fighting began, he left off smuggling, well knowing that in the end the Government would carry too many bats," meaning thereby that the Government would be too strong for the smugglers. It is but justice here to say, that the Hastings smugglers never went armed ; they did the running, while others did the fighting, and once fairly caught, they generally gave in.
On one occasion, a batsman struck one of his companions in mistake, the blow was given across the chest, and the poor fellow was taken to his home at Icklesham, where he died the next morning. Before he died he was sitting in a chair, and at every respiration the blood issued copiously from his mouth, showing the extent of the injuries he had received internally. I believe the batsmen were paid one pound per night.
SCHEMES OF THE SMUGGLERS, ROPE LADDERS, & c.
The mode by which smugglers got their goods up the cliffs near Hastings was very curious. So determined had the Coast-blockade become, that the usual mode of running. the goods became attended with great dangers, and the smugglers had to accomplish, with skill and cunning, what they had formerly done by sheer courage, though it cannot be denied that this latter mode often taxed the courage of the parties concerned to the utmost.
