One day in the month of May, 1814, a fine West Indian ship named the Caroline set sail from the Island of St. Thomas with a valuable cargo of dutiable goods, and in due time entered the English Channel.  Before long she had run up the coast and found herself off Fairlight (between Hastings and Rye).  The people on shore had been on the look-out for this ship, and as soon as the Caroline hove in sight a boat put off to meet her.  Some one threw down a line which was made fast to the boat, and from the latter several men clambered aboard.  After the usual salutations they accompanied the master of the ship and went below to the cabin, where some time was spent in bargaining.  To make a long story short, they arranged to purchase from the Caroline 25 gallons of rum and some coffee, for which the West Indiaman’s skipper was well paid, the average price of rum in that year being about 20s. a gallon.  A cask of rum, 3 cwt. of coffee in a barrel and 2 cwt. in a bag were accordingly lowered over the ship’s side into the boat and away went the little craft to the shore, having, as it was supposed, cheated the Customs.  The Caroline continued her course and proceeded to London.  The Customs authorities, however, had got wind of the affair and the matter was brought to a conclusion before one of his Majesty’s judges.

[Illustration:  “The Caroline continued her course and proceeded to London.”]

But East Indiamen were just as bad, if not a great deal worse, for it was their frequent practice to arrive in the Downs and sell quantities of tea to the men who came out from Deal in small craft.  The commodity could then be kept either for the use of their families and sold to their immediate friends, or sent up to London by the “duffers” in the manner we spoke of in an earlier chapter.  In the instances when spirits were smuggled into the country there was usually some arrangement between the publicans and the smugglers for disposing of the stuff.  But, you may ask, how did the Deal boatmen manage to get the tea to their homes without being seen by the Customs officers?  In the first place it was always difficult to prove that the men really were smugglers, for they would be quite wide-awake enough not to bring obvious bales ashore; and, secondly, the Deal men had such a reputation as desperate characters that no officer, unless he was pretty sure that a smuggling transaction was being carried on and could rely, too, on being well supported by other Customs men and the soldiers, would think of meddling in the matter.  But, lastly, the men who came ashore from the East Indiamen had a smart little dodge of their own for concealing the tea.

[Illustration:  How the Deal Boatmen used to Smuggle Tea Ashore.]