A song which was printed over and over again by broadsheet printers in the nineteenth century and which has been found in oral tradition on both sides of the Atlantic. It was also sung by the gypsy Biggun Smith from Minsterworth, Gloucester, to much the same tune as that sung by the Brazil family but a rather incomplete set of words. It should not be confused with another song “The American Stranger” (Roud 1081), which has also been collected in Gloucestershire.  The second line of the song is usually sung as “curiosity caused me to roam”.

Notes by Gwilym Davies