As it proved, all
his efforts were of no avail, the smugglers continuing to ply their trade
in spite of Tacon and his agents.
The despoilers of the revenue were too daring and adroit, and too familiar
with the shoals and rocks of the coast waters, to be readily caught, and
the lack of pilots familiar with this difficult navigation prevented any
close approach to their haunts. In this dilemma Tacon tried the expedient
of offering a large and tempting reward to any one who would desert the
fraternity and agree to pilot the government vessels through the perilous
channels which they frequented. Double this reward, an almost princely
prize, was offered for the person of one Marti, dead or alive.
Tacon had good reason to offer a special reward for the arrest of Marti,
who was looked upon as the leader and chief offender of the smugglers. A
daring and reckless man, notorious as a smuggler and half pirate, his name
was as well known in Cuba as that of the governor-general himself. The
admirers of his daring exploits grew to know him as the King of the Isle
of Pines, this island being his principal rendezvous, from which he sent
his fleet of small, swift vessels to ply their trade on the neighboring
coast.
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