liffs
of Devonshire in the act of taking the tubs ashore. For the Customs
Board well knew of this change of market to Cherbourg, and lost no
time in informing their officers at the different outports and the
cruiser-commanders as well.

A large number of the merchant-smugglers from Guernsey at the same
time migrated to Coniris, about eight miles from Tregner, in France,
and ten leagues east of the Isle of Bas, and twelve leagues S.S.W.
from Guernsey. Anyone who is familiar with that treacherous coast, and
the strength of its tides, will realise that in bad weather these
little craft, heavily loaded as they always were on the return
journey, must have been punished pretty severely. Some others,
doubtless, foundered altogether and never got across to the Devonshire
shores. Those people who had now settled down at Coniris were they who
had previously dealt with the smugglers of Cawsand, Polperro,
Mevagissey, and Gerrans. To these places were even sent circular
letters inviting the English smugglers to come over to Coniris, just
as previously they had come to fetch goods from Guernsey. And another
batch of settlers from Guernsey made their new habitation at Roscore
(Isle of Bas), from which place goods were smuggled into Coverack
(near the Lizard), Kedgworth, Mount's Bay, and different places "in
the North Channel."

Spirits, besides being brought across in casks and run into the country
by force or stealth, were also frequently at this time smuggled in
through the agency of the French boats which brought vegetables and
poultry. In this class of case the spirits were also in small casks, but
the latter were concealed between false bulkheads and hidden below the
ballast. But this method was practically a new departure, and began only
about 1815. This was the smuggling-by-concealment manner, as distinct
from that which was carried on by force and by stealth. We shall have a
good deal more to say about this presently, so we need not let the
matter detain us now. Commanders of cruisers were of course on the
look-out for suspected craft, but they were reminded by the Board that
they must be careful to make no seizures within three miles of the
French and Dutch coasts. And that was why, as soon as a suspected vessel
was sighted, and a capture was about to be made, some officer on the
Revenue cutter was most careful immediately to take cross-bearings and
fix his position; or if no land was in sight to reckon the number of
leagu