daddy's family, I likes myself the best,
And if my daddy provide for me, the Devil may take the rest;
A pocket full of wheat, another full of rye,
A bottle of good whiskey, boys, to drink when we get dry.

Chorus.—And a-cruising we will go, a-cruising we will go;
Cheer up, my hearty laddies, for we're all to go, you know.

We went on a drunk, and then we shipped on a slaving bark so free;
To buy fat n****rs we were bound, from the King of Dahomey;
But a cruiser blew our ship to hell on the coast of Africa,
And we went home in iri-ons, and were sentenced to Botany Bay.

One night in came the Jail-i-er, about ten o'clock,
The keys within his hand, our cells for to unlock;
Says he, “My boys, get ready; you're all to go, they say;
You'll sail and steer for seven long year, and you're bound for Botany Bay."

Then in comes true-ue love, ten guin-i-eas in her hand;
Says she, “Take this, my Johnny dear, I've got you all I can;
And may the heavens protect you, for ever and a day;
We'll catch and hang the jurymen that sent you to Botany Bay.”

We jumped into a carri-age, with each a heavy heart,
As from the city of London so soon we were to part;
And, as we rode along the street, we heard some ladies say,
“There go some damned nice fellers, and they're bound for Botany Bay.”