Note note 27 — NOTES TO PART I

27 Trade gin (p. 99).--Whatever ordinary gin may be, “trade gin” was the vilest concoction of fusel oil and other ingredients that was ever put on the market for human consumption. It always made the drinkers mad drunk, and was responsible for most of the quarrels and much of the fighting that took place among the natives. I have known a white man take to drinking it and be dead in less than a week, and undoubtedly it was the cause of many deaths among the natives. A dozen reputed pints in bottles, case, packing, etc., cost only half-a-crown the lot.