Autobiography of a Cornish Smuggler by Harry Carter
After first serving as privateers in the wars against France, the eight Carter brothers became prominent smugglers in late 18th century Cornwall. John Carter, the eldest, was known as The King of Prussia, after Prussia Cove where they had their house and headquarters, in south western Cornwall. Henry Carter was the most remarkable of them all, but not for his smuggling exploits alone, but for the great personal progress he made in the life of the spirit, and that is what is recorded most in this his autobiography.
In one infamous smuggling venture, just off the coast of Cawsand, itself a great centre of smuggling in eastern Cornwall, near Plymouth, Henry Carter was seriously wounded when Prevention men boarded a smuggling ship of 16 guns. He escaped arrest by jumping into the sea and swimming for shore, heavily bleeding from a deep wound. He was dragged up on shore and taken to a house. From there his true adventures began; in exile in America, returning to Cornwall, and then captured in France and made prisoner of war. He finally returned to Prussia Cove where he was an itinerant preacher of the deeper truths he had discovered during his remarkable life.