We now come to Rum, “superior old Jamaica pine-apple,” otherwise known as “sailors’ tea”—the spirit in question having from time immemorial been held in high esteem by mariners both afloat and ashore. Rum is probably one of the easiest beverages to make, being, simply, fermented and distilled cane-sugar. Occasionally pine-apples and guavas are thrown into the still, but in making this spirit on a large scale no attempts are made to add to its flavour and thereby deduct from the profits to be made on the commodity. It is coloured with caramel, and the longer you keep it the better and, therefore, the more valuable, it becomes. In the city {84} of Carlisle in the year 1865 some rum known to be 140 years old was sold for £3 : 3s. per bottle. This is not the brand served out to our army and navy; although the “tots” issued periodically to Tommy Atkins and Ben Bowline consist of good, sound liquor, wholesome enough, save for gouty subjects—and a sailor with the gout would be of about as much use to his Queen and country as a watch without works—and writing from past experience I can aver that every drop of liquor, whether ale or rum, supplied in a regimental canteen had to be previously passed by a committee of “taste.” In many ships, nowadays, no rum or other intoxicant is served out; and as no equivalent is given, it might appear as though the owners made a good thing out of the temperate habits of their crews. But I do not believe in total abstinence as an aid to work; and I have never seen a sailor the worse—on board ship—for his “tot.” On the other hand, in the old days of “Green’s” troop-ships, the old sailing-vessels which made the voyage to India round the Cape of Good Hope, it was by no means infrequent for a soldier to be “overcome” by the cane-spirit, of which he occasionally got rather more than his orthodox allowance. How was this managed? The thrifty seafarers were in the habit of selling their grog allowance to the “swaddies”; and as soon as the ship’s captain found this out, he issued stringent regulations which it might have been expected would put a stop to this practice. When all hands were piped to grog a ship’s officer was {85} stationed by the tub, to see that each sailor drank his allowance. Still there was intoxication amongst the troops, and it was discovered that many of the sailors’ pannikins had false bottoms, and that in this way the rum was concealed. After that the ship’s officer was enjoined to see that each sailor partook of his tot; but even this precaution failed; for the rum would be ejected from the men’s mouths into a bucket in the fo’c’sle, and then sold—a disgusting practice which merited severe punishment, and frequently obtained it.