figure the schooner made was so peculiar she would inevitably
attract attention; she would instantly be boarded in the Thames on our
coming to anchor, and, if I told the truth, she would be seized as a
pirate, and ourselves dismissed with a small reward, and perhaps with
nothing.

"My scheme," said I, "is this: I have a relative in London to whom I
shall communicate the news of my arrival and tell him my story. You,
Wilkinson must be the bearer of this letter. He is a shrewd, active man,
and I will leave it to him to engage the help we want. There is no lack
of the right kind of serviceable men at Deal, and if they are promised a
substantial interest in smuggling our lading ashore, they will run the
goods successfully, do not fear. As there is sure to be a man-of-war
stationed in the Downs, we must keep clear of that anchorage. I will
land you at Lydd, whence you will make your way to Dover and thence to
London. Cromwell and Pitt will return and help me to keep cruising. My
letter to my relative will tell him where to seek me, and I shall know
his boat by her flying a jack. When we have discharged our lading we
will sail to the Thames, and then let who will come aboard, for we shall
have a clean hold. This," continued I, "is the best scheme I can devise.
The risk of smuggling attend it, to be sure; but against those risks we
have to put the certainty of our forfeiting our just claims to the
property if we carry the schooner to the Thames. Even suppose, when
there, that we should not be immediately visited, and so be provided
with an opportunity to land our stuff--whom have we to trust? The Thames
abounds with river thieves, with lumpers, scuffle-hunters, mud-larks,
glutmen, rogues of all sorts, to hire whom would mean to bribe them with
the value of half the lading and to risk their stealing the other half.
But this is the lesser difficulty; the main one lies in this: there are
some sixteen hundred men employed in the London Custom House, most of
whom are on river duty as watchmen; thirty of these people are clapped
aboard an East Indiaman, five or six on West India ships, and a like
proportion in other vessels. So strange a craft as ours would be
visited, depend on't, and smartly, too. D'ye see the danger, lads? What
do you say, then, to my scheme?"

The negroes immediately answered that they left it to me; I knew best;
they would be satisfied with whatever I did.

Wilkinson mused a while and then said, "Smuggling w