The next morning, at breakfast, Walter proposed that he and Harry
Higginson should, after school, go down to the neck and shoot ducks, for
Clump had reported that he had seen several flying over the cape. Our
salt tute was at the table, and Harry, in reply, turned to him and
said--
"Captain, won't you take my gun this afternoon and go with Walter in my
place? Bob and I have a little secret service to attend to, which can't
be postponed; so will you shoot the ducks for me?"
"No, Harry," the Captain replied, "I shall not think of shooting here,
where we have the hunter of the Ottawa--the companion of Ollabearqui,
the slayer of moose and panther-cats--ha! ha! Eh, Mr Clare?"
"Well, Captain Mugford, I will accept your kind offer, as I should like
very much to have a few hours' shooting with Walter. I shall try it;
but a fowling-piece and birds on the wing are different things from a
rifle and running game as large as those I used to practise on, and I
imagine that Walter will not commend me as the Indian did," was Mr
Clare's answer.
After the morning lessons and dinner were over, Harry and I stole off
together to make an investigation of last night's mystery. We took our
way to the cove, which was soon to win a name. Although but
three-quarters of a mile from our house, that part of the cape about the
cove was the roughest and most inaccessible quarter in our possessions.
I do not know that any of us ever climbed down to the water there
before. The attractions in every other direction of fishing, bathing,
shooting, and boating were so numerous that we had not carried our
explorations in that direction. You may possibly remember there are
places, sometimes within little more than a stone's-throw of your house,
with which you never think of making acquaintance. Just such a place
was the cove. It did not invite us particularly. It was not on the
route of any of our pleasure expeditions, and, as I have said, there
were points of interest in every other direction. But just above the
cove was a high knob-shaped piece of grass and shrubs, dotted with many
slabs of sharp stones that stood up like tombstones, and made the knoll
look so much like a grave yard that we used to call it "our cemetery."
There the sheep liked to feed just before night. It was a favourite
spot, where they often came for their evening bite.
We crossed that, and commenced a scramble down a jagged, rocky declivity
almost perpendicular. It reminded us of the cliffs in the islands of
Orkney and Shetland, pictures of which, with the men suspended by ropes
getting eggs from the nests that fill the crevices, have interested
every boy in his geography book. With bruised hands and knees, and
rather tattered trousers, we reached a ledge just above the high-tide
mark. The cove was a perfect harbour. A boat there would be defended
from every gale but a south-wester, and partly from that, whilst it
would also be completely hidden unless from a boat right off the
entrance of the cove, or unless some one peered over the dangerous cliff
above; and what would one think of looking for in there? But we found
enough to excite our astonishment. First there were a strand of rope
and an oar on the narrow ledge, which we followed a couple of yards, and
then saw an opening between two immense strata of stone. We looked in,
and a ray of light that came through the fissure at the other extremity
showed us a number of kegs, several bales of goods, sails, numerous
coils of rope, and various other articles. We climbed in, and found
also a rusty flintlock musket, standing between two barrels. If not as
much frightened, we were as much astonished as Robinson Crusoe, when he
discovered in the sand the print of a human foot.
As hastily as the difficulties would allow, we climbed up the rocks, and
hurried towards the house, talking eagerly with each other while we ran
as to what those kegs and bales might contain. Had they been hidden
there by smugglers, or by whom? Were they now our property? What was
to be the result?
Out of breath we reached the house, to find for our audience only
Captain Mugford. He was reading in the sitting-room, and put down his
book to hear our exciting revelation. When we had told him all, he
asked us not to go to the cove again, until Mr Clare and he had had
time to act on the information we had given, and told us to caution the
other boys in the same way if we met them before he did. "And now,"
said he, "I will go out and meet Mr Clare and Walter--down on the neck,
are they not? I have no doubt that the cave is the storehouse of
smugglers."
"Smugglers!" we exclaimed.
"Yes," he answered, pulling on the pea-jacket that always came off in
the house, and stowing his pipe in the breast-pocket. "Yes, smugglers,
good-for-nothing scoundrels! who enjoy the good laws of the country, and
all the advantages which a settled Government and established
institutions give them, and yet play all sorts of tricks to avoid paying
the required taxes to support that Government; while they do their best
to prevent honest, straightforward-dealing traders from gaining a
livelihood. Then, see to what an expense they put the country to keep
up an army of coastguard men and a fleet of revenue vessels. There's
the _Hind_ sloop of war, with a crew of a hundred and twenty men, and
some fifty cutters, large and small, with crews of from fifteen to forty
men, on this south coast alone. If it wasn't for these idle rascals of
smugglers, these men might be manning England's fleets, or navigating
her merchantmen to bring back to her shores the wealth which makes her
great and powerful. People talk of the Government paying for all this.
Silly dolts that they are! It is not the Government pays; it is they
who pay out of their own pockets; and when they encourage smugglers,
which they too often do, they are just increasing the amount of their
own taxes; and if they don't feel the increase much themselves, they are
cheating their neighbours, though they have the impudence to call
themselves honest men. I have no patience with those who encourage
smugglers, and would transport every smuggler who is caught to Botany
Bay, and still think the fate too good for him."
