The Drinkers were living in the orient during the Opium Wars when the relationships between foreign traders and the Chinese was difficult. The Drinkers lived in Macao by 1857. In January 1857, Sandwith Drinker was poisoned and died of dysentery, believed to be the result of a politically motivated mass poisoning of bread at a bakery. About 400 foreigners "suffered great impairment of health" due to arsenic poisoning.