large mercantile houses in London who in some instances actually
employed the smugglers, and in others gave them direct encouragement by
receiving the silks and ribbons and laces, and other goods of that
description, and disposing of them openly as if they had paid duty.
Here, were men of wealth, and intelligence, and education, for the lust
of gain inducing their fellow-men to commit a serious crime. They had
relays of fleet horses, with light carts and wagons, running regularly
to the coast, in which the smuggled goods were conveyed up to London.
They bribed, when they could, the revenue men, and they had spies in
every direction to give notice of the approach of those whom they could
not bribe. They had lookout men on the watch for the approach of an
expected smuggling vessel, and spots-men to select he best place on
which she could run her cargo. They had also large parties on the
beach, frequently strongly armed, to assist in landing the goods and to
carry them up to the carts, or to the caves and other hiding-places,
where they were stored when the carts were not in readiness. Every
stratagem and other device was employed to draw the revenue men and
military away from the spot where it was proposed to run a cargo.
Sometimes a few goods, or bales of rubbish to look like goods, were
landed in a particular spot, and allowed to fall into the hands of the
coast guard, while the real cargo was being landed some miles away and
rapidly conveyed up to London. When hard-pressed by a revenue vessel,
if of a force too great to render fighting hopeless, the smuggling craft
would throw the whole of her cargo overboard, so that when overtaken
nothing contraband might be found in her. When the smugglers' cargo
consisted of spirits, under such circumstances the casks, heavily
weighted, were frequently, when in sight of land, dropped overboard, the
landmarks on the shore being carefully taken. Thus the smuggler could
return, when not watched, and regain her cargo. Sometimes the keen-eyed
revenue officers had observed her proceedings when letting go the kegs,
and on her return they could no longer be found. Sometimes the
hard-pressed smuggler had not time to sink her cargo, and the kegs,
still floating, were made prizes of by the cutter. At other times they
were captured when on the point of being landed, or when actually
landed, and it was on these occasions that the fiercest battles took
place between the smugglers, aided