1948 The Bon Vivant's Companion by George A Zabriskie

COCKTAILS

The BonVivant's Companion

chest—Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum!" The hero of the story thought

the "dead man's chest" referred to the pirate's strong box, but it didn't.

Nor did it refer to the torso of a deceased buccaneer. The "dead man's

chest"—whether Robert Louis Stevenson knew it or not—was a small

islandoff the south coastofPuerto Rico,known astheCajadeMuertos,

or DeadMan'sBox, because of its shape, which suggests a coffin. It was

a hangout for pirates,according to local legends, and so difficult to get

to and from that, no doubt, the "fifteen men" were marooned there to

die (we tried to go over but the boatmanwouldn't attempt a landingin

rough weather). The piratesattacked the city of Ponce, on the main-

iland, so often that the inhabitantsmoved the city four miles inland to

get away from them. Roberto Cofresi, the only native-born Puerto

Rican pirate, began hisbloodycareerat Ponceandendedit there,after

being chased by two dozen Spanish men o'

died before afiring

squad at El Morro 115 years ago . . . and now he has a brand of rum

named after him.

Columbus brought sugar cane to the West Indies, fromSpain or Por

tugal, on his second voyage in 1493. Ponce de Leon encouraged its

cultivation and Puerto Rico had a sugar miU as far back as 1523, and

was distilling rum as earlyas 1575. After the settlement of New Eng

land, rumbecame animportantarticle inAmerican commerce. Shrewd

Yankee traders transplanted some of the rum distilling business to the

colonies, importing molasses for this purpose. The rum thus distilled

was usedas a medium of exchange in the African slave traffic and be

came, indirectly, one of the causes of the Revolutionary War—had

there been no rum, there 'would have been no molasses imports, no

molasses taxand, ergo, fewer quarrels overtaxation without represen

tation, which caused us to breakawayfromEngland. In earlycolonial

days, unscrupulous fur traders also used rum to pay the American

Indians for their furs. Rum was the original "firewater" and has always

been known as a fighting drink (it is a federal offense to sell it to

Indians, even today). For hundreds of years rum was—and probably

still is—the official drink of the British Navy, which served a daily

ration of "grog," which is rum and hot water, to every seaman. And

grog, of course, wasthe favorite drink of the pirates.

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