y cunning, not by force. Nevertheless, it
requires that smugglers should be good seamen, smart, active fellows,
and keen-witted, or they can do nothing.... All they ask is a heavy
gale or a thick fog, and they trust to themselves for success." It was
especially after the year 1816, when, as we shall see presently, the
Admiralty reorganised the service of cruisers and the Land-guard was
tightened up, that the smugglers distinguished themselves by their
great skill and resource, their enterprise, and their ability to
hoodwink the Revenue men. The wars with France and Spain had come to
an end, and the Government, now that her external troubles allowed,
could devote her attention to rectifying this smuggling evil. This
increased watchfulness plus the gradual reduction of duties brought
the practice of smuggling to such a low point that it became
unprofitable, and the increased risks were not the equivalent of the
decreased profits. This same principle, at least, is pursued in the
twentieth century. No one is ever so foolish as to try and run whole
cargoes of goods into the country without paying Customs duty. But
those ingenious persons who smuggle spirits in foot-warmers,
saccharine in the lining of hats, tobacco and cigars in false bottoms
and other ways carry out their plans not by force but by ingenuity, by
skill.

CHAPTER XI

THE SMUGGLERS AT SEA

Had you been alive and afloat in June of 1802 and been cruising about
near Falmouth Bay, or taken up your position on the top of one of
those glorious high cliffs anywhere between St. Anthony and the
Dodman, and remembered first to take with you your spyglass, you would
have witnessed a very interesting sight; that is to say, if you had
been able to penetrate through the atmosphere, which was not
consistently clear throughout the day. For part of it, at any rate,
was hazy and foggy just as it often is in this neighbourhood at that
time of year, but that was the very kind of conditions which the
smuggler loved. Between those two headlands are two fine bays, named
respectively Gerrans and Veryan, while away to the south-west the land
runs out to sea till it ends in the Lizard. A whole history could be
written of the smuggling which took place in these two bays, but we
must content ourselves with the one instance before us.

On this day it happened that his Majesty's frigate _Fisgard_ was
proceeding up Channel under the command of Captain Michael Seymour,
R.N. The