diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:39:00 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:39:00 -0700 |
| commit | 435f793212ad3262e80f07b0dfa7ca63dc6e829b (patch) | |
| tree | ccc645cb4427df707fb7223a5b27232d1fa59826 /28633-h | |
Diffstat (limited to '28633-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 28633-h/28633-h.htm | 2654 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 28633-h/images/i002.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39904 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 28633-h/images/i006.jpg | bin | 0 -> 35460 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 28633-h/images/i007.jpg | bin | 0 -> 19709 bytes |
4 files changed, 2654 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/28633-h/28633-h.htm b/28633-h/28633-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6884f4e --- /dev/null +++ b/28633-h/28633-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2654 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Paul Jones, by Hutchins Hapgood. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + hr.smler { width: 10%; } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + text-indent: 0px; + } /* page numbers */ + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .tbrk {margin-bottom: 2em;} + + .mono {font-family: monospace;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem div {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + /* index */ + + div.index ul { list-style: none; } + div.index ul li span.mono {font-family: monospace;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Paul Jones, by Hutchins Hapgood + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Paul Jones + +Author: Hutchins Hapgood + +Release Date: April 29, 2009 [EBook #28633] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAUL JONES *** + + + + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="center"><img src="images/i002.jpg" width='337' height='600' alt="The Riverside Biographical Series" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h3>The Riverside Biographical Series</h3> + +<h3>NUMBER 12</h3> + +<h1>PAUL JONES</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>HUTCHINS HAPGOOD</h2> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/i006.jpg" width='511' height='700' alt="Paul Jones - signature" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h1>PAUL JONES</h1> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>HUTCHINS HAPGOOD</h2> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/i007.jpg" width='150' height='191' alt="Publisher's logo" /></div> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<h4>BOSTON AND NEW YORK<br />HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY<br />The Riverside Press, Cambridge<br />1901</h4> + +<hr /> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY HUTCHINS HAPGOOD<br />ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Published November, 1901</i></p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> + +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + +<p>The amount of material bearing on Paul Jones is very large, and consists +mainly of his extensive correspondence, published and unpublished, his +journals, memoirs by his private secretary and several of his officers, +published and unpublished impressions by his contemporaries, and a +number of sketches and biographies, some of which contain rich +collections of his letters and extracts from his journals. The +biographies which I have found most useful are the "Life," by John Henry +Sherburne, published in 1825, which is mainly a collection of Jones's +correspondence; another volume, composed largely of extracts from his +letters and journals, called the "Janette-Taylor Collection," published +in 1830; the first and only extended narrative at once readable and +impartial, by Alexander Slidell MacKenzie, published in 1845; and the +recently published "Life" by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span>Augustus C. Buell. To Mr. Buell's +exhaustive work I am indebted for considerable original material not +otherwise accessible to me. On the basis of the foregoing mass of +material I have attempted, in a short sketch, to give merely an unbiased +account of the man.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="index"> +<ul> +<li><span class="mono">CHAPTER</span></li> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#I">I.</a></span> <span class="smcap">Early Voyages</span></li> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#II">II.</a></span> <span class="smcap">Cruises of the Providence and the Alfred</span></li> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#III">III.</a></span> <span class="smcap">The Cruise of the Ranger</span></li> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#IV">IV.</a></span> <span class="smcap">Efforts in France to secure a Command</span></li> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#V">V.</a></span> <span class="smcap">The Fight with the Serapis</span></li> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#VI">VI.</a></span> <span class="smcap">Diplomacy at the Texel</span></li> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#VII">VII.</a></span> <span class="smcap">Society in Paris</span></li> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#VIII">VIII.</a></span> <span class="smcap">Private Ambition and Public Business</span></li> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#IX">IX.</a></span> <span class="smcap">In the Russian Service</span></li> +<li><span class="mono"> <a href="#X">X.</a></span> <span class="smcap">Last Days</span></li> +</ul> +</div> + +<p class="center"><i>The portrait is from the original by<br />C. W. Peale, in Independence Hall</i></p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<h1>PAUL JONES</h1> + +<hr class="smler" /> + +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2> + +<h3>EARLY VOYAGES</h3> + +<p>John Paul, known as Paul Jones, who sought restlessly for distinction +all his life, was born the son of a peasant, in July, 1747, near the +ocean on which he was to spend a large portion of his time. His father +lived in Scotland, near the fishing hamlet of Arbigland, county of +Kirkcudbright, on the north shore of Solway Firth, and made a living for +the family of seven children by fishing and gardening. The mother, +Jeanne Macduff, was the daughter of a Highlander, and in Paul Jones's +blood the Scotch canniness and caution of his Lowland father was united +with the wild love of physical action native to his mother's race.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p><p>Little is known of the early life of the fifth and famous child of the +Scotch gardener. He went to the parish school, but not for long, for the +sea called him at an early age. When he was twelve years old he could +handle his fishing-boat like a veteran. His skill and daring were the +talk of the village. One day James Younger, a ship-owning merchant from +Whitehaven, then a principal seaport on the neighboring coast of +England, visited Arbigland, in search of seamen for one of his vessels. +It happened on that day that Paul Jones was out in his yawl when a +severe squall arose. Mr. Younger and the villagers watched the boy bring +his small sailing-boat straight against the northeaster into the harbor; +and Mr. Younger expressed his surprise to Paul's father, who remarked: +"That's my boy conning the boat, Mr. Younger. This isn't much of a +squall for him." The result was that Mr. Younger took Paul back with him +to Whitehaven, bound shipmaster's apprentice. A little while after that, +Paul Jones made his first of a series of merchant-ship voyages<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> to the +colonies and the West Indies. He continued in Mr. Younger's employ for +four years; when he was seventeen he made a round voyage to America as +second mate, and was first mate a year later.</p> + +<p>Paul left Mr. Younger's service in 1766 and acquired a sixth interest in +a ship called King George's Packet, in which he went, as first mate, to +the West Indies. The business instinct, always strong in him, received +some satisfaction during this voyage by the transportation of blacks +from Africa to Jamaica, where they were sold as slaves. The slave-trade +was not regarded at that time as dishonorable, but Jones's eagerness to +engage in "any private enterprise"—a phrase constantly used by him—was +not accompanied by any keen moral sensitiveness. He was always in +pursuit of private gain or immediate or posthumous honor, and his grand +sentiments, of which he had many, were largely histrionic in type. After +one more voyage he gave up the slave-trading business, probably because +he realized that no real advancement lay in that line.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p><p>On the John O'Gaunt, in which Jones shipped for England, after leaving +Jamaica, the captain, mate, and all but five of the crew died of yellow +fever, and the ship was taken by Paul into Whitehaven. For this he +received a share in the cargo, and in 1768, when he was twenty-one years +old, the owners of the John (a merchantman sailing from the same port) +gave him command, and in her he made several voyages to America. Life on +a merchantman is rough enough to-day, and was still rougher at that +time. To maintain discipline at sea requires a strong hand and a not too +gentle tongue, and Jones was fully equipped in these necessaries. During +the third voyage of the John, when fever had greatly reduced the crew, +Mungo Maxwell, a Jamaica mulatto, became mutinous, and Jones knocked him +down with a belaying pin. Jones satisfactorily cleared himself of the +resulting charge of murder, and gave, during the trial, one of the +earliest evidences of his power to express himself almost as clearly and +strongly in speech as in action.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p><p>Up to this time in Paul's career there are two facts which stand out +definitely: one, that his rough life, in association with common seamen +from the time that he was twelve years old, and his lack of previous +education, made difficult his becoming what he ardently desired to +be,—a cultivated gentleman. Stories told of his impulsive roughness in +later life, such as the quaint ones of how he used to kick his +lieutenants and then invite them to dinner, are probable enough. It is +even more clear, however, that in some way he had educated himself, not +only in seamanship and navigation, but also in naval history and in the +French and Spanish languages, to a considerable degree. On a voyage his +habit was to study late at night, and on shore, instead of carousing +with his associates, to hunt out the most distinguished person he could +find, or otherwise to improve his condition. His passion for acquisition +was enormous, but his early education was so deficient that his +handwriting always remained that of a schoolboy. He dictated many of his +innumerable letters,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> particularly those in French, which language he +spoke incorrectly but fluently.</p> + +<p>It was during Paul's last voyage as captain of a merchantman that the +event took place which determined him to change his name and to live in +America. Several years previously his brother, who had been adopted by a +Virginia planter named Jones, had come at the death of the latter into +possession of the property, and Captain Paul was named as next in +succession. In 1773, when the captain reached the Rappahannock during +his final merchant voyage, he found his brother dying, and, in +accordance with the terms of old Jones's will, he took the name by which +he is famous and became the owner of the plantation. He consequently +gave up his sea life and settled down to "calm contemplation and poetic +ease," as he expressed it at a later period.</p> + +<p>But Jones was very far from being contemplative, although he certainly +was rather fond of inflated poetry, and even as a planter, surrounded by +his acres and his slaves, there is no evidence that he led a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> lazy life. +He seems to have been partly occupied in continuing the important +acquaintances he had made at the intervals between his voyages and in +watching the progress of events leading to war with England. Jones was +given to gallantry, and while on the plantation he carried on the social +affairs which he afterwards continued, as recognized hero and chevalier +of France, on a magnificent scale. He resisted, as he did all through +his life, any benevolent efforts on the part of the colonial dames to +marry him off, and as the war grew nearer his activity in promoting it +grew greater. He made frequent visits to his patriot friends, met, +besides Joseph Hewes, whom he had already known, Thomas Jefferson, +Philip Livingston, Colonel Washington and the Lees, and was later, if +not at this time, in an intimate official relation with Robert and +Gouverneur Morris. In Jones's intercourse with these men he showed +himself one of the most fiery of Whigs. In a letter to Joseph Hewes +written in 1774, he tells how a British officer made a remark reflecting +on the virtue of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> colonial women. "I at once knocked Mr. Parker down," +he adds, in a style that suggests the straightforward character of his official reports.</p> + +<p>Although dueling was at that time the conventional method of settling +affairs of that nature, no personal encounter resulted between Jones and +Mr. Parker. Jones, indeed, did not seem averse to such an issue, for he +sent a friend to propose pistols, with which he was a crack shot. It is +nevertheless a striking fact that Paul Jones, the desperate fighter, who +was certainly as brave as any one, and was often placed in favorable +situations for such settlements, never fought a duel. Add to this that +his temper was quick and passionate, and that he had to the full the +high-flown sentiments of honor of the time, and the fact seems all the +more remarkable. The truth is that Jones was as cautious as he was +brave. He acted sometimes impulsively, but reflection quickly came, and +he never manifested a dare-devil desire to put his life unnecessarily in +danger. When there was anything to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> gained by exposing his person, he +did it with the utmost coolness, but he consistently refused to put +himself at a disadvantage. When, on at least one occasion, he was +challenged to fight with swords, with which he was only moderately +skillful, he demanded pistols. Fame was Jones's end, and he knew that +premature death was inconsistent with that consummation.</p> + +<p>Although Jones was, at the time, in financial difficulties, he no doubt +welcomed the outbreak of the war. Service in the cause of the colonies +could not be remunerative, and Jones knew it. A privateering command +would have paid better than a regular commission, but Jones constantly +refused such an appointment; and yet he has been called buccaneer and +pirate by many who have written about him, including as recent writers +as Rudyard Kipling, John Morley, and Theodore Roosevelt. Nor is it +likely that a feeling of patriotism led Jones to serve the colonies +against his native land. The reason lay in his overpowering desire of +action. He saw in the service of the colonies an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>opportunity to employ +his energies on a larger and more glorious scale than in any other way. +Service in the British navy in an important capacity was impossible for +a man with no family or position. Jones accordingly went in for the +highest prize within his reach, and with the instinct of the true +sportsman served well the side he had for the time espoused.</p> + +<p>Soon after the battle of Lexington Jones wrote a letter to Joseph Hewes, +sending copies to Jefferson, Robert Morris, and Livingston. "I cannot +conceive of submission to complete slavery. Therefore only war is in +sight.... I beg you to keep my name in your memory when the Congress +shall assemble again, and ... to call upon me in any capacity which your +knowledge of my seafaring experience and your opinion of my +qualifications may dictate." Soon after Congress met, a Marine +Committee, Robert Morris, chairman, was appointed, and Jones was +requested to report on the "proper qualifications of naval officers and +the kind of armed vessels most desirable for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> the service of the United +States, keeping in view the limited resources of the Congress." He was +also asked to serve on a committee to report upon the availability of +the vessels at the disposal of Congress. Jones was practically the head +of this committee, and showed the utmost industry and efficiency in +selecting, arming, and preparing for sea the unimportant vessels within +the disposition of the government.