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 convenient opportunity should occur to get it removed without exciting suspicion. In some instances these ingenious thieves not only committed the depredations described, but, for the purpose of obtaining access to different ships, and increasing the demand for their professional labours, had no scruple in conveying the rats alive from one vessel to another, as a means of receiving payment for catching the same animals three or four times over, and of thus extending the field for plunder.

But the "river-pirates" were the most desperate and depraved of the fraternity of nautical vagabonds, as their exploits were invariably covered by receivers who kept old iron and junk shops in places adjacent to the Thames, and who were ever ready to receive and conceal the nocturnal plunder of these hostile marauders, many of whom were armed, and all provided with boats, perhaps stolen, for the particular object in view.

The practice of the "river-pirates" seems to have been to select the darkest nights for committing their depredations, having previously reconnoitred the river, during the day, for the purpose of marking the particular vessels and craft most likely to afford a rich booty, either from the nature of the merchandise, stores, or other materials which were accessible, or from the circumstances of their being without the protection of a nightly watch.

In the port of London, where so many vessels were constantly lading and discharging valuable merchandise in the stream, and where from two hundred to five hundred open barges and other small craft in which this merchandise was deposited in its transit to