WATERED RUM AT OTAHEITE. 



The Captain tells some of his experiences at 

 Otaheite, which show that though it was a natural 

 paradise, its inhabitants were fond of rum. He 

 says : 



While lying at Otaheite, one of the Society 

 Islands, we retailed about fifty barrels of rum to 

 the natives and ship's crews. As cabin-boy, I was 

 kept on board to sell it. The price was six dollars 

 a gallon, or a dollar a bottle. We were now 

 eighteen months from home, and we had lost some 

 from leakage. To make up the loss, the captain 

 ordered me to draw two pails-full from each barrel 

 and fill it up with sea water before selling it. I 

 was told not to sell it to any of the sailors from 

 the ships, but the old man very well knew they 

 would manage to get a taste of it. They put 

 their heads together and cooked up a plan to get 

 all the rum they wanted — they would simply 

 make the natives " rush the growler " for them, 

 as they say in the Bowery — give their bottles 

 and money to the islanders and let them negotiate 

 the purchase, on the basis of a promised commis- 

 sion. I could always tell the bottles the crews 

 sent, for they were particularly large and made of 