</p> + +<p>At the beginning of the war there was no American navy. Some of the +colonies had, indeed, fitted out merchant vessels with armaments, to +resist the aggressions of the British on their coasts, and in several +instances the cruisers of the enemy had been captured while in port by +armed citizens. The colonial government had empowered Washington, as +commander in chief, to commission some of these improvised war vessels +of the colonies to attack, in the service of the "continent," the +transports and small cruisers of the British, in order to secure powder +for the Continental army. It was not, however, until October of 1775 +that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> the first official attempt towards the formation of a continental, +as opposed to a colonial, navy, was made. The large merchant marine put +at the disposal of the new government many excellent seamen and skippers +and a good number of ships, few of them, however, adapted for war. To +build regular warships on a large scale was impossible for a nation so +badly in need of funds. It was almost equally difficult to secure +officers trained in naval matters, for the marine captains, although as +a rule good seamen, were utterly lacking in naval knowledge and the +principles of organization.</p> + +<p>In this state of affairs Paul Jones proved a very useful man. He was not +only a thorough seaman, but had studied the art of naval warfare, was in +some respects ahead of his time in his ideas of armament, and was +familiar with the organization and history of the British navy. In the +early development of our navy he played, therefore, an important part, +not only in equipping and arming ships for immediate service, and in +determining upon the most effective and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> practicable kind of vessels to +be built, but also in laying before the committee a statement of the +necessary requirements for naval officers.</p> + +<p>To the request of Congress for reports, Jones answered with two +remarkable documents. One was a long, logical argument in favor of swift +frigates of a certain size, rather than ships of the line, and showed +thorough knowledge, not only of naval construction and cost of building, +but also of the general international situation, and the best method of +conducting the war on the sea. On the latter point he wrote: "Keeping +such a squadron in British waters, alarming their coasts, intercepting +their trade, and descending now and then upon their least protected +ports, is the only way that we, with our slender resources, can sensibly +affect our enemy by sea-warfare." This is an exact outline of the policy +which Jones and other United States captains actually carried out.</p> + +<p>Jones also made the statement, wonderfully foreshadowing his own +exploits and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> their effect, that, "the capture ... of one or two of +their crack frigates would raise us more in the estimation of Europe, +where we now most of all need countenance, than could the defeat or even +capture of one of their armies on the land here in America. And at the +same time it would fill all England with dismay. If we show to the world +that we can beat them afloat with an equal force, ship to ship, it will +be more than anyone else has been able to do in modern times, and it +will create a great and most desirable sentiment of respect and favor +towards us on the continent of Europe, where really, I think, the +question of our fate must ultimately be determined.</p> + +<p>"Beyond this, if by exceedingly desperate fighting, one of our ships +shall conquer one of theirs of markedly superior force, we shall be +hailed as the pioneers of a new power on the sea, with untold prospects +of development, and the prestige if not the substance of English +dominion over the ocean will be forever broken. Happy, indeed, will be +the lot of the American <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>captain upon whom fortune shall confer the +honor of fighting that battle!"</p> + +<p>Jones was that happy captain, for both the events mentioned as highly +desirable he brought to pass.</p> + +<p>In the report on the qualifications of naval officers Jones showed +himself to be quite abreast of our own times in the philosophy of naval +organization, and, moreover, possessed of a pen quite capable of +expressing, always with clearness and dignity and sometimes with +elegance, the full maturity of his thought. George Washington, one of +whose great qualities was the power to know men, read this report of +Jones and said: "Mr. Jones is clearly not only a master mariner within +the scope of the art of navigation, but he also holds a strong and +profound sense of the political and military weight of command on the +sea. His powers of usefulness are great and must be constantly kept in view."</p> + +<p>Jones was appointed first lieutenant in the navy on the 22d of December, +1775. He was sixth on the list of appointees, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> other five being made +captains. Subsequent events showed that Jones would have been the best +man for the first place. He thought so himself, but hastened on board +his ship to serve as lieutenant, and was the first man who ever hoisted +the American flag on a man-of-war,—a spectacular trifle that gave him +much pleasure.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> + +<h3>CRUISES OF THE PROVIDENCE AND THE ALFRED</h3> + +<p>The infant squadron of the United States, under the command of Ezek +Hopkins, consisting of the Alfred, of which Jones was the first +lieutenant, the Columbus, the Andria Doria, and the Cabot, sailed in +February, 1776, against Fort Nassau, New Providence Island, in the +Bahamas. The only vessel of any force in the squadron was the Alfred, an +East Indiaman, which Jones had armed with twenty-four nine-pounders on +the gun-deck, and six six-pounders on the quarter-deck. The only officer +in the fleet who, with the exception of Jones, ever showed any ability +was Nicholas Biddle of the Doria. The expedition, consequently, was +sufficiently inglorious. A barren descent was made on New Providence +Island, and later the fleet was engaged with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> British sloop of war +Glasgow, which, in spite of the odds against her, seems to have had the +best of the encounter. Jones was stationed between decks to command the +Alfred's first battery, which he trained on the enemy with his usual +efficiency. He says in his journal what was evidently true: "Mr. Jones, +therefore, did his duty; and as he had no direction whatever, either of +the general disposition of the squadron, or the sails and helm of the +Alfred, he can stand charged with no part of the disgrace of that night."</p> + +<p>A number of courts-martial resulted from this inept affair and from +other initial mistakes. Captain Hazard of the Providence, a sloop of war +of fourteen guns and 103 men, was dismissed from the service, and Jones +was put in command of the ship. "This proves," said Jones, "that Mr. +Jones did his duty on the Providence expedition."</p> + +<p>Jones continued to do his duty by making a number of energetic descents +on the enemy's shipping. His method was to hunt out the merchant vessels +in harbor, whence they could not escape, rather than to search for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> them +on the open sea. In June, 1776, he cruised in the Providence from +Bermuda to the Banks of Newfoundland, a region infested with the war +vessels of the British, captured sixteen vessels, made an attack on +Canso, Nova Scotia, thereby releasing several American prisoners, burned +three vessels belonging to the Cape Breton fishery, and in a descent on +the Isle of Madame destroyed several fishing smacks. He twice escaped, +through superior seamanship, from heavy English frigates. One of these +strong frigates, the Milford, continued to fire from a great distance, +after the little Providence was out of danger. Of this Jones wrote: "He +excited my contempt so much, by his continued firing, at more than twice +the proper distance, that when he rounded to, to give his broadside, I +ordered my marine officer to return the salute with only a single musket."</p> + +<p>While Jones was on this cruise his plantation was ravaged by the +British—buildings burned, live stock destroyed, and slaves carried off. +He was dependent upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> income from this estate, having drawn up to +that time only £50 from the government, not for pay, but for the expense +of enlisting seamen. On his return to port he wrote to Mr. Hewes: "It +thus appears that I have no fortune left but my sword, and no prospect +except that of getting alongside the enemy."</p> + +<p>It was during the same cruise that Jones, by the act of Congress of +October 10, 1776, was made captain in the United States navy, an +appointment that brought him more bitterness of spirit than pleasure, +for he was only number eighteen in the list of appointees. This was an +injustice which Jones never forgot, and to which he referred at +intervals all through his life. He thought he ought to have been not +lower than sixth in rank, because, by the law of the previous year, +there were only five captains ahead of him. In the mean time, too, he +had done good service, while the new captains ranking above him were +untried. It was no doubt an instance of political influence outweighing +practical service, and Jones was entitled to feel <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>aggrieved,—a +privilege he was not likely to forego. Rank was to him a passion, not +merely because it would enable him to be more effective, but for its own +sake. He liked all the signs of display,—busts, epaulets, medals, marks +of honor of all kinds. "How near to the heart," he wrote, "of every +military officer is rank, which opens the door to glory!"</p> + +<p>In regard to this appointment he wrote Thomas Jefferson a bitter and +sarcastic letter. He attributed the injustice to the desire of John +Adams to create captains from among the "respectable skippers" of New +England. "If their fate," he wrote, "shall be like that of his share in +the first five captains last year, I can only say that Mr. Adams has +probably provided for a greater number of courts-martial than of naval +victories! You are well aware, honored sir, that I have no family +connections at my back, but rest my case wholly on what I do. As I +survey the list of twelve captains who have been newly jumped over me by +the act of October 10th, I cannot help <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>seeing that all but three are +persons of high family connection in the bailiwick of Mr. Adams!"</p> + +<p>He wrote, at this time and later, many vehement letters about these +"skippers." To Joseph Hewes: "There are characters among the thirteen on +the list who are truly contemptible—with such, as a private gentleman, +I would disdain to sit down—I would disdain to be acquainted.... Until +they give proof of their superior ability, I never shall acknowledge +them as my senior officers—I never will act under their command." He +wrote to Robert Morris: " ... Nor will I ever draw my sword under the +command of any man who was not in the service as early as myself, unless +he hath merited a preference by his superior services or abilities." In +these and similar remarks, Jones did not show that sense of absolute +subordination which he had said, in his report on the qualifications of +naval officers, was of prime importance, and which he strenuously +demanded from his inferiors in rank. He was always jealous of any +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>superior in his own line, but, fortunately, after his first cruise, he +was always the ranking officer on his ship.</p> + +<p>Jones protested, however, without avail, but on the 4th of November, +1776, he was put in command of the Alfred, and with the Providence in +company made a cruise of about a month, captured seven merchant ships of +the enemy, several of them carrying valuable supplies to the army, and +again cleverly avoided the superior British frigates. Complaining of the +action of the Providence, "which gave him the slip in the night," as he +put it, Jones wrote Hewes: "If such doings are permitted, the navy will +never rise above contempt!... the aforesaid noble captain doth not +understand the first case of plain Trigonometry." On the subject of the +navy he wrote Robert Morris, at a later period: "The navy is in a +wretched condition. It wants a man of ability at its head who could +bring on a purgation, and distinguish between the abilities of a +gentleman and those of a mere sailor or boatswain's mate." In still +another letter: "If my feeble<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> voice is heard when I return to +Philadelphia, our navy matters will assume a better face." Again, as +late as 1782, he wrote Captain O'Neill: "I am altogether in the dark +about what has been done to reëstablish the credit of our marine. In the +course of near seven years' service I have continually suggested what +has occurred to me as most likely to promote its honor and render it +serviceable; but my voice has been like a cry in the wilderness."</p> + +<p>After his return from the cruise in the Alfred, Jones served on the +Board of Advice to the Marine Committee, and was very useful in many +ways. He urged strongly the necessity of making a cruise in European +waters for the sake of moral prestige,—he, of course, to be in command +of the squadron. His energy and dashing character made a strong +impression on Lafayette, who was then in the country, and who heartily +supported Jones in the projected scheme. Lafayette was one of the +strongest advocates for an alliance between the colonies and France, and +believed that a fleet fitted out in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> French ports under the United +States flag would not only help out the weak colonial navy, but would +precipitate war between England and France. He wrote a letter to General +Washington strongly recommending Jones as leader of such an undertaking. +About the same time Jones had an interview with Washington to appeal +against what he deemed another injustice. The Trumbull, one of the fine +new frigates just completed and built in accordance with Jones's +recommendations, was placed under the command of Captain Saltonstall, +who had been captain of the Alfred when Jones was first lieutenant of +the same ship, and against whom the latter had made charges of +incompetence. Jones did not get the Trumbull, but the interview was +probably instrumental in procuring an order from the Marine Committee +for Jones to enlist seamen for a European cruise. On June 14, 1777, +Congress appointed him to the command of the sloop of war Ranger, +eighteen guns, and on the same day the permanent flag of the United +States was determined upon. Jones, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> usual, saw his spectacular +opportunity and said: "That flag and I are twins; born the same hour +from the same womb of destiny. We cannot be parted in life or in death. +So long as we can float, we shall float together. If we must sink, we +shall go down as one!"</p> + +<p>Jones, with the Ranger, sailed for France under the Stars and Stripes +November 1, 1777, bearing with him dispatches to the American +commissioners, the news of Burgoyne's surrender, and instructions from +the Marine Committee to the commissioners to invest him with a fine +swift-sailing frigate. On his arrival at Nantes he immediately sent to +the commissioners—Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee—a +letter developing his general scheme of annoying the enemy. "It seems to +be our most natural province," he wrote, "to surprise their defenseless +places, and thereby divert their attention and draw it from our own coasts."</p> + +<p>It had been the intention of the commissioners to give Jones the Indien, +a fine strong frigate building secretly at Amsterdam. But this proved to +be one more of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> Jones's many disappointments, for the British minister +to the Netherlands discovered the destination of the vessel and +protested to the States-General. The result was that the commissioners +were forced to sell the ship to France, to keep her out of the hands of +England, and Jones was compelled to make his invasion in the Ranger.</p> + +<p>While proceeding in this little sloop to L'Orient, for the purpose of +fitting her out, he met the great French fleet and demanded and obtained +the first salute ever given the United States flag by the war vessels of +a foreign power. He wrote to the Marine Committee triumphantly: "I am +happy in having it in my power to congratulate you on my having seen the +American flag, for the first time, recognized in the fullest and +completest manner by the flag of France.... It was in fact an +acknowledgment of American independence." As the secret treaty between +France and the United States was signed about that time, it perhaps +needed less than the pertinacity of Paul Jones to extract a salute from +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>imperial fleet. Shortly before sailing on his first famous cruise, +the restless man sent Silas Deane a letter proposing a plan of +operations for the French fleet in the coming war with England. The +scheme was for the superior French fleet to attack the English fleet +under Lord Howe, and destroy it or block it up in the Delaware. Jones +said in his journal that the plan, which was adopted, would have +succeeded if it had been put in immediate execution, and complained +because the credit of the scheme had been given to others.