The Isle of France
The Robber Bird track 8
The Isle of France was collected by H.E.D. Hammond from Joseph Elliott of Todber, Dorset. It concerns a transported convict who is on his way home at the end of his sentence, but is shipwrecked on the island of Mauritius. l’Île de France was the name given to Mauritius until it passed from French to British control in 1810.
I discovered the song in the Hammond MSS, which at the time were available only on microfilm at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, but which are now included in the Full English archive on the Internet.