78 PRIVATE TRADE ON THE FALMOUTH PACKETS. 



the first privateer they met. They ran the risk of spending 

 some years in a French prison ; but on the other hand there was 

 a good chance that the privateer would put them on shore in 

 their own boat rather than accept the burden of keeping them 

 on board as prisoners. When they once reached England again 

 they were secure from detection. Nobody could contradict them 

 when they af&rmed that the privateer had taken away large 

 quantities of goods which they had not succeeded in selling. 

 Their own assertion was the only evidence of what had occurred 

 which it was possible to procure, and^ there was thus no difficulty 

 in obtaining the full value of the insurance upon goods of which 

 the purchase money was already in their pockets. 



This was the charge against the Falmouth captains, one 

 involving so much base dishonesty that it is natural to hesitate 

 before accepting it. 



As soon as it reached the ears of the Postmaster General, 

 they directed the Inspector of packets to proceed to Falmouth, 

 and to make strict enquiry as to whether what they called " so 

 black and desperate a fraud" was possible. The Inspector's 

 report states somewhat boldly that he believed it was not. He 

 gave no other reason for his belief than that no Insurance 

 Company would pay the value of its policy in the absence of an 

 affidavit declaring precisely the quantity and quality of the 

 goods on board the packet at the time of the capture, — overlook- 

 ing it would seem, that the very nature of the charge involved 

 treachery and lying, and that men who could be supposed guilty 

 of those basenesses would not be likely to hesitate at a perfectly 

 safe perjury. 



The Postmaster Greneral adopted the Inspector's conclusion, 

 yet it would seem that some doubt remained in their minds, for 

 they used the occasion to enforce a suggestion which they had 

 before propounded, to the effect that Courts of Enquiry, analogous 

 to Courts Martial, should be held at Falmouth to investigate the 

 circumstances thoroughly, whenever a packet was captured. It 

 was the custom at this time to require from the captain of a 

 captured packet a sworn declaration of the circumstances, 

 attested by himself and one or two of his chief officers. Beyond 

 this declaration no enquiry was made. Thus everything 