</p> + +<p>This was only one of the bits of business which the energetic Jones +transacted before he sailed in the Ranger to harass England. He wrote, +as usual, innumerable letters, proposing, condemning, recommending. He +had trouble with an insubordinate first lieutenant. He began, too, his +social career in France. It was then that he met the Duchesse de +Chartres, great-granddaughter of Louis XIV. and mother of Louis +Philippe, who at a later time called Jones the Bayard of the Sea, and +whom Jones at that time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> promised "to lay an English frigate at her +feet." He kept his word in spirit, for years afterwards he gave her the +sword of Captain Pearson, commander of his famous prize, the Serapis.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + +<h3>THE CRUISE OF THE RANGER</h3> + +<p>Jones started on his cruise in the Ranger April 10, 1778, and, after +taking several unimportant prizes on the way to the Irish Channel, +decided to make a descent upon the town that had served him as +headquarters when he was a merchant sailor, Whitehaven, where he knew +there were about two hundred and fifty merchant ships, which he hoped to +destroy; "to put an end," as he said, "by one good fire, in England, of +shipping, to all the burnings in America."</p> + +<p>Owing to contrary winds Jones was unable to make the attack until +midnight of April 22. His daring scheme was, with the small force of +thirty-two men in two small boats, to land in a hostile port, defended +by two forts, surprise the sleeping inhabitants, and burn the ships +before the people could assemble against him. By the time the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> boats +reached the outer pier, day had dawned and no time was to be lost. The +forts were surprised and taken, the guns spiked by Jones with his own +hand; but while he was thus occupied his officers had failed to fire the +shipping, in accordance with his orders, Lieutenant Wallingford stating +as an excuse that "nothing could be gained by burning poor people's +property." Jones thought otherwise, however; and although the +townspeople were beginning to assemble in consequence of the pistols +that had been fired in capturing the forts, he made fire in the steerage +of a large ship, closely surrounded by many others, and an enormous +conflagration ensued. He stood, pistol in hand, near the burning wreck, +and kept off the constantly increasing crowd until the sun was an hour +high, when he and his men retired to the Ranger, taking away with them +three of the captured soldiers, "as a sample," Jones said, and followed +by the eyes of the gaping multitude of English country folk.</p> + +<p>Although the amount of property <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>destroyed by this raid was small, the +importance of it was considerable, and is well stated by Jones himself, +who, if proper allowance is made for the effects of his vanity, is, as a +rule, his own best biographer: "The moral effect of it was very great," +he writes, "as it taught the English that the fancied security of their +coasts was a myth, and thereby compelled their government to take +expensive measures for the defense of numerous ports hitherto relying +for protection wholly on the vigilance and supposed omnipotence of their +navy. It also doubled or more the rates of insurance, which in the long +run proved the most grievous damage of all."</p> + +<p>On the same day Jones made a descent on the estate of the Earl of +Selkirk, near his old home in Kirkcudbright, with the intention of +carrying off the earl as a hostage. But the earl was not at home, and +Jones consented, he says, to let his men, mutinous and greedy, seize the +Selkirk family plate, which Jones put himself at a great deal of trouble +and some expense to restore at a later date. This incident is +interesting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> chiefly as it was the cause of a letter illustrative of +Jones's character, sent by him to the Countess of Selkirk, who was +present at the time of the raid. After stating in rather inflatedly +polite terms that he could not well restrain his men from the raid, +Jones promised to return the plate, condemned the brutalities of the +English, spoke of the horrors of war, boasted of his victory over the +Drake the evening following the raid, spoke of the English dead and his +chivalrous treatment of them,—"I buried them in a spacious grave, with +the honors due to the memory of the brave,"—and then made the following +rather amusing statements: "Though I have drawn my sword in the present +generous struggle for the rights of men, yet I am not in arms as an +American, nor am I in pursuit of riches. My fortune is liberal enough, +having no wife nor family, and having lived long enough to know that +riches cannot secure happiness. I profess myself a citizen of the world, +totally unfettered by the little mean distinctions of climate or of +country, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> diminish the benevolence of the heart and set bounds to +philanthropy. Before this war had begun, I had, at an early time of +life, withdrawn from sea service in favor of 'calm contemplation and +poetic ease.' I have sacrificed not only my favorite scheme of life, but +the softer affections of the heart and my prospects of domestic +happiness, and I am ready to sacrifice my life also with cheerfulness if +that forfeiture could restore peace among mankind.... I hope this cruel +contest will soon be closed; but should it continue, I wage no war with +the fair. I acknowledge their force, and bend before it with submission."</p> + +<p>Jones was probably sincere when he wrote that letter, although it is +full of misstatements. He was not a self-conscious man and did not +analyze his motives very carefully. He always posed, with perfect +sincerity, as a hero, and when he had to do with a distinguished woman +his exalted words exactly expressed, no doubt, his sentiments.</p> + +<p>Jones's next exploit was the famous <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>capture of the Drake on April 23. +Previous to the attack on Whitehaven, while off Carrickfergus, he had +conceived the bold project of running into Belfast Loch, where the +British man-of-war Drake, of twenty guns, was at anchor; where he hoped +to overlay the Drake's cable, fall foul of her bow, and thus, with her +decks exposed to the Ranger's musketry, to board. He did, indeed, enter +the harbor at night, but failed after repeated efforts, on account of +the strong wind, to get in a proper position to board. Three days later, +after the Earl of Selkirk affair, Jones was again off Carrickfergus, +looking for the Drake, which, having heard of his devastations from the +alarmed country people, sailed out to punish the invader of the sacred +soil of England. The two sloops of war were very nearly matched, though +the Drake technically rated at twenty guns and the Ranger at eighteen. +When they came within range of one another they hoisted their colors +almost at the same time, but the Drake hailed:—</p> + +<p>"What ship is that?"</p> + +<p>Jones directed the sailing-master to answer:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p><p>"The American Continental ship Ranger. We are waiting for you. Come on. +The sun is now near setting, and it is time to begin."</p> + +<p>The Ranger then opened fire with a full broadside. The Drake replied +with the same, and the two ships ran along together at close quarters, +pouring in broadsides for more than an hour, when the enemy called for +quarter. The action had been, as Jones said in his terse official +report, "warm, close, and obstinate." There was little manœuvring, +just straight fighting, the victory being due, according to Jones, to +the superior gunnery of the Americans. At first Jones's gunners hulled +the Drake, as she rolled, below the water-line, but Jones desired to +take the enemy's ship as a prize, rather than to sink her, and told his men so.</p> + +<p>"The alert fellows," he said in a letter to Joseph Hewes, "instantly +took this hint and began firing as their muzzles rose, by which practice +they soon crippled the Drake's spars and rigging, and made her an +unmanageable log on the water. I am persuaded that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> if I had not advised +them to this effect, my gunners would have sunk the Drake in an hour! As +it was, we had to put spare sails over the side after she struck, to +keep her afloat, and careen her as much as we could the next day to plug +the holes they had already made between wind and water."</p> + +<p>The Drake, indeed, was almost a wreck, while the Ranger was little +injured. Jones lost only two men killed and six wounded, to the enemy's +approximate loss of forty-two killed and wounded. It was the first +battle of the war which resulted in the capture of a regular British +man-of-war by a ship of equal if not inferior force. The Drake belonged +to a regularly established navy, not accustomed to defeat. Perhaps that +fact inspired her commander with overconfidence, but McKenzie's +statement of the cause of the victory is no doubt correct: "The result," +he said, "was eminently due to the skill and courage of Jones, and his +inflexible resolution to conquer." That resolution, which was indeed a +characteristic of Jones, reached on at least one occasion, that of the +later battle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> with the Serapis, a degree of inflexibility which amounted +to genius.</p> + +<p>The effect of this bold cruise was great. Jones had not, however, been +the only American captain, by any means, to render good service in +destroying the commerce of the enemy and in annoying the British coast. +Before the French alliance more than six hundred British vessels fell a +prey to American cruisers, mainly privateers. There were, likewise, +captains in the regular United States navy who had before this cruise of +Jones's borne the flag to Europe. The first of these was the gallant +Wickes, in the summer of 1777. Though Jones was not the first captain, +therefore, to make a brilliant and destructive cruise in the English +Channel, he was nevertheless the first to inspire terror among the +inhabitants by incursions inshore. The cruise of the little Ranger +showed that the British, when they ravaged the coast of New England, +might expect effective retaliation on their own shores; and the capture +of the Drake inspired France, then about to take arms in support<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> of the +American cause, by the realization of what they themselves had longed to +do—to worst England on the high seas—with increased respect for their +allies. It filled Great Britain with wild, exaggerated, and unjust +condemnation of Paul Jones, who has been looked upon for more than a +hundred years, and is even to-day in England, by sober historians, as a +bloody-handed, desperate buccaneer. The persistent charge, often of late +refuted, hardly needs refutation, in view of the well-authenticated fact +that Jones never served on a war vessel except under a regular +commission. Moreover, he was a man too ambitious and too sensible to +hurt his prospects by being anything so low and undistinguished as a pirate.</p> + +<p>After the battle with the Drake, Jones saw that he would have to bring +the cruise to a close. His crew of 139 men had, through the necessity of +manning the several merchant prizes and the Drake, been reduced to +eighty-six men, and he consequently put into Brest, reluctantly, on the +8th of May, 1778. He was there met by the great French fleet,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> then +actually at war with England, and he and his prize were admired by +visiting French officers. From that time Jones, hated in England, was a +hero in France, fêted whenever he was at the capital, and favored by fair ladies.</p> + +<p>He was a hero, however, with a thorny path all through life. He arrived +at Brest with a miserably clothed, wholly unpaid, discontented, and +partly mutinous crew. During the voyage his first lieutenant, Simpson, +had stirred up dissatisfaction among the men, and had refused to obey +orders, for which Jones had him put in irons. The unpaid men, not +assigning their troubles to the true but unseen cause, the poverty of +the government, easily believed that their captain was responsible for +all their ills. Under no conditions, however, was Jones likely to be +popular with the greater number of his men, for the energetic man was +bent on making them, as well as himself, work for glory to the +uttermost, and the common run of seamen care more for ease and pelf than +for fame. Jones's unpopularity with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> crew of the Ranger is attested +by a passage from the diary of Ezra Green, one of Jones's officers, on +the occasion, at a later period, of the Ranger's sailing back to +America: "This day Thomas Simpson, Esq., came on board with orders to +take command of the Ranger; to the joy and satisfaction of the whole ship's company."</p> + +<p>With the impulsive inconsistency which, in spite of his shrewdness, +sometimes marked his conduct, Jones alternately demanded a court-martial +for Simpson and recommended him to the command of the Ranger, he himself +hoping for a more important vessel; it was Jones's own conduct, as much +as any other circumstance, which finally resulted in the sailing away of +the Ranger under the mutinous Simpson. With the frankness customary with +him when not writing to anybody particularly distinguished, Jones wrote +Simpson, at one stage of their quarrel: "The trouble with you, Mr. +Simpson, is that you have the heart of a lion and the head of a sheep."</p> + +<p>Even more annoying to the imperious and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> high-handed Jones than the +trouble with Simpson was the manner in which, on his arrival at Brest, +the commissioners refused to honor his draft for 24,000 livres. He held +a letter of credit authorizing him to draw on the commissioners for +money to defray necessary expenses; but instead of dealing with the +regular American agent at Brest, he placed his order with a Brest +merchant, who, when Jones's draft was returned dishonored, stopped his +supplies. Jones thereupon wrote the commissioners: "I know not where or +how to provide food for to-morrow's dinner to feed the great number of +mouths that depend on me for food. Are then the Continental ships of war +to depend on sale of their prizes for the daily dinner of their men? +Publish it not 'in Gath'!"</p> + +<p>He then, without authority, but very possibly forced by the necessities +of his crew, sold one of his prizes, with the money from which he paid +the Brest merchant. Of this act he said: "I could not waste time +discussing questions of authority when my crew and prisoners were starving."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p><p>The point of view of the commissioners is tersely expressed in a letter +from them to the French Minister of Marine, de Sartine, June 15, 1778: +"We think it extremely irregular ... in captains of ships of war to draw +for any sums they please without previous notice and express +permission.... Captain Jones has had of us near a hundred thousand +livres for such purposes [necessaries]."</p> + +<p>The frugality of Benjamin Franklin, the most important commissioner, is +well known, and also the financial straits of the country at that time. +That Jones was in a difficult position at Brest is certain, and he +perhaps asked for no more than he needed. But that he was naturally +inclined to extravagant expenditure there can be no doubt,—a fact that +will appear saliently in a later stage of this narrative.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + +<h3>EFFORTS IN FRANCE TO SECURE A COMMAND</h3> + +<p>War having broken out between England and France, Jones was detained in +Europe, instead of sailing home in the Ranger, through the request of +the French Minister of Marine, de Sartine, who wished an important +command to be assigned to the famous conqueror of the Drake. The +difficulties, however, in the way of doing so were great. The +commissioners had few resources, and one of them, Arthur Lee, was +hostile to Jones. Moreover the French government naturally thought first +of its own officers, of whom there were too many for the available +vessels. Several privateering expeditions were suggested to Jones, which +he quite justly rejected. Several opportunities had also been given him +for small commands, which he had likewise rejected. His manner in doing +so could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> not exactly be called diplomatic. He wrote M. Chaumont, that +patriotic and benevolent gentleman whom Jones alternately flattered and +reviled, a rather typical letter: "I wish to have no connection with any +ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go <i>in harm's way</i>. You +know, I believe, that this is not every one's intention. Therefore buy a +frigate that sails fast, and that is sufficiently large to carry +twenty-six or twenty-eight guns on one deck. I would rather be shot +ashore than sent to sea in such things as the armed prizes I have described."