e seized, and the men taken before the magistrates and
convicted.

But the following is an instance of steam being employed against
smugglers. One Sunday towards the end of October 1849, about nine
o'clock in the morning, the local receiver of duties informed the tide
surveyor at St. Heliers, Jersey, that there was a cutter which (from
information received) he was convinced was loaded with brandy. This
cutter was in one of the bays to the N.W. of the island. But as the
wind was then blowing from the W.N.W. and a very heavy surf was
rolling in, the consent of the harbour-master was obtained to use the
steam-tug _Polka_ to go round in search of her, the understanding
being that she was to be paid for if a seizure were made. The wind and
sea were so boisterous that the Revenue boat could not have been used.

Steamer and officers therefore proceeded round the coast till they
reached Plemont Bay, about twenty miles from St. Helier, and there
they found a small cutter lying at anchor close under the cliff, but
with no one on board. The steamer lowered a boat and found the cutter
to be the _Lion_ of Jersey, five tons, with four hogsheads and seven
quarter casks of brandy. The officers then weighed anchor, and by
sailing and towing got her round to St. Helier harbour, where she was
dismantled, and the brandy and her materials lodged at the Custom
House. This little craft had come from Dielette in France, and as
Plemont Bay was a very secluded locality, she would have run her goods
there with perfect success, had she not been discovered while her crew
were on shore, whither they had probably gone for the purpose of
making arrangements for getting the cargo landed.

But by the middle of the nineteenth century so thoroughly had the
authorities gripped the smuggling evil that these men were actually
sometimes afraid to take advantage of what fortune literally handed
out to them. The schooner _Walter_ of Falmouth was bound on a voyage
from Liverpool to Chichester with a cargo of guano on May 30, 1850.
Her crew consisted of Stephen Sawle, master, Benjamin Bowden, mate,
Samuel Banister, seaman, and George Andrews, boy. On this day she was
off Lundy Island, when Andrews espied a couple of casks floating ahead
of the schooner and called to the master and mate, who were below at
tea. They immediately came up on deck, and the master looked at the
kegs through his glass, saying that he thought they were provisions.

The three men then