78 TlMEHRI. 
est laws of Barbados of which copies are preserved in 
the British Museum, as in an A61 of 1655, liquors manu- 
factured in Barbados are described only as "this coun- 
11 try's spirits/'* and it is not until the 29th of April, 
1668, that an A 61 to prevent the selling of " Brandy and 
" RUM in Tippling houses" near the broad paths and 
highways within the Island, specifies the West Indian 
spirit by its present name. 
In the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, is a manu- 
script entitled " A briefe description of the Island of 
Barbados." It is undated, but from internal evidence it 
must have been written about the year 1 651 . In describ- 
ing the various drinks in vogue in Barbados, the writer 
says : " The chief fudling they make in the Island is 
" Rumbullion alias Kill-Divill, and this is made of 
" sugar canes distilled, a hot, hellish, and terrible 
" liquor." 
In a News' Letter from Leyden, dated 23rd February, 
1652, and published in No. 90 of Mercurius Politicus 
for the week from the 19th to the 26th of Feb- 
ruary, 1652, there is a report of the latest intelli- 
gence from Barbados, which includes the following 
statement : " He that brings these tydings to us saith 
" the English Lord WlLLOUGHBY there, that governs for 
" the King, or rather for himself, hath strengthened all 
" the ports and avenues there, as Carlisle, Spike Bay, 
" &c. So that part by the Brandywine wherewith we 
" have furnisht him, the spirits of Rombullion, which our 
* Spirits used to be called " comfortable waters/' and " strong 
waters" in the reign of James I. When a poor country person begs for 
spirit now-a-day at the rich man's door, for some one who is sick, he 
asks by a general term for some " comfortable stuff." — Roberts' " Social 
History of the Southern Counties," p. 445. 
