The rollicking history of rum: ‘A hot, hellish and terrible liquor’

On his second voyage to the New World, in 1493, Christopher Columbus called in at the Canary Islands to top up his water tanks and take on provisions. Some accounts say that Columbus enjoyed a month-long romantic attachment with the lady governor of the islands, and that she gave him a bundle of sugar cane cuttings as a souvenir

Pam Freir