Indeed, much of the finery and trinkets worn
by the wives and daughters of the mountain hamlets and farm-houses are
presents from the gay and open-handed contrabandistas.
Arrived at the part of the coast where a vessel is to meet them,
they look out at night from some rocky point or headland. If they
descry a sail near the shore they make a concerted signal; sometimes
it consists in suddenly displaying a lantern three times from
beneath the folds of a cloak. If the signal is answered, they
descend to the shore and prepare for quick work. The vessel runs close
in; all her boats are busy landing the smuggled goods, made up into
snug packages for transportation on horseback. These are hastily
thrown on the beach, as hastily gathered up and packed on the
horses, and then the contrabandistas clatter off to the mountains.
They travel by the roughest, wildest, and most solitary roads, where
it is almost fruitless to pursue them. The custom-house guards do
not attempt it: they take a different course. When they hear of one of
these bands returning full freighted through the mountains, they go
out in force, sometimes twelve infantry and eight horsemen, and take
their station where the mountain defile opens into the plain. The
infantry, who lie in ambush some distance within the defile, suffer
the band to pass, then rise and fire upon them. The contrabandistas
dash forward, but are met in front by the horsemen.
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