</p> + +<p>The innumerable delays which consequently intervened between his arrival +at Brest, in May, 1778, and his departure on his next cruise a year +later, in June, 1779, put the active Scotchman in a state of constant +irritation. He continued his dunning correspondence with the greatest +energy, alternately cajoling, proposing, complaining, begging to be sent +on some important enterprise. He wrote innumerable letters to de +Sartine, Franklin, the Duc de Rochefoucauld, de Chaumont, and many +others, and finally to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> king himself, with whom he afterwards had an +interview. The statement of his wrongs in his letter to the king, +reiterated in letters to many others, involves an account of the many +promises de Sartine had made and broken, and of Jones's various +important proposals for the public good, which had been slighted.</p> + +<p>"Thus, sire," he writes, "have I been chained down to shameful +inactivity for nearly five months. I have lost the best season of the +year and such opportunities of serving my country and acquiring honor as +I can hardly expect again in this war; and to my infinite mortification, +having no command, I am considered everywhere an officer cast off and in +disgrace for secret reasons."</p> + +<p>Jones's pertinacity and perseverance in working for a command are quite +on a par with his indomitable resolution in battle, and he was finally +rewarded, probably through the king's direct order, by being put in +command of a small squadron, with which he made the cruise resulting in +the capture of the Serapis and in his own fame.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p><p>Jones was highly delighted with the appointment, but his troubles +continued in full measure, and to all his troubles Jones gave wide and +frequent publicity. All the ships of his squadron, with the exception of +the Alliance, were French, largely officered and manned by Frenchmen. +The expense of fitting out the expedition was the king's. The flag and +the commissions of the officers were American. The object of the French +government was to secure the services of the marauding Jones against the +coasts and shipping of England. This could better be done under the +United States flag than under that of France; for the rules of civilized +warfare had up to that time prevented the British from ravaging the +coasts of France as they had those of rebel America, and France was +therefore not morally justified in harassing the English shipping and +coasts directly; as, on the principle of retaliation, it was fair for America to do.</p> + +<p>This peculiar character of the expedition brought with it many drawbacks +and difficulties for the unfortunate Jones. He had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> a motley array of +ships,—those which were left over after the French officers had been +satisfied. The flagship, the Bonhomme Richard, was a worn-out old East +Indiaman, which Jones refitted and armed with six eighteen-pounders, +twenty-eight twelve-pounders, and eight nine-pounders—a battery of +forty-two guns. The crew of 375, of many nationalities, contained, when +the fleet sailed, only about fifty Americans; but fortunately, a few +days later, Jones was compelled to put back to port, where he was +unexpectedly able, owing to a recent exchange of prisoners, to get rid +of some of his aliens, and to secure 114 American officers and sailors, +who proved to be the backbone of the Richard's crew. The Alliance, the +only American ship, was a good frigate rating as a large thirty-two or +medium thirty-six, but captained by a mad Frenchman in the American +service, Landais, who refused to obey Jones, and in the important fight +with the Serapis turned his guns against his commander. The Pallas, +thirty-two guns, the Vengeance, twelve guns, and the little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> Cerf were +all officered and manned by Frenchmen.</p> + +<p>The greatest hindrance, however, to the efficiency of the squadron was +the famous <i>concordat</i>, or agreement between the captains, which Jones +was compelled to sign just before sailing. The terms, indeed, which +related largely to the distribution of prize money, left Jones in the +position of commander in chief, but the fact that there was any +agreement whatever between Jones and his subordinates weakened his +authority. Of this, as of so many other injustices, Jones complained +most bitterly all through his subsequent life. He signed it, however, +because, he said in his journal, he feared that he would otherwise be +removed from his position as commodore. In a letter to Hewes he gave +Franklin's command as the cause.</p> + +<p>The squadron, accompanied at the outset by two French privateers, sailed +finally from L'Orient, after one futile attempt, August 14, 1779, and +made during the first forty days of the fifty days' cruise a number of +unimportant prizes. On the 18th of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>August, the privateer Monsieur, +which was not bound by the <i>concordat</i>, took a prize, which the captain +of the Monsieur rifled, and then ordered into port. Jones, however, +opposed the captain's order, and sent the prize to L'Orient, whereupon +the Monsieur parted company with the squadron. According to Fanning, one +of Jones's midshipmen, who has left a spirited account of the cruise, +Jones attempted to prevent the departure of the privateer by force, and +when she escaped was so angry that he "struck several of his officers +with his speaking trumpet over their heads," and confined one of them +below, but immediately afterwards invited him to dinner. "Thus it was +with Jones," says Fanning, "passionate to the highest degree one minute, +and the next ready to make a reconciliation."</p> + +<p>The defection of the Monsieur was, however, only the beginning of +Jones's troubles with the insubordinate officers. While attempting to +capture a brigantine, Jones, through the desertion of some of his +English sailors, lost two of his small boats, for which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> he was bitterly +and unjustly reproached by the crazy, incompetent, and greedy Landais, +captain of the Alliance, who said that hereafter he would chase in the +manner he saw fit. Shortly afterwards, the Cerf abruptly left the fleet, +and the other privateer also went off on its own account. Jones was left +with only the Bonhomme Richard, the Pallas, the Vengeance, and the +Alliance; and it would have been better, as the result showed, if the +last-mentioned vessel and its extraordinary captain had also decamped at +this time for good. Landais paid no attention to Jones's signals, but +left the squadron for days, unfortunately returning. Against Jones's +orders he sent two prizes into Bergen, Norway, where they were given by +the Danish government to the English, and were for many years after the +war a source of trouble between Denmark and the United States.</p> + +<p>Jones was also compelled to treat with the other French captains, and +several times modified his course in compliance with their demands. He +had formed a daring design<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> to lay Leith, on the coast of Scotland, and +perhaps Edinburgh, under contribution, but first he had to argue the +matter with his captains. Fanning says: "Jones displayed so artfully his +arguments in favor of his plan that it was agreed pretty unanimously to +put it in immediate execution." Jones's art was manifested in this +instance, according to his account, by showing the captains "a large +heap of gold at the end of the prospect." During this enforced +conference, however, the wind shifted, and the undertaking had to be +given up. Fanning quaintly remarks: "All his [Jones's] vast projects of +wealth and aggrandizement became at once a shadow that passeth away, +never more to appear again!"</p> + +<p>Jones, however, said that he would have succeeded, even at this late +hour, if his plan had been followed, and showed a touch of the weak side +of his character when he added: "Nothing prevented me from pursuing my +design but the reproach that would have been cast upon my character, as +a man of prudence, had the enterprise miscarried.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> It would have been +said: 'Was he not forewarned by Captain Cottineau and others?'"</p> + +<p>With his old ship, his motley squadron, and his insubordinate officers, +Jones then cruised along the Yorkshire coast, destroyed or captured a +number of vessels, and was preparing to end his voyage at the Texel, +Holland, when chance threw in his way the opportunity which he so greatly embraced.</p> + +<p>On the 23d of September the squadron was chasing a ship off Flamborough +Head, when the Baltic fleet of merchantmen, for which Jones had been +looking, hove in sight. The commodore hoisted the signal for a general +chase. Landais, however, ignored the signal and went off by himself. The +merchant ships, when they saw Jones's squadron bearing down upon them, +made for the shore and escaped, protected by two ships of war, frigates, +which stood out and made preparations to fight, in order to save their convoy.</p> + +<p>These British ships of war were the Serapis, a new frigate of forty-four +guns, and the Countess of Scarborough, twenty guns. The Alliance, at +that time, which was late<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> in the afternoon, was not in sight, and the +little Vengeance, which had been sent to look for Landais, was also not +available. There were, therefore, two ships on each side, and Jones +ordered Captain Cottineau, of the Pallas, to look after the Countess of +Scarborough, while he himself took care of the Serapis. Jones never lost +his head in action, and yet he decided, with that "cool, determined +bravery," of which Benjamin Franklin spoke, and with "that presence of +mind which never deserted him" in action, recorded by Fanning, to engage +a ship known by him to be the superior of the Bonhomme Richard in almost +every respect. It has been said of Jones by one who fought with him that +only in battle was he absolutely at ease: only at times of comparative +inaction, when he could not exert himself fully, was he restless and +irritable. On this occasion he joyfully engaged a ship which threw a +weight of metal superior to his by three to two, that sailed much +faster, and was consequently at an advantage in manœuvring for +position, and that had a crew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> equal to that of Jones in numbers, and +far more disciplined and homogeneous. A battle resulted which for +desperate fighting has never been excelled, and perhaps never equaled on the sea.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + +<h3>THE FIGHT WITH THE SERAPIS</h3> + +<p>Jones crowded on all possible sail, and the Bonhomme Richard came within +pistol shot of the Serapis. It was seven o'clock of a fine moonlight +night. Captain Pearson, of the British ship, then hailed, and was +answered with a whole broadside from the Bonhomme Richard, an unfriendly +salute which was promptly returned by the British ship.</p> + +<p>From the beginning the fight seemed to go against the Bonhomme Richard. +There was hardly any stage of the three and a half hours' desperate +combat when Jones might not, with perfect propriety, have surrendered. +Hardly had the battle begun when two of the six old eighteen-pounders +forming the battery of the lower gun-deck of the Richard exploded, +killing the men working them and rendering the whole battery useless for +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> rest of the action. Captain Pearson, perceiving his advantage in +speed and power of shot, attempted again and again to pass the bow of +the Richard and rake her. Jones's whole effort, on the other hand, was +to close with the Serapis and board, knowing that it was only a question +of time when, in a broadside fight, the Richard would be sunk.</p> + +<p>After the broadsiding had continued with unremitting fury for about +three quarters of an hour, and several of the Richard's twelve-pounders +also had been put out of action, Captain Pearson thought he saw an +opportunity, the Serapis having veered and drawn ahead of the Richard, +to luff athwart the latter's hawse and rake her. But he attempted the +manœuvre too soon, and perceiving that the two ships would be brought +together if he persisted in his course, he put his helm alee, bringing +the two vessels in a line; and the Serapis having lost her headway by +this evolution, the Richard ran into her weather quarter. Jones was +quick to make his first attempt to board, but he could not mass enough +men at the point of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> contact to succeed, and the ships soon swung apart.</p> + +<p>The Richard, even at this early stage of the action, was in a deplorable +condition. Little of her starboard battery was left. Henry Gardner, a +gunner during the action, stated in his account of the battle that, at +this time, of the 140 odd officers and men stationed in the main +gun-deck battery at the beginning, over eighty were killed or wounded. +There were three or four feet of water in the hold, caused by the +Serapis's eighteen-pound shot, which had repeatedly pierced the hull of the Richard.</p> + +<p>It is no wonder that Captain Pearson, knowing that his enemy was hard +put to it, thought, after the failure to board, that Jones was ready to surrender.</p> + +<p>"Has your ship struck?" he called, and Jones made his famous reply:—</p> + +<p>"I have not yet begun to fight."</p> + +<p>That Jones really made some such reply, there is no doubt. Certainly, it +was characteristic enough. Jones fought all his life, and yet when he +died he had hardly begun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> the conflict, so many of his ambitious +projects remained unrealized.</p> + +<p>When the ships had swung apart, the broadsiding continued, increasingly +to the advantage of the Serapis. Had not a lucky wind, favorable to the +Richard, arisen at this point, doubtless her time above water would have +been short. The veering and freshening breeze enabled the Richard to +blanket the enemy's vessel, which consequently lost her headway, and +another fortunate puff of wind brought the Richard in contact with the +Serapis in such a way that the two vessels lay alongside one another, +bow to stern, and stern to bow. Jones, with his own hand, helped to lash +the two ships together. The anchor of the Serapis fortunately hooked the +quarter of the Richard, thus binding the frigates still more firmly together.</p> + +<p>During the critical time when Jones was bending every nerve to grapple +with the Serapis, the Alliance made her first appearance, poured a +broadside or two into the Richard, and disappeared. Of this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>remarkable +deed Jones wrote to Dr. Franklin: "At last the Alliance appeared, and I +now thought the battle at an end; but to my utter astonishment he +discharged a broadside full into the stern of the Bon Homme Richard." It +is probable that the Serapis also suffered from Landais's attack, but +not so much as the Richard, which lay between the other two ships.</p> + +<p>After the Serapis and the Richard had been well lashed together, there +began a new phase of the battle, which had already lasted about an hour. +There were only three guns left in action on the Richard, nine-pounders +on the quarter-deck, and the ship was badly leaking. The +eighteen-pounders of the enemy had riddled the gun-deck of the American +ship, rendering her, below-decks, entirely untenable. The real fight +from this time to the end was consequently above-decks. Jones abandoned +any attempt at great gun fire, except by the three small pieces on the +quarter-deck, drew practically his entire remaining crew from below to +the upper deck and the tops, and devoted his attention to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> sweeping the +decks of the enemy by the musketry of his French marines from the +quarter and poop decks, and of the American sailors in the tops. The +crew of the Serapis, on the other hand, were forced mainly to take +refuge in their well-protected lower decks, from which they continued to +fire their great guns into the already riddled hull and lower decks of the Richard.</p> + +<p>After the juncture of the vessels Captain Pearson made several desperate +attempts to cut the anchor loose, hoping in that way to become free +again of the Richard, in which case he knew that the battle was his. +Jones, of course, was equally determined to defend the anchor +fastenings. He personally directed the fire of his French marines +against the British in their repeated attempts to sever the two ships, +to such good purpose that not a single British sailor reached the +coveted goal. So determined was Jones on this important point that he +took loaded muskets from the hands of his French marines and shot down +several of the British with his own hand.