"Early, Early in the Spring", "As I Was Walking Up London Street", "I Was Forced on Board to Serve My King", "The Sailor Deceived", Sweet William" (or Willie), and "The Disappointed Sailor" is a British song that has been collected from traditional singers in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada and the United States. In a few American versions the betrayed lover is a cowboy. Some American cowboy variants are called "Cowboy's Girl", "Following the Cow Trail" and "The Trail to Mexico". It is in the Roud Folk Song Index as #152. The Roud Index lists 75 versions of this song collected from traditional singers - 15 from England, 7 from Scotland, 3 from Ireland, 8 from Canada and 42 from the USA, plus 3 cowboy variants, all from Arkansas. It was printed in many publications including Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians (1932), Henry's Songs Sung in the Southern Appalachians (1934), Scarborough's A Song Catcher in Southern Mountains (1937), Randolph's Ozark Folksongs (1946-1950), Greig's Folk-Song in Buchan and Folk-Song of the North-East (1963), Laws' Native American Balladry: A descriptive study and bibliographical syllabus (1964), Moore & Moore's Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest (1964), Seeger's Folk Songs of Peggy Seeger (1964), Creighton & Senior's Traditional Songs of Nova Scotia (1960), Creighton's Maritime Folk Songs (1962), Karpeles' Folk Songs from Newfoundland (1970), Greig & Duncan's The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection, Volume 1 (1981). It was recorded by Peggy Seeger on Early in the Spring (1962), Cyril Tawney on Farewell Nancy (1964) and Blow the Man Down (1993), Tina Greer on The Watson Family Tradition (1965), Bob Davenport on Bob Davenport and the Marsden Rattlers (1971) and Judy Collins on Fifth Album (1965) and several other singers.