ainsborough some distance up the Trent. Arrived there the casks were
properly taken into stock and entered in the Custom House books as if
the brandy had been actually brought down from York and had previously
paid duty. On this one venture the garrulous skipper admitted that he
cleared a profit by the brandy of L250 per cent., which was a
remarkably handsome reward for so short a voyage as from Dunkirk.

Port wines, he said, were purchasable at Dunkirk because these had
been taken from English merchantmen by privateers; and since there was
little or no market for such wines in Spain they were brought into
Dunkirk, whither resorted the smugglers eager to buy them. He
proceeded also to explain another method of cheating the customs.
Large quantities of very inferior British brandy were taken on board a
ship and clearance was obtained for some other English port, but
instead of proceeding to the latter the vessel would run across to
Dunkirk or Holland, where she would unload the cheap brandy, and in
its place take on board some high-priced French brandy equal in
quantity to the British commodity which had been put ashore at the
French port. After this, with now a much more valuable cargo, the
vessel would put to sea again and make for that British port for which
originally she had cleared. And as to the practice of bribery, he
himself had several times bought permits from the Excise officers to
cover smuggled brandy and tea. On one occasion he had paid an officer
fifty guineas for a permit to cover a certain quantity of tea and
brandy about to be run into the country.

Next came Captain Ebenezer Hartley, who had also formerly commanded a
ship that was engaged in smuggling. He had known of large quantities
of muslins and silks brought into the country on board East Indiamen.
These goods were smuggled by throwing them through the port-holes at
night into boats waiting below, alongside the ship, or whilst the
Custom officer was being entertained on board with food and drink.
Sometimes, he said, this was even done under the very eyes of the
Revenue officer, who took no notice of it. He recalled an incident in
an earlier part of his life when he had sailed from England to
Holland, in which country he had filled up with twenty-six casks of
oil. After that his orders were to cross the North Sea and meet a
certain vessel which would await him off Aldborough. This
last-mentioned craft would give Hartley's vessel the signal by
lo