gotiations, and to attend to the
fresh transport of the wares. The hardships and the added cost brought
about by regulations such as these may be imagined, and, as was only to
be expected, a system such as this recoiled upon the heads of those who
were responsible for its adoption.

Occasionally circumstances arose in connection with these official
fleets which bore with almost equal hardship upon Spaniard and colonial
alike. Thus, when the English, Dutch, and French buccaneers took to
harassing the South American coast in earnest, there were periods when
the galleons of the Indies were kept within their harbour for a year and
more. Then the Spaniards went perforce without the South American gold,
and the colonial's life was shorn of the few comforts which the wildly
expensive imported articles had been wont to bring.

The home authorities invariably appeared loth to take into account the
possibility of human enterprise. It was not likely that the colonials
would submit tamely to such tremendous deprivations as those intended by
Spain. Foreign traders, moreover, notwithstanding the ban and actual
danger under which they worked, were keenly alive to the situation, and
to the chances of effecting transactions in a Continent where so
handsome a profit was attached to all commerce. The result was the
inception of smuggling on a scale which soon grew vast, and which ended
in involving officials of almost all ranks. The Governors of the various
districts themselves were usually found perfectly willing to stand
sponsors for all efforts of the kind, and, viewing the matter from the
modern point of view, they are scarcely to be blamed for their
complaisant attitude.

Here is a narration written in 1758 of the manner in which these
transactions were carried on. The author, referring to it in an account
of the European settlements in America, asserts that the state of
affairs was one likely to prove extremely difficult to end--

"While it is so profitable to the British merchant, and while the
Spanish officers from the highest to the lowest show so great a
respect to presents properly made. The trade is carried on in this
manner: The ship from Jamaica, having taken in negroes and a proper
sortement of goods there, proceeds in time to the place of a
harbour called the Groute within the Monkey-key, about four miles
from Porto-Bello, and a person who understands Spanish is directly
sent ash