To add to raenman's comment, the singer is leaving the Philippines (per original poem) to return to England (first verse) to fight the French ("rigged sails" so pre WWI, but after the war against Spain- probably the Napoleonic wars around 1800) in a sea battle (third verse).
It is not clear whether he is talking about leaving a woman or the islands, but I am a romantic and will assume it is a woman ("more dearly than the spoken word can tell" is too extreme to be just about leaving a place).
Sadly, he does not intend to return. It is his last farewell.
To add to raenman's comment, the singer is leaving the Philippines (per original poem) to return to England (first verse) to fight the French ("rigged sails" so pre WWI, but after the war against Spain- probably the Napoleonic wars around 1800) in a sea battle (third verse).
It is not clear whether he is talking about leaving a woman or the islands, but I am a romantic and will assume it is a woman ("more dearly than the spoken word can tell" is too extreme to be just about leaving a place).
Sadly, he does not intend to return. It is his last farewell.