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p><p>The captain of the French marines, who rendered at this important stage +of the action such good service, had been wounded early in the battle, +and the succeeding lieutenants had also been either killed or disabled. +The marines had been greatly diminished in numbers and were much +disheartened at the time Jones took personal command of them. Nathaniel +Fanning vividly narrates the manner in which Jones handled these +Frenchmen: "I could distinctly hear, amid the crashing of the musketry, +the great voice of the commodore, cheering the French marines in their +own tongue, uttering such imprecations upon the enemy as I never before +or since heard in French or any other language, exhorting them to take +good aim, pointing out objects for their fire, and frequently giving +them direct example by taking their loaded muskets from their hands into +his and firing himself. In fact, toward the very last, he had about him +a group of half a dozen marines who did nothing but load their firelocks +and hand them to the commodore,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> who fired them from his own shoulder, +standing on the quarter-deck rail by the main topmast backstay."</p> + +<p>A French sailor, Pierre Gerard, who has left a memoir of the battle, +tells how his countrymen responded to Jones's presence: "Commodore Jones +sprang among the shaking marines on the quarter-deck like a tiger among +calves. They responded instantly to him. In an instant they were filled +with courage! The indomitable spirit, the unconquerable courage of the +commodore penetrated every soul, and every one who saw his example or +heard his voice became as much a hero as himself!"</p> + +<p>Both vessels were at this time, and later, on fire in various places. +Captain Pearson says in his official report that the Serapis was on fire +no less than ten or twelve times. Half the men on both ships had been +killed or disabled. The leak in the Richard's hold grew steadily worse, +and the mainmast of the Serapis was about to go by the board. The +Alliance again appeared and, paying no heed to Jones's signal to lay the +Serapis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> alongside, raked both vessels for a few minutes +indiscriminately, went serenely on her way, and brought her inglorious +and inexplicable part in the action to a close. Captain Pearson had, for +a moment, towards the end of the action, a ray of hope. A gunner on the +Richard, thinking the ship was actually sinking, called for quarter, but +Jones stunned him with the butt end of a pistol, and replied to Pearson, +who had again hailed to know if the Richard had struck, to quote his own +report, "in the most determined negative." About the same time, the +master at arms, also believing the ship to be sinking, opened the +hatches and released nearly two hundred British prisoners, taken in the +various prizes of the cruise.</p> + +<p>Nothing, apparently, could be more desperate than the situation of Paul +Jones then. His guns useless, his ship sinking and on fire, half of his +crew dead or disabled, the Alliance firing into him, a portion of his +crew panic-stricken, and two hundred British prisoners at large on the +ship! But with Lieutenant Richard Dale to help him, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> boldly ordered +the prisoners to man the pumps, and continued the fight with +undiminished energy. Soon after occurred the event which practically +decided the battle in his favor. He had given orders to drop hand +grenades from the tops of the Richard down through the enemy's main +hatch. It was by this means that the Serapis had been so often set on +fire. Now at an opportune moment, a hand grenade fell among a pile of +cartridges strung out on the deck of the Serapis and caused a terrible +explosion, killing many men. This seemed to reduce materially the +fighting appetite of the British, and soon after a party of seamen from +the Richard, with the dashing John Mayrant at their head, boarded the +Serapis, and met with little resistance. Captain Pearson thereupon +struck his colors, and the victory which marked the zenith of Jones's +career, and upon which all else in his life merely served as commentary, +was scored. Captain Pearson, in his court-martial, which was a formality +in the British navy in case of defeat, explained Jones's victory in a +nutshell: "It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> was clearly apparent," he said, "that the American ship +was dominated by a commanding will of the most unalterable resolution," +and again, "the extraordinary and unheard-of desperate stubbornness of +my adversary had so depressed the spirits of my people that, when more +than two hundred had been slain or disabled out of 317 all told, I could +not urge the remnant to further resistance."</p> + +<p>The capture of the British ship, which took place about half-past ten at +night, came none too soon, for the old Bonhomme Richard was sinking. The +flames were extinguished by combined efforts of crew and prisoners by +ten o'clock the next morning, but with seven feet of water, constantly +increasing in the hold, it was then apparent that it was impossible to +keep the old vessel afloat, and men, prisoners, and powder were +transferred to the Serapis. On the morning of the 25th Jones obtained, +"with inexpressible grief," as he said, "the last glimpse of the +Bonhomme Richard," as she went down.</p> + +<p>The desperate battle fought in the bright moonlight was witnessed by +many persons in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> Scarborough and on Flamborough Head, and they spread +the alarming tidings throughout England. In a letter to Robert Morris, +written soon after, Jones said, of the cruise in general: "We alarmed +their coasts prodigiously from Cape Clear round to Hull; and had I not +been concerned with sons of interest I could have done much."</p> + +<p>With his two new prizes (for the Countess of Scarborough had after a +short action struck to the greatly superior Pallas) Jones set off for +the Texel, with a most dilapidated crew and fleet. The Alliance, well +called a "Comet" by the editor of the Janette-Taylor collection of +Jones's papers, disappeared again after the battle. Landais, whose +conduct was described by Jones as being that of "either a fool, a +madman, or a villain," was afterwards dismissed the service, but not +until he had cut up other extraordinary pranks. He now went off with his +swift and uninjured frigate to the Texel, leaving Jones, laden down with +prisoners and wounded, unassisted. Of the Richard's crew of 323, 67 men +had been killed, leaving 106<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> wounded and 150 others to be accommodated +on the injured Serapis. Then there were 211 English prisoners on the +Richard at the beginning of the action; and of the 332 (including 8 sick +men and 7 non-combatants) men composing the crew of the Serapis, there +were 245 left to be cared for—134 wounded, 87 having been killed. There +were, consequently, only 150 well men to look after 562 wounded and +prisoners. Some of the latter were afterwards transferred to the Pallas, +but altogether it was an unwieldy fleet which slowly sailed for the +Texel, at which neutral port Jones arrived October 3, none too soon, for +as he entered the roads, an English squadron, consisting of a sixty-four +ship of the line and three heavy frigates, which had been looking for +him, hove in sight.</p> + +<p>The effect of the cruise was very great. The English people, alarmed and +incensed, never forgot it. Never before had one of their ships of war +been conquered by a vessel of greatly inferior force. Their coasts, +deemed impregnable, were again invaded by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> the man whom they called, in +the blindness of their rage, pirate and renegade. Professor Houghton, a +serious-minded historian, writing of Jones said: "His moral character +can be summed up in one word—detestable." English comment on Paul Jones +may be summed up truthfully in one word,—envenomed. Jones's exploits, +moreover, greatly increased the prestige of young America, and made of +himself a still greater hero at home and particularly in France. For the +rest of his life, indeed, Jones, in France especially, where spectacles +are peculiarly appreciated, was the man on horseback, and he enjoyed the +position intensely. Fanning narrates how Jones, while at Amsterdam, soon +after his arrival in the Texel, "was treated as a conqueror. This so +elated him with pride, that he had the vanity to go into the State +House, mount the balcony or piazza, and show himself in the front +thereof, to the populace and people of distinction then walking on the public parade."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + +<h3>DIPLOMACY AT THE TEXEL</h3> + +<p>Jones found himself in a position at the Texel which demanded all the +shrewdness as well as the determination of his character. Impatient, +irritable, and passionate as he often was, his judgment was nevertheless +excellent. Benjamin Franklin, when Jones at a later time was again put +in a delicate situation, wrote him:—</p> + +<p>"You have shown your abilities in fighting; you have now an opportunity +of showing the other necessary part in the character of a great +chief,—your abilities in policy."</p> + +<p>Jones's ability in policy appeared in a more favorable light in the +Texel than at any other period of his career, although too great weight +has been laid upon the degree of it. The important problem to be solved +was how to induce the Dutch authorities to allow him and his battered +ships to remain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> for a time in the shelter of their port. Jones knew +that the attainment of this object would help to bring about a rupture +between England and Holland. The latter country was secretly in sympathy +with the revolted colonies, but eager at that time to maintain +officially friendly relations with England. Consequently, when Jones +arrived with his prizes, the Dutch authorities were in a quandary, much +aggravated by the action of the British minister in Holland, Sir Joseph +Yorke, who demanded that the "pirate's" prizes be delivered up to +England. He reiterated his demand to the States-General in the following +language: "I only discharge the orders of his Majesty in renewing the +most strong and urgent demand for the seizure and restitution of said +vessels as well as for the enlargement of their crews, who have been +seized by the pirate, Paul Jones, a Scotchman, a rebellious subject, and state criminal."</p> + +<p>Jones, in reply to the allegations of the British minister, copies of +whose letters had been sent him, wrote the States-General an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> able +letter. He inclosed a copy of his commission from the United States +government, and then argued that the United States was a "sovereign +power" and entitled to issue such a commission. He pointed out that the +sovereignty had been recognized by France and Spain, and that +belligerent rights had been recognized by Prussia and by Russia. Only +one of Sir Joseph's charges he admitted to be true,—that he was a +Scotchman, but he denied the inference made from it,—that he was a +"state criminal." He wrote: "It cannot have escaped the attention of +Your High Mightinesses that every man now giving fealty to the cause of +American Independence was born a British subject." If he were a "state +criminal," then, he argued, General Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and +all other American patriots were also "state criminals."</p> + +<p>Soon after this letter was received the States-General passed a +resolution declining to "consider any question affecting the validity of +Paul Jones's commission or his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> status as a person." They declined +likewise "to do anything from which it might lawfully be inferred that +they recognized the independence of the American colonies." They also +resolved that Paul Jones should be asked to leave their port, but not +until the wind and weather should be favorable. They had refused, +therefore, to consider Jones as a pirate, or to deliver up his prizes.</p> + +<p>Paul Jones's plan was not to admit that a favorable wind had arisen +until the last possible moment. He did not wish to be taken by the +strong British fleet waiting for him outside the harbor, and he desired, +as he said, in order to provoke war between Holland and England, "to try +the patience of the English party to the last bit of strain it would +bear by keeping my anchorage in Dutch waters on plea of distress, and at +the same time I wished to be ready for instant departure the moment I +saw that the plea of distress could no longer be plausibly held."</p> + +<p>The French Minister of Marine, de Sartine, however, fearing that +ultimately the pressure would be so great that the squadron would be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +compelled to depart and thus fall into the clutches of the British, +demanded that the French flag, which naturally commanded greater respect +from Holland than the flag of the United States, should be displayed. +Benjamin Franklin agreed with the French minister, but Jones protested:—</p> + +<p>"In vain I expostulated with them that by accepting the shelter of the +French flag I should do exactly of all things what Sir Joseph Yorke +wished me to do, namely, withdraw all pretensions of the United States +as a party to the situation, and thereby confess that the United States +claimed no status as a sovereign power in a neutral port."</p> + +<p>Jones was forced to yield, the French flag was displayed, the command +was given to the French captain, Cottineau, and Jones retained only the +Alliance, an American ship, from which he was allowed, however, to fly +the American flag.</p> + +<p>To add to Jones' sorrows de Sartine offered him, through the Duc de +Vauguyan, a French commission to command the Alliance as a letter of +marque. He rejected it with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>indignation: "My rank from the beginning +knew no superior in the marine of America; how then must I be humbled +were I to accept a letter of marque! I should, my lord, esteem myself +inexcusable were I to accept even a commission of equal or superior +denomination to that I bear, unless I were previously authorized by +Congress, or some other competent authority in Europe." That the +Serapis, the prize for which he had so bravely contended, had been taken +from him, was another of the wrongs which rankled deeply in Jones's soul.</p> + +<p>Jones must have got a great deal of satisfaction, however, from the fact +that he continued defiantly to wave the American flag from the Alliance, +and that he delayed his enforced departure, in spite of great pressure +from the admiral of the Dutch fleet, until December 26, when with the +Alliance he dashed out of the harbor "under his best American colors," +ran the gauntlet of the British fleet cruising outside, and escaped into the open sea.</p> + +<p>Before leaving the Texel, Jones, on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>December 17, 1779, wrote Dr. +Bancroft: "I am sure that the strain put upon the relations between +Holland and England must end in rupture between them within this year."</p> + +<p>War was indeed declared between England and Holland on December 19, +1780, and in the bill of grievances set forth in the proclamation of a +state of war against Holland, the statement is made: "That, in violation +of treaty, they [the States-General] suffered an American Pirate (one +Paul Jones, a Rebel, and State Criminal) to remain several weeks in one of their ports."</p> + +<p>It is clear, therefore, that Jones's pertinacious stay in the Dutch port +brought about important results.</p> + +<p>Another instance of Jones's <i>sang-froid</i> in matters where time was given +for his judgment to come into play, was the way he treated Landais at +the Texel. On his arrival at that port Jones sent to Dr. Franklin +charges against the captain of the Alliance, whom he removed from +command. Whereupon Landais sent Jones a challenge to a duel. Fanning +narrates: "But the latter [Jones],<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> perhaps not thinking it prudent to +expose himself with a single combatant, who was a complete master of the +smallsword, declined." In the second edition of his memoir Fanning said +that Jones accepted Landais's challenge, but insisted on substituting +pistols, with which he was an expert, for swords, a proposition which Landais refused.