As all was now quiet on board, Mr. Stewart searched her and found she was laden with kegs, which, said the crew, were filled with tea and tobacco, these kegs being as usual already slung for putting ashore or sinking. Later on it was found that out of this crew no less than six were English, besides one man who had been born at Flushing of English parentage, though he called himself a Dutchman. The rest were all foreigners. No one can read such an incident as this without regretting that they should have ever led to slaughter. It is a serious thing to take any man's life when there is no warfare, and it is still more dismal if that man is of the same nationality as the one who deals death. If the whole of the _St. Thomas's_ crew had been killed there could have been no blame on Mr. Stewart, for he was only carrying out his orders and acting in self-defence. The smugglers were fully aware they were in the wrong, and they were responsible for any consequences that might accrue. The officer had given them ample warning, and he had only used severe measures when absolutely compelled.
But there is a more satisfactory side to this regrettable incident, which one is only too glad to be able to record. The man who had been so badly wounded desired to speak to Mr. Stewart, and when the latter had approached him he turned to him and said:
Mr. Stewart saw that this was perfectly true, and that the man was in no sense exaggerating.
"Well, I'm sorry for it," he said, "but it was your own fault."
"Yes," answered the dying man, "I know that, but I hope you won't make things worse than they are. I freely forgive you."
This was the steersman who had so strenuously opposed the boarding of the _St. Thomas_. We can quite sympathise with the feelings of Mr. Stewart, and be thankful that those lawless days of violence have long since passed. If you talk with any of the Revenue officers still living who were employed in arresting, lying in wait for, receiving information concerning, and sometimes having a smart fight with the smugglers, you will be told how altogether hateful it was to have to perform such a duty. It is such incidents as the above which knock all romance out of the smuggling incidents. An encounter with fisticuffs, a few hard blows, and an arrest after a smart chase or a daring artifice, whilst not lessening the guilt of smuggling, cannot take away our interest. Our sympathies all the time are with the Revenue men, because they have on their side right, and in the long-run right must eventually conquer might. But, as against this, the poorer classes in those days were depressed in ignorance with low ideals, and lacking many of the privileges which no thinking man to-day would refuse them. And because they were so daring and so persistent, because they had so much to lose and (comparatively speaking) so little really to gain, we extend to them a portion of our sympathy and a large measure of our interest. They were entirely in the wrong, but they had the right stuff in them for making the best kind of English sailormen, the men who helped to win our country's battles, and to make her what she is to-day as the owner of a proud position in the world of nations.