all the officers from Sandwich, Ramsgate, and Broadstairs, who
forthwith proceeded to Margate. In addition to these, it was arranged
that Commodore Mitchell should send ashore from the Downs as many men
as he could spare. This united front was therefore successful, and for
once the smugglers were overmatched. And but for a piece of bad luck,
or sheer carelessness, a couple of years later a smart capture might
well have been brought about. It was one day in August when the
officers had received information that a gang of twenty men and horses
had appeared near Reculvers to receive goods from a cutter that was
seen to be hovering near the coast. The smugglers on shore were cute
enough to locate the officers, and by some means evidently signalled
to the cutter, for the latter now put to sea again and the gang
cleared off. Although for some time after this incident both officers
and dragoons patrolled the coast in the neighbourhood no one was ever
fortunate enough to gather information either as to the cutter or the
people who had vanished into the country with such rapidity.

And yet in spite of the very numerous sympathisers which these illicit
importers possessed, yet of course there were some individuals who
were as much against them as any officer of the Customs. In the
neighbourhood of Plymouth legitimate trade had suffered a great deal
owing to these practices. The mayor, aldermen, and merchants of
Saltash were at last compelled to send a memorial to the Lords of the
Treasury complaining that in the rivers adjacent to that place there
were several creeks and inlets which were being made of considerable
use by the smugglers for landing their goods. Especially was this the
case up the river Tamar, and all this had been and was still "to the
great prejudice of the fair traders and merchants." They pointed out
that a great deal of it consisted of clandestine running from ships in
the Sound, Hamoaze, and other anchorages round about there. Large