Captain Dow, realising that the intention of the mob was to get the Sincerity stranded, determined to cut his cable and exhorted them in his Majesty’s name to disperse, to which they paid not the slightest attention except to send more showers of stones on to the cruiser’s decks.  Seeing from afar what was happening, the mate and six men who had been sent to board the dogger now returned to the Sincerity.  Whereupon the dogger, perceiving her chance, promptly got under way.  As the crowd on shore still continued to pelt his ship with stones and had already wounded two of his crew, the cruiser’s commander fired amongst them.  For a time, at least, this dispersed them, and so Dow was able to get his vessel clear.  He immediately proceeded to follow the Dutch dogger, and chased her until she had, perforce, to run herself on to the sands at Ramsey to the north of the island.  Determined not to be beaten, Dow now sent his mate and ten men on board her, seized her, and marked her in several places with the sign of a broad arrow to denote her capture.

[Illustration:  “Dow sent his mate and ten men on board her.”]

But when the mate came to open the hatches several of the islanders who had been secreted on board, with the assistance of two boat-loads of armed men who had rowed off from the shore, seized the mate and his men, and threatened that if they resisted they would kill them.  Being completely overpowered, the eleven naval men were compelled to yield and be carried ashore, where they were shut up in cellars and finally carried down to Castletown Castle.  Meanwhile, the smugglers set to work on the dogger’s cargo and landed it safely.  A few days later six of the eleven were released, but the other five were detained until Captain Dow should refund the twenty-five guineas he had seized from the Irish wherry.  In order to give him a fright they also sent word that the five men should be tried before one of their Courts of Judicature on the following Thursday, were he to fail to send the money.  As the captain declined to accede to their demands, the five prisoners were on July 5 brought up and remanded till a month later.  Finding it was impossible to obtain their release the commander of the Sincerity weighed anchor and ran back to Ramsey to take in the six released men, and then, sailing away to Whitehaven, arrived at that place on the 10th of July.

We need not say more.  The story is sufficient to indicate the utter state of lawlessness which prevailed there.  Peopled by outlaws and by the scum of France, Holland, Ireland, Scotland, and England, they were a pretty tough proposition.  Their violence was rivalled only by their impudence; and fleets of wherries[8] would sail in company into Ireland and Scotland loaded with cargoes of cheap brandy, which had been brought from Holland for that purpose.  As a means of checking these Manx smugglers it was suggested that the English Government should employ