**My understanding is that it will show these young heroes quaffing a lot of beer or ale, which is ok with me.**
Can’t hold that against them. I’ve quaffed a bit of ale myself.
‘quaffing’ beer and ale was a lot safer than drinking Boston’s water at that time! :)
Seriously
The Mayflower Pilgrims brought their own stills with them - for beer and ‘aqua vitea’ because the water was so polluted in the old world, they didn’t drink water.
Their first face to face encounter with a Native was one warm spring day - when Samoset (a Sachem from (now) Maine) strode into the village. A tall straight man with long black hair down his back, he startled the Pilgrims when he raised his hand and said:”Welcome, Englishmen!” and THEN asked for a beer. He had learned some English - and the like for beer - from fishermen who plied the coasts of Mohegan.
William Bradford, writing of the occasion, noted: “”He asked for some beer, but we gave him strong water, and biscuit, and butter, and cheese, and pudding, and a piece of mallard; all which he liked well.”
The ‘strong water’ they also called aqua vitea...purported to be gin. There friendship with Massasoit was to last their lifetimes.