"bamboo", some kind of drink?

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Sat Mar 3 21:42:04 UTC 2012


It appears that McDermot was more truthful than I gave him credit for
-- Capt. Kidd did drink Bomboe with Capt. Culleford.  Although
according to McDermot, Kidd insisted on calling him "Quartermaster
Culliford" since that had been his rank when he deserted Kidd's ship
some years earlier.  But Robert Lawson, circa 1956, apparently did
not set down McDermot's dialect accurately, recording the word as "bamboo".

Joel

At 3/3/2012 03:45 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>There seems to be one earlier mention of Bomboe--published in 1730, but
>recorded from a 1701 trial ... of Captain William Kidd.
>
>http://goo.gl/zOIJa
>A Complete Collection Of State-Trials And Proceedings Upon High-Treason,
>and Other Crimes and Misdemeanours; From the Reign of King Richard II.
>To the End of the Reign of King George I. Volume 5. 2nd Edition. London:
>1730
>The Trial of William Kidd, Nicholas Churchill, James Howe, Robert
>Lamley, William Jenkins, Gabriel Loffe, Hugh Parrot, Richard Barlicorn,
>Abel Owens, and Darby Mullins, for Piracy and Robbery, on a Ship called
>the Quedagh Merchant.  166. 1 W. III. 1701.  p. 303/1
>>Mr. Coniers: What was it that Captain Kidd said ?
>>Bradingham: He assured them it was no such thing. And afterwards went
>>aboard with them and swore to be true to them; and he took a Cup of
>>Bomboe, and swore to be true to them, and assist them ; and he
>>assisted this Captain /Culleford/ with Guns, and an Anchor, to fit him
>>to Sea again.

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