</p> + +<p>Although again on the sea and free from the irritations of the Texel, +Jones, when he had eluded the British fleet, found plenty of other +things to annoy him. He had fortunately transferred many of his +trustworthy men from the Serapis to the Alliance, but there were enough +of the latter ship's old officers and men to divide the crew into two +hostile camps. The discontent at the delay over payment of wages and +prize money had deepened. Although the crew was large, fierce in temper, +and at first very anxious to look for further prizes, they yet, after +the cruise had continued for some time without success, refused to +continue unless they were paid. Jones, in order to induce them to embark +from Corunna, Spain, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> the Alliance had put in for repairs and +provisions, promised that he would sail immediately for L'Orient, where +they should receive their prize money. As soon as he was again at sea, +however, Jones informed his officers that he intended to make a further +cruise of twenty days. Fanning, one of the officers, quotes Jones:—</p> + +<p>"'And,' says he, with a kind of contemptuous smile, which he was much +addicted to, 'Gentlemen, you cannot conceive what an additional honor it +would be to all of us, if in cruising a few days we should have the good +luck to fall in with an English frigate of our force and carry her in +with us.... This would crown our former victories, and our names, in +consequence thereof, would be handed down to latest posterity by some +faithful historian of our country.'" Fanning adds in a footnote: "Jones +had a wonderful notion of his name being handed down to posterity."</p> + +<p>When the officers remonstrated on the ground that the men were badly +clothed, Jones flew into a rage and ordered them to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> go to their duty. +He found, however, that he could not, with a mutinous crew, continue his +course effectively, and reluctantly sailed for L'Orient, where he +arrived on February 10, 1780.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + +<h3>SOCIETY IN PARIS</h3> + +<p>The following year, passed mainly in France, at Paris or L'Orient, was +spent by Jones in trying to collect prize money, secure an important +command, and in society, where he shone more resplendently than ever. He +wrote rather more than his usual large number of letters,—to Franklin, +Robert Morris, the Duchesse de Chartres, Arthur Lee, Dr. Bancroft, and +many others,—in practically all of them urging some one of his warmly +desired projects.</p> + +<p>His correspondence with Benjamin Franklin was largely about prize money +and the expense of repairing the Alliance, which he undertook to do +immediately on his arrival at L'Orient. The frugal doctor attempted to +curb, in the matter of expense, the free-handed Jones. The latter had an +enormous respect for Franklin, and it is quite likely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> that he attempted +to be economical, but he seems to have been less successful in that +direction than in any other. Fanning speaks of the "great and +unnecessary expense" involved in Jones's elaborate alterations, and +narrates how, at a later period, when Jones was in command of the Ariel, +anchored in the harbor at L'Orient, a magnificent spectacle was given on +board for the entertainment of the ladies and gentlemen invited by +Jones. A mock fight between the Bonhomme Richard and the Serapis, in +which vast quantities of ammunition were destroyed, took place. The +vessel was finely carpeted and decorated, a regal banquet was served, +military music played, and in general "neither cash nor pains," says +Fanning, "were spared in order that the scene every way should appear +magnificent." Although the hero never seemed to take account of the +extreme poverty of the infant republic, it is only fair to add that he +spent his own money as freely as any one else's, and that he often +served without pay, a fact continually attested to by himself in his +letters and journals.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p><p>Jones's lack of success, in spite of his energetic attempts in +collecting at this time the prize money, about which there were many +annoying technicalities, increased the discontent of his crew, and +prepared the way for the seizure of the Alliance by the mad Landais. +Arthur Lee, formerly one of the American commissioners in Europe, had +always been hostile to Jones and unsympathetic with Dr. Franklin and +with the revolutionary party generally; to such a degree, indeed, that +he was accused, not unjustly, of treachery to the cause of American +independence. At the time that the Alliance was at L'Orient, Lee was +waiting an opportunity to return to America. Captain Landais, who had +been deprived of the command of the Alliance by order of Benjamin +Franklin, then the sole representative of the United States in France, +and who had likewise been ordered by the doctor to report to the Marine +Committee on the charge of infamous conduct, planned to take the +Alliance from Jones, and was supported in the attempt by Lee, who +contended that neither Franklin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> nor Jones could deprive Landais of a +command given him by Congress. Lee's desire to take the ship from Jones +was augmented by the latter's refusal to make room for the +ex-commissioner's many effects, including two fine coaches,—space which +was much needed for the accommodation of supplies for Washington's army.</p> + +<p>Lee and Landais consequently encouraged the discontent among the crew of +the Alliance, and one day, June 13, when Jones was on shore at L'Orient, +Landais went on board the ship, and, supported by his old officers and +by Lee, took possession. When Jones heard of it he was very angry, and +acted, according to Fanning, "more like a madman than a conqueror;" but, +as usual, his anger was quickly controlled and the definite steps he +took in the affair were marked by great moderation. The commandant of +the defenses at L'Orient had received orders from the French government +to fire on the Alliance, if Landais should attempt to take her out of +the harbor; and it seems he would have obeyed and probably sunk the +ship, had not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> Jones himself interfered, and induced him to stay his +hand. In a letter to Franklin, Jones said:—</p> + +<p>"Your humanity will, I know, justify the part I acted in preventing a +scene that would have made me miserable the rest of my life."</p> + +<p>Jones was probably not over sorry to lose the Alliance. There was +nothing very thrilling in the prospect of carrying supplies to America, +and Jones at that time hoped fervently to get hold of the Serapis and +other ships and make another warlike cruise against the coast of +England. So Landais sailed away with the Alliance, but to his own ruin, +as the clear-sighted Jones had predicted in a remarkable letter written +a short time before the ship sailed to a mutinous officer on the +Alliance. On the voyage Landais's eccentricity caused his friend Lee to +put him under arrest, and on the arrival in America, a court of inquiry +found him unfit for command, and he never again burdened the service.</p> + +<p>Jones was left at L'Orient with the little Ariel, armed with eighteen +twelve-pounders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> and four six-pounders, a ship loaned by the king to Dr. +Franklin, and with high hopes, as usual, of more glorious opportunities. +But many months intervened before he sailed again,—a time he devoted to +business and society. As Jones and his interesting midshipman Fanning +separated at the end of this period, the latter's final impressions of +his captain may here be given:—</p> + +<p>"Captain Jones was a man of about five feet six inches high, well shaped +below his head and shoulders, rather round shouldered, with a visage +fierce and warlike, and wore the appearance of great application to +study, which he was fond of. He was an excellent seaman and knew naval +tactics as well as almost any man of his age; but it must be allowed +that his character was somewhat tinctured with bad qualities ... his +courage and bravery as a naval commander cannot be doubted. His +smoothness of tongue and flattery to seamen when he wanted them was +persuasive, and in which he excelled any other man I was ever acquainted +with.... His pride and vanity while at Paris and Amsterdam was not +generally approved of."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p><p>Fanning has many anecdotes to relate in regard to Jones's affairs of +gallantry of an humble character. Several of Jones's biographers have +dwelt upon the gorgeous and aristocratic nature of the hero's amours. +Fanning has the solitary distinction of narrating the other side. Jones, +indeed, was a good deal of a snob, but he was broadly appreciative of +the fair sex. He probably was never deeply in love with anybody, +certainly not with any woman of humble character. Of such his +appreciation was of a simple and earthly kind.</p> + +<p>Although Jones seems to have had no intimate friends, with possibly one +exception, there certainly was about him a very strong charm, which made +him a favorite in good society. He had a flattering tongue, a ready wit, +and a gallant manner. Of Jones's attractions Benjamin Franklin once +wrote to a woman:—</p> + +<p>"I must confess to your Ladyship that when face to face with him neither +man nor, so far as I can learn, woman can for a moment resist the +strange magnetism of his presence,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> the indescribable charm of his +manner, a commingling of the most compliant deference with the most +perfect self-esteem that I have ever seen in a man; and, above all, the +sweetness of his voice and the purity of his language."</p> + +<p>Mr. Varnum of Rhode Island, who met Jones only in connection with public +business, said of him:—</p> + +<p>"I confess there was a magic about his way and manner that I have never +before seen. Whatever he said carried conviction with it."</p> + +<p>Even more sensible of Jones's charms than the men were the women, who +were universally dazzled by the brilliant hero. Miss Edes-Herbert, an +Englishwoman living in Paris, writes, among other flattering things about him:—</p> + +<p>"Since my last, the famous Paul Jones has dined here and also been +present at afternoon teas. If I am in love with him, for love I may die, +I am sure, because I have as many rivals as there are ladies."</p> + +<p>She records that Jones wrote verses for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> the ladies extempore, and gives +a sample, the sentiments of which are as characteristic of the +declamatory century as of the naïvely vain Jones:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class='stanza'><div>"Insulted Freedom bled,—I felt her cause,</div> +<div>And drew my sword to vindicate her laws,</div> +<div>From principle, and not from vain applause.</div> +<div>I've done my best; self-interest far apart,</div> +<div>And self-reproach a stranger to my heart;</div> +<div>My zeal still prompts, ambitious to pursue</div> +<div>The foe, ye fair, of liberty and you:</div> +<div>Grateful for praise, spontaneous and unbought,</div> +<div>A generous people's love not meanly sought;</div> +<div>To merit this, and bend the knee to beauty,</div> +<div>Shall be my earliest and latest duty."</div></div> +</div> + +<p>Many of Jones's flowery letters to distinguished women are preserved. On +one occasion he wrote to a certain countess, informing her that he was +composing a secret cipher for a key to their correspondence, and added: +"I beseech you to accept the within lock (of hair). I am sorry that it +is now eighteen inches shorter than it was three months ago."</p> + +<p>The only case in which Jones's affections seem to have reached beyond +good nature, common kindness, or gallantry, to the point of love, was +that of Aimée de Thelison. She was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> the natural daughter of Louis XV., +and this fact no doubt greatly heightened her interest in the eyes of +the aristocratic Jones. She was a person of beauty and charm, and felt +deep love for Jones. His love for her was of a cool character, which did +not interfere with any of the enterprises taking him so frequently away +from Paris. His letters to her are with one exception hardly love +letters. The warmest words in that exception are:—</p> + +<p>"The last French packet brought no letter to me from the person whose +happiness is dearer to me than anything else.... Your silence makes even honors insipid."</p> + +<p>It was while Jones was waiting thus gayly to sail for America, that the +king of France bestowed upon him, in recognition of his services to the +common cause, the Royal Order of Military Merit and a gold-mounted sword +of honor, and made him Chevalier of France. It was, as Jones himself +frequently wrote, a singular honor, he being the first alien to be made +a French chevalier; and Jones prized this favor from a king more than he +would the gift of a million dollars. The gold sword<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> also pleased him +deeply, and he asked the countess to whom he had sent the lock of hair +to keep it for him, lest he lose it. He wrote of this gift:—</p> + +<p>"His Majesty ordered a superb sword to be made for me, which I have +since received, and it is called much more elegant than that presented +to the Marquis de la Fayette."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + +<h3>PRIVATE AMBITION AND PUBLIC BUSINESS</h3> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin, knowing the value of the supplies to Washington's +army, had implored Jones to embark several months before the little +Ariel actually set sail, October 8, 1780. But Jones, hoping for an +important command in Europe, and delayed by business in connection with +fitting out his ship, and perhaps by the gayeties he was engaged in at +Paris, did not show much concern over General Washington's distress. +When he finally did sail, he encountered a terrible storm, and it was +only the best of seamanship which enabled him to avoid shipwreck. As it +was, he was compelled to put back for repairs to L'Orient, where, in a +series of letters, he manœuvred in vain for the loan of the fine ship Terpsichore.</p> + +<p>It was not until December 18 that the Ariel got under way again for +America.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> The voyage was uneventful, with the exception of a night +battle with a British privateer sloop of inferior force. Jones cleverly +concealed his greater strength, and thus lured the Englishman to engage. +After a ten-minute fight, the Triumph struck its colors, but, when the +Ariel ceased firing, sailed away and escaped, to Jones's exceeding mortification.</p> + +<p>"The English captain," he wrote in his journal, "may properly be called +a knave, because after he surrendered his ship, begged for and obtained +quarter, he basely ran away, contrary to the laws of naval war and the +practice of civilized nations."</p> + +<p>Paul Jones, when he arrived in Philadelphia, the 18th of February, 1781, +was thirty-three years old and had actively served in the United States +navy for five years and five months. He never fought another battle +under the United States flag; indeed, with the exception of his +distressing experiences in Russia, he never fought again under any flag. +But to his dying day he did not cease to plan great naval deeds and to +hope for greater<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> opportunity to harass the enemy—any enemy. In view of +his great ambition and ability, circumstances allowed him to accomplish +little. He had only one opportunity, and the way he responded made him +famous; but though it brought him honor it did not satisfy him, and the +rest of his life was a series of disappointments. His bitterness grew +apace, and before he died he was a genuinely pathetic figure.</p> + +<p>Soon after Jones's arrival at Philadelphia, the Board of Admiralty +required him to give "all the information in his power relative to the +detention of the clothing and arms in France intended for Washington's +army;" and a series of forty-seven questions, on the subject not only of +the delay but also on matters connected generally with his cruises, were +submitted to him. He attributed, with probable justice, the instigation +of this investigation to his enemy Arthur Lee, whom he desired in +consequence to challenge to a duel. He was dissuaded, however, from this +step, as well as from the publication of a paper he had written called +"Arthur Lee in France,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> in which he made a circumstantial charge +against Lee of "treason, perfidy, and the office of a spy," by some of +his distinguished friends, including Morris and Livingston.</p> + +<p>Without either the duel or the publication of the paper, Jones was, +however, completely vindicated. He answered the questions with clearness +and skill, to the complete satisfaction of the board, which recommended +that Congress confer on the hero some distinguished mark of approbation. +A committee was appointed to question Jones personally, and the +impression he made upon it is another proof of the remarkable suavity, +plausibility and magnetism of the man. One of the examining committeemen wrote:—</p> + +<p>"From his beginning no one thought of disputing him. Toward the end we +seldom ventured to ask him any questions. He made himself master of the +situation throughout. At the end the committee felt honored by having +had the privilege of listening to him."</p> + +<p>On the committee's recommendation Congress, which had already on Jones's +arrival resolved "that Congress entertain a high<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> sense of the +distinguished bravery and military conduct of John Paul Jones, Esq., +captain in the navy of the United States, and particularly in his +victory over the British frigate Serapis," gave Jones a further vote of +thanks, "for the zeal, prudence, and intrepidity with which he has +supported the honor of the American flag; for his bold and successful +enterprises to redeem from captivity the citizens of these States who +had fallen under the power of the enemy, and in general for the good +conduct and eminent services by which he has added lustre to his +character and to the American arms."