They hewed the pines on Haunted Point
To build the pungy boat,
And other axes than their own
Yet other echoes smote;
They heard the phantom carpenters,
But not a man could see;
And every pine that crashed to earth
Brought down a viewless tree.
They launched the pungy, not alone;
Another vessel slipped
Down in the water with their own,
And ghostly sailors shipped;
They heard the rigging flap and creak,
And hollow orders cried.
But not a living man could seek,
And not a boat beside.
They sailed away from Haunted Point,
Convoyed by something more:
A boatswain's whistle answered back,
And oar replied to oar.
No matter where the anchor dropped,
The fiends would not aroint,
And every morn the pungy boat
Still lay off Haunted Point.
They hailed; and voices as in fog
Seemed half to speak again--
A devilish chuckling rolled afar,
And mutiny of men.
The parson of the islands said
It was the pirate band,
Whose gold was lost on Haunted Point
And hid with bloody hand.
Until what time a kidnapped boy,
By ruffians whipped and stole,
Should in the groves of Haunted Point
Convert his stealer's soul!
They stole the island parson's child,
He said a little prayer:
Down sank the ground; a gliding sound
Went whispering through the air.
And in the depths the pungy sank;
And, as the divers told,
They sought the wreck to lift again,
And found the pirates' gold.
And in a chapel close at hand
The pious freedmen toil;
No slaves are left in all the land,
Nor any pirates' spoil.