Having thus delivered himself, our worthy nautical instructor strode out
to meet our fresh tute.
We took the news to Clump and Juno, who received it in mingled terror
and amazement; and then we ran to find Drake and Alf, and pour it out to
them.
Well, we had frequently heard about the doings of smugglers, but to have
them burrowing on our cape, and be in a plot for their overthrow, were
better than volumes of "Flying Dutchmen," "Pirates of the Gulf,"
"Gulliver's Travels," "Roderick Randoms," or even possibly of "Robinson
Crusoes," and all other such made-up stories. Here they were fresh; we
had watched their boat the night before; we had just come from their
cave; and there was plenty ahead to imagine.
"Hurrah for our cape!" said Harry; "was there ever a jollier place for
fun?"
Those days were palmy times for smugglers. High duties, in order to
raise a revenue for carrying on the wars in which England had been
engaged, had been placed on nearly all foreign articles. Wines,
spirits, tobacco, silks, laces, ribbons, and indeed a vast number of
other manufactures, were taxed more than cent per cent on their value,
and some, if I recollect rightly, two or three hundred per cent. In
fact, the high duties acted as an encouragement to smugglers, foreigners
as well as Englishmen, and the whole coast swarmed with their luggers
and other craft. Sometimes large armed cutters were employed, and their
bold crews did not hesitate to defend themselves if attacked by revenue
vessels, and sometimes came off the victors. The most disgraceful
circumstance connected with these transactions was, that there were
large mercantile houses in London who in some instances actually
employed the smugglers, and in others gave them direct encouragement by
receiving the silks and ribbons and laces, and other goods of that
description, and disposing of them openly as if they had paid duty.
Here, were men of wealth, and intelligence, and education, for the lust
of gain inducing their fellow-men to commit a serious crime. They had
relays of fleet horses, with light carts and wagons, running regularly
to the coast, in which the smuggled goods were conveyed up to London.
They bribed, when they could, the revenue men, and they had spies in
every direction to give notice of the approach of those whom they could
not bribe. They had lookout men on the watch for the approach of an
expected smuggling vessel, and spots-men to select he best place on
which she could run her cargo. They had also large parties on the
beach, frequently strongly armed, to assist in landing the goods and to
carry them up to the carts, or to the caves and other hiding-places,
where they were stored when the carts were not in readiness. Every
stratagem and other device was employed to draw the revenue men and
military away from the spot where it was proposed to run a cargo.
Sometimes a few goods, or bales of rubbish to look like goods, were
landed in a particular spot, and allowed to fall into the hands of the
coast guard, while the real cargo was being landed some miles away and
rapidly conveyed up to London. When hard-pressed by a revenue vessel,
if of a force too great to render fighting hopeless, the smuggling craft
would throw the whole of her cargo overboard, so that when overtaken
nothing contraband might be found in her. When the smugglers' cargo
consisted of spirits, under such circumstances the casks, heavily
weighted, were frequently, when in sight of land, dropped overboard, the
landmarks on the shore being carefully taken. Thus the smuggler could
return, when not watched, and regain her cargo. Sometimes the keen-eyed
revenue officers had observed her proceedings when letting go the kegs,
and on her return they could no longer be found. Sometimes the
hard-pressed smuggler had not time to sink her cargo, and the kegs,
still floating, were made prizes of by the cutter. At other times they
were captured when on the point of being landed, or when actually
landed, and it was on these occasions that the fiercest battles took
place between the smugglers, aided by their numerous coadjutors on
shore, and the revenue officers. If the lives of any of the revenue
officers were lost during these encounters, the smugglers who were seen
to have fired, when captured, were hung, while the less criminal in the
eye of the law were transported, or imprisoned, or sent to serve on
board men-of-war. It is scarcely too much to say that a large portion
of the coast population of England was engaged in this illicit traffic.
It bred also a great amount of ill-feeling between them and the coast
guard, whom they endeavoured to mislead, annoy, and injure by every
means in their power. Our worthy salt tutor had friends among the
revenue officers, with whom he sided strongly; indeed, his natural good
sense and right feeling would have prevented him from supporting a class
of men who were so clearly acting against the laws of the country and
all rules of right and justice.
Our tutors that evening held a consultation on board the brig, and
decided that it was their duty to go over the next morning to inform the
commander of the coast guard of the discovery Harry and I had made, and
to let him take the steps which he might consider necessary. We two, of
course, for the time became perfect heroes of romance, and could talk of
nothing else during the evening but of smugglers and smuggling
adventures. Captain Mugford possessed a large amount of lore on that
subject, some of which he produced, much to our edification. He gave us
an account of the fight between the _Peggy_ smuggling lugger and the
_Bramble_ King's cutter. Three men were killed and five wounded on
board the revenue cruiser, and a still greater number of smugglers lost
their lives, though the lugger escaped on that occasion. She was,
however, afterwards fallen in with by the very same cutter, when the
smugglers showed fight at first; but so fiercely were they attacked by
the brave commander of the cutter, that, their consciences making
cowards of them, they yielded after a short struggle. It would have
been difficult to convict the crew then on board of the murder of the
cutter's people on the previous occasion, had not one of their number
turned king's evidence. The captain and mate and two other men were
accordingly hung, and the rest transported; but this summary mode of
proceeding in no way put a stop to smuggling. The profits were too
large, the temptations too great, to allow even the risk of being hung
or transported to interfere with the traffic.