</p> + +<p>Soon after, the intrepid man to whom were given so many testimonials and +so few satisfactory commands received an appreciative letter from +General Washington, who, after stating his satisfaction with Jones's +explanation of the delay of the supplies, said:—</p> + +<p>"Whether our naval affairs have in general been well or ill conducted +would be presumptuous in me to determine. Instances of bravery and good +conduct in several of our officers have not, however, been wanting.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +Delicacy forbids me to mention that particular instance which has +attracted the admiration of all the world and which has influenced the +most illustrious monarch to confer a mark of his favor which can only be +obtained by a long and honorable service or by the performance of some brilliant action."</p> + +<p>It now seemed to Jones a favorable opportunity to improve his rank, and +on May 28 he sent a memorial to Congress reiterating his claims to stand +above the captains who had been unjustly put ahead of him. He failed, +probably on account of the political influence wielded by the captains; +but in the way of compensation he was appointed commander of the new +vessel then building at Portsmouth, a seventy-four, called the America, +the only ship of the line owned by the States,—a "singular honor," as +he expressed it. John Adams, who had at one time been unfriendly to +Jones, looking upon him as "a smooth, plausible, and rather capable +adventurer," wrote him, <i>à propos</i> of this appointment:—</p> + +<p>"The command of the America could not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> have been more judiciously +bestowed, and it is with impatience that I wish her at sea, where she +will do honor to her name."</p> + +<p>Jones had hoped to join Washington's army, then campaigning against +Cornwallis, as a volunteer, but he cheerfully gave up this exciting +prospect in order to prepare the America for sea,—"the most lingering +and disagreeable task," he wrote, "he had been charged with during the +whole of the war." He did his job with his usual efficiency, however, +and with his usual extravagance, which he called simplicity. He wrote in +his journal: "The plan which Captain Jones projected for the sculpture +expressed dignity and simplicity. The head was a female figure crowned +with laurels. The right arm was raised, with the forefinger pointing to +heaven.... On the left arm was a buckler, with a blue ground and +thirteen silver stars. The legs and feet were covered here and there +with wreaths of smoke, to represent the dangers and difficulties of war. +On the stern, under the windows of the great cabin, appeared two large +figures in bas-relief, representing Tyranny and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>Oppression, bound and +biting the ground, with the cap of Liberty on a pole above their heads. +On the back part of the starboard quarter was a large Neptune; and on +the back part of the larboard quarter gallery, a large Mars."</p> + +<p>As a reward for all this industry and æsthetic effort Jones had another +disappointment; for in August, 1782, the French seventy-four gunship, +the Magnifique, was wrecked at the entrance to Boston harbor, and +Congress gave the America to the king of France.</p> + +<p>With undaunted energy Jones now attempted to get hold of the South +Carolina, originally called the Indien, which he had formerly, when he +crossed the ocean in the Ranger, failed to secure. She was now, under +the new name, in the service of the States, and Robert Morris tried to +turn her over to Jones, that he might again "harass the enemy." But the +plan failed, and Jones remained without a command. Unable to rest, +although his health had for some time been failing, he now requested and +obtained consent "to embark as a volunteer in pursuit of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> military +marine knowledge with the Marquis de Vaudreuil, in order to enable him +the better to serve his country when America should increase her navy." +He went off, accordingly, on the cruise with the French fleet; but the +expedition, during the course of which peace was declared, was +uneventful, and Jones, who had had an attack of fever, spent the summer +of 1783 quietly in the town of Bethlehem. In the following November, +however, he renewed his activity, and on his application was appointed +by Congress agent to collect all moneys due from the sale of the prizes +taken in European waters by vessels under his command.</p> + +<p>Although money was subordinate, in Jones's mind, to glory and the +opportunity for action, he was an excellent business man. His commercial +transactions had been successful enough to enable him to pay with his +own resources the crews of the Alfred and Providence, so that when he +set sail in the Ranger he had advanced £1500 to the United States. After +the close of the war, at a period of comparative inactivity, he began a +profitable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> trade in illuminating oils, and in his character as prize +money agent he continued to show his business dexterity. He began a long +campaign of a year of most pertinacious and vigorous dunning for money +due the United States, himself, and the officers and sailors under his +command. He wrote innumerable letters to Franklin, to de Castries, the +new Minister of Marine, to de Vergennes, Minister of Foreign Affairs; to +many others, and prepared for the king a careful account of his cruises, +in order to show that prize money was due. In arguing for all that he +could get he showed great acuteness, legal sense, and, beyond +everything, invincible determination. He also again demonstrated his +happy talent for abuse of those who stood in his way. He finally secured +the allowance of his claims; and the settlements, which began in +January, 1784, were completed, as far as France was concerned, in July, +1785. He was paid 181,000 livres, which he turned over, less deductions +for expenses and his own share of the prize money, to Thomas Jefferson, +then minister to France, who approved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> the account. Jones charged for +his ordinary expenses, however, the sum of 48,000 livres and his share +of prize money was 13,000 livres, a total of 61,000 livres, a generous +allowance. One of the free-handed man's biographers, A. S. MacKenzie, +pointed out that Jones "charged his shipmates for his expenses, during +less than two years, more than General Washington did the people of the +United States throughout the Revolutionary War."</p> + +<p>The next public business of Jones was to attempt to collect indemnity +from the Danish government for the delivery to England of the prizes +sent by the mad Landais, during Jones's most famous cruise, to Bergen, +Denmark. He delayed his trip to Copenhagen, however, for a number of +reasons. At this time he was carrying on several private business +enterprises of importance, was occupied with society in London and +Paris, and was eagerly desirous of being sent by the French government +against the Dey of Algiers, who held in bondage many Christians. At +various times during his career Jones showed a keen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> sense of the wrongs +inflicted on Americans by the Barbary pirates in search of tribute, and +in his letters to Jefferson and others he often suggested plans for +their extermination. For de Vergennes and de Castries he prepared a +memorandum urging the necessity of a movement against the pirates, and +ably pointing out the good that would accrue therefrom to the world, and +particularly to France, to which nation he attributed future dominion in +North Africa, provided action was taken in time to forestall Great Britain.</p> + +<p>"The knowledge of the race persuades me," he wrote, "that England will +soon invade the Mediterranean—doubtless as soon as she recovers from +the exhaustion of the late war."</p> + +<p>The United States, however, were after the war lacking so completely in +resources that a war with the pirates was impossible, and France was on +the brink of her great Revolution, and had more important things to +consider. So Jones died before the expedition for which he had so +ardently hoped, and which brought so much honor, as he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> predicted, +to the man who commanded it—Commodore Dale, once Jones's first +lieutenant on the Bonhomme Richard—was dispatched.</p> + +<p>Jones finally set off for Copenhagen to collect the indemnity from the +Danish government; but hearing of a crisis in an important business +matter in which he was interested, he made, before arriving at his +destination, a flying trip to America. While there, he was awarded a +gold medal by Congress, and said in his journal that such a medal had +been given to only six officers.</p> + +<p>"To General Washington, for the capture of Boston; General Gates, for +the capture of Burgoyne's army; General Wayne, for the taking of Rocky +Point;... General Morgan, for having defeated and destroyed a +detachment of 1100 officers and soldiers of the best troops of England, +with 900 militia merely; General Greene, for having scored a decisive +victory on the enemy at Euta Spring.... But all these medals, although +well merited, were given in moments of enthusiasm. I had the unique +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>satisfaction of receiving the same honor, by the unanimous voice of the +United States assembled in Congress, the sixteenth October, 1787, in +memory of the services which I rendered eight years earlier."</p> + +<p>It was not until January, 1788, that Paul Jones arrived at Copenhagen, +where, during his short stay, he was magnificently entertained by the +court. The negotiations for the indemnity, which he began almost +immediately, were abruptly terminated by the transfer of the matter for +settlement to Paris. Jones, on the day he agreed to suspend the +negotiations, received from the Danish government a patent for a pension +of 1500 crowns a year, "for the respect he had shown the Danish flag +while he commanded in the European seas." Jones kept this transaction, +for which he possibly felt ashamed, to himself, until several years +afterwards, when, writing to Jefferson, he said: "I have felt myself in +an embarrassing situation, with regard to the king's patent, and I have +not yet made use of it, though three years have elapsed since I received it."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p><p>On Jones's return to Paris from America, previous to his Copenhagen +trip, the Russian ambassador to France, Baron Simolin, had made, through +Mr. Jefferson, a proposition looking to the appointment of the conqueror +of the Serapis to a position in the navy of Russia, then about to war +with the Turks. Simolin wrote Catherine II. of Russia that, "with the +chief command of the fleet and <i>carte blanche</i> he would undertake that +in a year Paul Jones would make Constantinople tremble." This exciting +possibility was no doubt constantly in Jones's mind while he was at +Copenhagen, and probably increased his willingness to dismiss the +indemnity negotiations. He began immediately to manœuvre for the +highest command possible. He demurred to the rank of captain-commandant, +equal to that of major-general in the army, and maintained that nothing +less than rear-admiral was fitting. He laid the account of all his deeds +and honors before the dazzled Russian minister at Copenhagen, and said: +"The unbounded admiration and profound respect which I have long felt +for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> glorious character of her Imperial Majesty, forbids the idea +that a sovereign so magnanimous should sanction any arrangement that may +give pain at the outset to the man she deigns to honor with her notice, +and who wishes to devote himself entirely to her service." In order to +be in a better position for extorting honors from the empress, Jones +wrote Jefferson suggesting that Congress bestow upon him the rank of +rear-admiral; and took occasion to assert, on the eve of taking service +under a despot, the undying character of his love for America.</p> + +<p>"I am not forsaking," he wrote, "the country that has had so many +distinguished and difficult proofs of my affection; and can never +renounce the glorious title of <i>a citizen of the United States</i>" +[Italics are Jones's].</p> + +<p>Jones left Copenhagen on his ill-fated Russian mission, April 11, and +made a flying and perilous trip to St. Petersburg. He crossed the +ice-blocked Baltic in a small boat, compelled, at the muzzle of his +pistols, the unwilling boatmen to proceed, and on his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>arrival at his +destination, on April 23, was presented to the empress, who conferred +upon him the coveted rank of rear-admiral, to the intense irritation of +many of the English officers in the service of Russia, who looked upon +Jones as a red-handed pirate. In June Catherine wrote to her favorite at +the time: "I am sorry that all the officers are raging about Paul Jones. +I hope fervently that they will cease their mad complaints, for he is +necessary to us." In 1792, long after the war in which Jones had played +a part, Catherine said, with a different accent: "Ce Paul Jones était +une bien mauvaise tête." Certainly Jones's diplomacy, which was of a +direct character, was not equal to his present situation, unfamiliar to +him, and for success demanding conduct tortuous and insincere to an +Oriental degree. Jones, in comparison with his associates in Russia, was +remarkably truthful,—a trait which involved him in humiliating +difficulties, and which was a source of irritation to the empress and to all concerned.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + +<h3>IN THE RUSSIAN SERVICE</h3> + +<p>Paul Jones left St. Petersburg on May 7, to take command of the Russian +squadron in the Black Sea. Before his departure he requested of the +empress "never to be condemned unheard." This, one of the most modest +demands Jones ever made, was, as the sequel will show, denied him. He +arrived on the 19th at St. Elizabeth, the headquarters of Prince +Potemkin, the former favorite of the empress and the commander in chief +of the war against the Turks. Potemkin, under whose orders Jones stood, +was of a thoroughly despotic type. As Potemkin was a prince, Jones was +at first disposed to flatter him extravagantly, but the commodore was by +nature averse to being dictated to, particularly by those whom he deemed +his inferiors, and it was not long before they began to quarrel.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p><p>Paul Jones was put in command of the squadron which was to oppose the +fleet of the Capitan Pacha, and thus help the Russian army to take +Oczakow, a town lying at the junction of the Bog with the Knieper, which +had been strongly fortified by the Turks. Unfortunately, Jones was not +only subject to the orders of Prince Potemkin, but the immediate command +of the fleet was divided between him and a thoroughly incompetent and +arrogant adventurer, the Prince of Nassau. Jones commanded the heavier +ships, forming the squadron, while Nassau was in charge of a +considerable force of Russian gunboats and barges, composing what was +called the flotilla. Between Jones and Nassau existed extreme jealousy. +In fact, the only officer in high position with whom Jones stood on an +amicable footing was the distinguished General Suwarrow. Early in the +campaign the Russian had advised Jones to allow Potemkin to take the +credit of any success that might result, and to hold his tongue,—two +things which Jones, unfortunately, was quite incapable of doing.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p><p>It is impossible to enter into the details of this campaign, but enough +may be given to explain the difficulties which Jones encountered. After +some unimportant engagements between the two fleets, an action of +importance occurred which disclosed the deep differences between Jones +and his Russian allies. The Capitan Pacha attempted to attack the +Russian fleet, but one of his ships ran aground, and the others +anchored. Jones saw his opportunity and ordered a general attack on the +confused Turkish fleet, which cut anchor and fled, with Jones in +pursuit. The Wolodimer, Jones's flagship, steered straight for the +Capitan Pacha's ship, which ran aground; whereupon one of Jones's +officers, without orders, dropped the Wolodimer's anchor. In the mean +time the flotilla, under Nassau, lagged behind, and Jones, in order to +offset the operations of the Turkish flotilla, which had already +destroyed one of the Russian frigates, left his anchored flagship to go +in search of Nassau, whom he found with his flotilla occupied in firing +on two Turkish ships which were aground and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> were, moreover, under the +guns of the Russian ships, and might justly be regarded as prizes. +Nassau persisted in this useless undertaking until the enemy's vessels +had been burned and the crews had perished in the flames. When Jones +found he was unable to withdraw the prince from this bloody and +unprofitable proceeding, he ordered an attack, with a part of Nassau's +ships, upon the Turkish flotilla, which was soon driven off.