very other aid and assistance in their power, to
the end that the said vessels and boats may be discovered and seized.

"And to prevent them from being launched into the water, and carried
off by the smugglers after seizure, you are to cause one of the
streaks (= strakes) or planks to be ripped off near the keel, taking
care at the same time to do as little other injury to each boat as
possible."

We now come to witness the reappearance of an old friend of whom we
last made mention in the North Sea. The year we are now to consider is
1788, and the 15th of July. On that day H.M. cutter _Kite_ was sailing
from Beachy Head to the westward. She passed to the southward of the
Isle of Wight without sighting it, as the weather was thick. Later in
the day it cleared as they got near to the Dorsetshire coast, and
about 7.30 P.M., when they were between Peveril Point (near Swanage)
and St. Alban's Head, and it was clearer and still not night, the
ship's surgeon discovered a vessel some distance away on the weather
bow. The weather had now cleared so much that the house on the top of
St. Alban's Head was quite visible. The surgeon called the attention
of a midshipman on board to the strange vessel. The midshipman, whose
name was Cornelius Quinton, took a bearing, and found that the
stranger bore W.S.W. from the cutter, and was steering E.S.E. He also
took a bearing of Peveril Point, which bore N.1/2W., and judged the
smuggler to be about 9 miles from Peveril Point. About 8 o'clock the
cutter began to give chase, and this continued until 11 P.M., the
course being now S.E. After a time the lugger hauled up a point, so
that she was heading S.E. by S., the wind being moderate S.W. During
the chase the lugger did her best to get away from the cutter, and set
her main topsail. The cutter at the time was reefed, but when she saw
the lugger's topsail going up she shook out her reefs and set her gaff
topsail. It was some little time before the _Kite_ had made up her
mind that she was a smuggler, for at first she was thought to be one
of the few Revenue luggers which were employed in the service. About
11 o'clock, then, the _Kite_ was fast overhauling her, notwithstanding
that the lugger, by luffing up that extra point, came more on the wind
and so increased her pace. It was at first a cloudy night--and perhaps
that may have made the _Kite's_ skipper a little nervous, for he could
hardly need to be reefed in a moderate breeze--but presentl