One story led to another, and at length our skipper came out with one
which was voted, by general acclamation, to be superior to all the
others. I cannot pretend to give it in old Mugford's language, so I
present it in my own, keeping, however, closely to the facts he
narrated. He called his tale:
"JAN JOHNSON, THE SMUGGLER."
Some forty years ago, ay, more than that, I belonged for a few months to
a revenue cruiser, on board which I volunteered, soon after my return
from my second voyage, I think it was, or about that time. The cutter
was stationed off this coast, and a hard life we had of it, for in those
days the smuggling craft were large armed vessels, full of desperate
men, who, when they could not outsail, more than once beat off the
cruisers of the king. Among the most daring of his class was a fellow
called Jan Johnson, though from having at different times many other
names, it was difficult from them to determine to what nation he
belonged; indeed, it was suspected that he was an Englishman born on
this very coast, with every inch of which he was intimately acquainted.
He seemed to take absolute delight in setting at defiance all laws of
God and man, and, among many other acts of atrocity, he was strongly
suspected of the murder of a revenue officer. The officer had, it
appears, been the means of taking a valuable cargo of goods belonging to
Johnson, who some time after encountered him, when in discharge of his
duty, near this place. It is supposed that the smuggler had attacked
the unfortunate man, and, being by far the more powerful of the two, had
grappled with him, and, plunging a long knife into his bosom, had thrown
him over the cliffs. The next morning the body was discovered above
high-water mark, with a knife known to belong to Johnson close to it,
and on the top of the cliffs were seen the impressions of men's feet, as
if engaged in a fierce struggle. A handkerchief, similar to one the
smuggler had been observed to wear, was found in the dead man's grasp,
and at a late hour of the night he had been met without one round his
throat. A reward was therefore offered for his apprehension, but
notwithstanding the sharp lookout we kept for his craft at sea, and the
vigilance of the revenue people on shore, he had hitherto escaped
capture.
He commanded at this time a large lugger, called the _Polly_, a
fast-sailing boat, which could almost eat into the wind's eye, and when
going free nothing could hope to come up with her; so that our only
chance of capturing her was to jam her in with the shore, or to find
ourselves near her in a calm, when we might get alongside her in our
boats.
So daring was the smuggler that, though he well knew his life was at
stake, he still continued to carry on his free trade with the coast,
where he had many friends; yet, notwithstanding that his vessel was
constantly seen, she was never approached except by those he trusted.
It was towards the end of October--I remember the time well--the days
were growing shorter, and the night-watches darker and colder, when,
after cruising up and down a week or so at sea, in hopes of falling in
with a prize, it came on to blow very hard from the south-west. Our
skipper was not a man to be frightened by a capful of wind, so, setting
our storm sails, we stood off shore and faced the gale like men; for, do
ye see, it is just such weather as this was that the smugglers choose to
run across the channel, when they think no one will be on the lookout
for them. Towards evening, however, it came on to blow harder than
ever, so that at last we were obliged to up with the helm, and run for
shelter into harbour; but just as we were keeping away, a sea struck the
cutter, carried away our stern boat, and stove in one of our quarter
boats. In this squall the wind seemed to have worn itself out, for
before we made the land it suddenly fell, and by daylight a dead calm
came on, followed by a dense fog. Our soundings told us that we were
within a short distance of the coast, so that our eyes were busily
employed in trying to get, through the mist, a sight of it, or of any
strange sail which might be in the neighbourhood. At last, for an
instant the fog lifted towards the north, like when the curtain of a
theatre is drawn up, exposing close in with the land the white sails of
a lugger, on which, as she rose and fell on the heavy swell remaining
after the storm of the previous night, were now glancing the bright
beams of the morning sun, exposing her thus more clearly to our view.
Before we could bring our glasses to bear, the fog again closed in, but
every eye was turned in that direction to get another sight of her; we,
doubtless, from our position, and the greater thickness of the mist
round us, remaining hid from her view.
"What think you, Davis? which way shall we have the breeze when it does
come?" asked our skipper of the old quartermaster, who was the oracle on
such occasions.
"Why, sir, I should say, off the land; it looks clearer there away than
it is out here."
As the old man delivered himself of this opinion, he turned his one open
eye towards the point he indicated: for, though he had two orbs, and
they were piercers, he never used more than one at a time--we youngsters
used to suppose, to give each alternately a rest.
As he spoke, the fog once more opened a little.
"And, what do you say to yonder craft?" continued the skipper.