</p> + +<p>During the night the Capitan Pacha attempted to pass out from the Liman, +with the remains of his squadron; but nine of his ships grounded, and, +being thus brought within range of the Russian fort on the extreme point +of Kinburn, were fired upon and were practically at the mercy of the +Russians. Nevertheless, the Prince of Nassau advanced in the morning +with his flotilla, and, to Jones's extreme rage, burned the grounded +Turkish ships, three thousand Turks who were practically prisoners +perishing in the flames.</p> + +<p>On July 1 Nassau, with his flotilla, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>advanced against the flotilla of +the Turks, but did not seem anxious to go within grapeshot; and Jones, +with his heavier ships, went to capture five Turkish galleys lying under +the cover of the guns of the Turkish battery and flotilla. Two of these +galleys were captured and the others destroyed. Nassau and Alexiano +directed their belligerent efforts against the captured galleys, one of +which was—with all the slaves on board,—ruthlessly burned. Other +Turkish ships were likewise needlessly destroyed, a mode of warfare +quite at variance with the traditions of Jones. He expressed his +consequent disgust in terms more genuine than diplomatic.</p> + +<p>As a reward of his idiotic actions, on the basis of an inflated and +dishonest report of the battle which was sent to the empress, Nassau +received a valuable estate, the military order of St. George, and +authority to hoist the flag of rear-admiral; other officers were also +substantially rewarded; while all that was given to Jones, whose honest +but unflattering report had been rejected by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> Potemkin, was the order of +St. Anne. It is easy to imagine Jones's bitterness. He says in his +journal: "If he (Nassau) has received the rank of vice-admiral, I will +say in the face of the universe that he is unworthy of it."</p> + +<p>Referring to the cowardice of his associates who, in order to escape, he +says, provided their boats with small <i>chaloupes</i>, Jones writes:—</p> + +<p>"For myself I took no precautions. I saw that I must conquer or die."</p> + +<p>Jones's bitterness, partly justified by the facts, seems at this time to +have reached almost the point of madness, and the quarrel between him +and his associates increased in virulence. In the course of the +unimportant operations following the defeat of the Turks, during which +the squadron maintained a strict blockade of Oczakow, Jones was sent on +a number of trivial enterprises by Potemkin, whose language was +carefully chosen to irritate the fiery Scotchman. On one occasion he +commanded Jones "to receive him (the Capitan Pacha) courageously, and +drive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> him back. I require that this be done without loss of time; if +not, you will be made answerable for every neglect." In reply, Jones +complained of the injustice done his officers. Shortly afterwards Jones +doubted the wisdom of one of Potemkin's orders, and wrote: "Every man is +master of his opinion, and this is mine." When Potemkin again wrote +Jones "to defend himself courageously," the latter's annotation was: "It +will be hard to believe that Prince Potemkin addressed such words to +Paul Jones." To the prince he wrote in terms alternately flattering and complaining:—</p> + +<p>"Your Highness has so good a heart that you will excuse the hastiness of +expression which escaped me. I am anxious to continue in the service."</p> + +<p>But the despotic Potemkin had made up his mind that he could not get +along with Paul Jones, and with an indirectness characteristic of him, +secured an order for the latter for service "in the northern seas." This +was practically a dismissal for Jones, who returned in virtual disgrace +to St. Petersburg, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> he hoped to be put in command of the Baltic +fleet. Catherine, however, was now sincerely anxious to get rid of +Jones, but on account of his powerful friends in France did not dare to +do so openly. She had "condemned him unheard," and repeated her +injustice in a still more pointed way; for in March, 1789, while Jones +was waiting for the command which never came, he was falsely accused of +an atrocious crime and forbidden to approach the palace of the empress, +being again "condemned unheard." Had it not been for the French +ambassador, de Ségur, who had a strong influence on Catherine, the crime +might always have been attributed to Paul Jones. De Ségur, however, +proved to Catherine that Jones was the victim of a plot, and she was +forced to recall the unfortunate man to court. Soon afterwards Jones, +who had for a long time been greatly suffering in health, was given two +years' leave of absence.</p> + +<p>Paul Jones's experience in Russia was the most unfortunate part of an +unfortunate career. His services to that country, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> were +considerable, were never recognized. His report of the Liman campaign +had been rejected, and he had been unjustly deposed from the actual +command and an empty promise substituted. His letters had been +systematically intercepted, and he was a victim, not only of a +detestable plot involving his moral character, but of many other charges +equally virulent and untrue.</p> + +<p>It was grotesquely reported, for instance, that he had murdered his +nephew, who in reality did not exist. The leave of absence, moreover, +must have been to a man of his spirit a severe blow.</p> + +<p>At the close of the journal of the Liman campaign Jones's bitterness is +pathetically expressed in inflated self-praise, called out by the desire +to confute the calumnies of his enemies. "Every one to whom I have the +honor to be known," he wrote, "is aware that I am the least selfish of +mankind.... This is known to the whole American people.... Have I not +given proofs sufficiently striking that I have a heart the most +sensitive, a soul the most elevated?... I am<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> the only man in the world +that possesses a sword given by the king of France ... but what +completes my happiness is the esteem and friendship of the most virtuous +of men, whose fame will be immortal; and that a Washington, a Franklin, +a D'Estaing, a La Fayette, think the bust of Paul Jones worthy of being +placed side by side with their own.... Briefly, I am satisfied with myself."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> + +<h3>LAST DAYS</h3> + +<p>On August 18, 1789, Paul Jones left St. Petersburg, never to return, and +never again to fight a battle. He was only forty-two years old, but +although his ambition was as intense as ever, his health had through +unremitting exertions and exposure become undermined. For many years the +active man had not known what it was to sleep four hours at a time, and +now his left lung was badly affected, and he had only a few years more +to live. After an extended tour, devoted mainly to business and +society,—during the course of which he met Kosciusko at Warsaw, +visited, among other cities, Vienna, Munich, Strassburg, and +London,—Jones reached Paris, where Aimée de Thelison and his true home +were, on May 30, 1790. He resigned from his position in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> Russian +navy, and remained most of the time until his death in the French capital.</p> + +<p>The great French Revolution had taken place; and Paul Jones occupied the +position, unusual for him, of a passive spectator of great events. +Acquainted with men of all parties, with Bertrand Barère, Carnot, +Robespierre, and Danton, as well as with the more conservative men with +whom his own past had led him to sympathize,—Lafayette, Mirabeau, and +Malesherbes,—Jones's last days were not lacking in picturesque +opportunity for observation. He felt great sympathy for the king, with +whom he had been acquainted, and who had bestowed upon him the title of +chevalier and the gold sword. For Mirabeau, as for other really great +men Jones knew,—Franklin, Washington, and Suwarrow,—he had extreme +admiration, and on the occasion of the famous Frenchman's death wrote: +"I have never seen or read of a man capable of such mastery over the +passions and the follies of such a mob. There is no one to take the +place of Mirabeau." Of the mob Jones wrote with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>aristocratic hatred: +"There have been many moments when my heart turned to stone towards +those who call themselves 'the people' in France. More than once have I +harbored the wish that I might be intrusted by Lafayette with the +command of the Palace, with <i>carte blanche</i> to defend the constitution; +and that I might have once more with me, if only for one day, my old +crews of the Ranger, the Richard, and the Alliance! I surely would have +made the thirty cannon of the courtyard teach to that mad rabble the +lesson that grapeshot has its uses in struggles for the rights of man!"</p> + +<p>Jones always had much to say on the organization of navies and the +principles of naval warfare. About this time he wrote a letter to +Admiral Kersaint, of the French navy, in which he criticised fearlessly +and trenchantly the naval tactics of the French. Their policy, he +explained, was to "neutralize the power of their adversaries, if +possible, by grand manœuvres rather than to destroy it by grand +attack;" and objecting to this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> policy, the dashing Jones, who always +desired to "get alongside the enemy," wrote: "Their (the French) +combinations have been superb; but as I look at them, they have not been +harmful enough; they have not been calculated to do as much capturing or +sinking of ships, and as much crippling or killing of seamen, as true +and lasting success in naval warfare seems to me to demand.... Should +France thus honor me [with a command] it must be with the unqualified +understanding that I am not to be restricted by the traditions of her +naval tactics; but with full consent that I may, on suitable occasion, +to be decreed by my judgment on the spot, try conclusions with her foes +to the bitter end or to death, at shorter range and at closer quarters +than have hitherto been sanctioned by her tactical authorities."</p> + +<p>Paul Jones, although in these last years he was forced, more than was +agreeable to him, to play the rôle of an intelligent commentator, +remained a man of action to the end. He sought, this time in vain, to +extract from the French government wages<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> still due the crew of the old +Bonhomme Richard. His failure brought out an unusually bitter letter, in +which he again recounted his services and the wrongs done him by the +various ministers of marine. As he grew older and more disappointed the +deeds he had done seemed mountain high to him. "My fortitude and +self-denial alone dragged Holland into the war, a service of the +greatest importance to this nation; for without that great event, no +calculation can ascertain when the war would have ended.... Would you +suppose that I was driven out of the Texel in a single frigate belonging +to the United States, in the face of forty-two English ships and vessels +posted to cut off my retreat?"</p> + +<p>With equal energy the failing commodore never ceased to hope and strive +for an important command. To head an expedition against the Barbary +pirates had long been with him a favorite scheme, and now he looked +forward eagerly to a position in the French navy.</p> + +<p>By the irony of fate a letter came from Mr. Jefferson announcing Jones's +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>appointment as commissioner for treating with the Dey and government of +Algiers. But it was too late, for before the letter arrived in Paris +Paul Jones was dead. On July 11, 1792, a week before he died, he had +attended a session of the French Assembly and had made a felicitous +speech. He expressed his love for America, for France, and for the cause +of liberty, and regretted his failing health as interfering with his +activity in their service. He closed with the pathetic words:—</p> + +<p>"But ill as I am, there is yet something left of the man—not the +admiral, not the chevalier—but the plain, simple man whom it delights +me to hear you call 'Paul Jones,' without any rank but that of +fellowship, and without any title but that of comrade. So now I say to +you that whatever is left of that man, be it never so faint or feeble, +will be laid, if necessary, upon the altar of French Liberty as +cheerfully as a child lies down to pleasant dreams! My friends, I would +love to pursue this theme, but, as you see, my voice is failing and my +lower limbs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> become swollen when I stand up too long. At any rate I have +said enough. I am now ready to act whenever and wheresoever bidden by +the voice of France."</p> + +<p>Jones's cough and the swelling in his legs continued; a few days later +jaundice and dropsy set in, and it was clear to his friends that the end +was near. Aimée de Thelison, Gouverneur Morris, and some of the +distinguished revolutionists were about him during the last few days of +his life. On the afternoon of July 18, 1792, his will was witnessed, and +about seven o'clock in the evening he was found in his room, lying with +his clothes on, face down across the middle of the bed, dead.</p> + +<p>The next day the National Assembly passed a resolution decreeing "that +twelve of its members shall assist at the funeral of a man who has so +well served the cause of liberty."</p> + +<p>True or not, the words attributed to Napoleon after Trafalgar, in 1805, +are no more than justice to Paul Jones.</p> + +<p>"How old," Napoleon asked, "was Paul Jones when he died?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p><p>On being told that Jones was forty-five years old at the time of his +death, Napoleon said:—</p> + +<p>"Then he did not fulfill his destiny. Had he lived to this time, France +might have had an admiral."</p> + +<p>Paul Jones has been called by his friends patriot, and by his enemies +pirate. In reality he was neither. He was not one of those deeply +ethical natures that subordinate personal glory and success to the +common good. As an American he cannot be ranked with his great +contemporaries, for his patriotism consisted merely in being fair and +devoted to the side he had for the time espoused rather than in quiet +work as a citizen after the spectacular opportunity had passed. He was +ready to serve wherever he saw the best chance for himself, whether it +was with the United States, Russia, or France. In no unworthy sense of +the word, however, was he an adventurer. The deepest thing in his soul, +the love of glory, rendered him incapable at once of meanness and of +true patriotism. In search for fame he gave up family,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> friends, and +religion. In these relations of life he would have been and was, as far +as he went, tolerant and kind; but in them he was not interested. Love +of glory made him a lonely figure. It rendered him a <i>poseur</i>, vain and +snobbish, but it also spurred him on to contend, with phenomenal energy, +against almost innumerable difficulties.</p> + +<p>As far as his deeds are concerned, Paul Jones appears in the popular +consciousness as he really was,—a bolt of effectiveness, a desperate, +successful fighter, a sea captain whose habit was to appear unexpectedly +to confound his enemies, and then to disappear, no one knew where, only +to reappear with telling effect. He has been the hero of the novelists, +who, expressing the popular idea, have pictured him with essential +truth. A popular hero, indeed, he was, and will remain so, justly, in the memory of men.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4>The Riverside Press<br /> +<i>Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.</i><br /> +<i>Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.</i></h4> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Paul Jones, by Hutchins Hapgood + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAUL JONES *** + +***** This file should be named 28633-h.htm or 28633-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/3/28633/ + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/28633-h/images/i002.jpg b/28633-h/images/i002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e34308 --- /dev/null +++ b/28633-h/images/i002.jpg diff --git a/28633-h/images/i006.jpg b/28633-h/images/i006.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf87089 --- /dev/null +++ b/28633-h/images/i006.jpg diff --git a/28633-h/images/i007.jpg b/28633-h/images/i007.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa82c05 --- /dev/null +++ b/28633-h/images/i007.jpg |
