Under this truck system the employers made profits both ways.

The so-called rum was often inferior arrack--deadliest of spirits--with which the Sydney of those days poisoned the Pacific.

The men usually began each season with a debauch and ended it with another.

A cask's head would be knocked out on the beach, and all invited to dip a can into the liquor.

They were commonly in debt and occasionally in delirium.