JOHN PAUL JONES.

JOHN PAUL JONES, more familiarly known as Paul Jones, a Scotchman by birth, was born on the 6th of July, 1747, at a little place called Kirkbean. His father was a gardener, and Paul followed the same calling for a few early years of his life. It may be well in this place to mention that his proper name was simply John Paul. Events which will be narrated hereafter caused him to assume the name of Jones, by which he is so widely known. Being of an adventurous and sanguine disposition, he was not long content with the humble sphere in which Nature had cast him. The sea was his escape. At the age of twelve he crossed the Frith to Whitehaven, and entered into articles of apprenticeship with Mr. Younger, a merchant in the American trade. Soon after, he made his first voyage in the Friendship, of Whitehaven, bound to the Rappahannock. He was a very studious and valuable apprentice, and the excellent qualities he manifested recommended him strongly to the house by whom he was engaged. All his spare time was devoted to the study of the profession he had selected, and the general cultivation of his mind. Before the

term of apprenticeship had expired, the house failed, and in a very 'generous way surrendered his indentures, instead of assigning or transferring them to some one else. Paul, thrown on his own resources, looked around for employment, and in a little while succeeded in getting an appointment as third mate of a vessel bound on a slaving voyage. In this service he subsequently rose to the rank of chief mate; but, feeling disgust for the cruelties which it is feared are inevitable in the traffic, he relinquished it. In 1768, when returning from Jamaica to Scotland as a passenger, the master and mate of the brig were seized with sickness, and died of fever. In this extremity Paul assumed the command, and under his charge the vessel arrived safely in port. In return for this, the owners placed him on board the same vessel as master and supercargo for the next voyage to the West Indies. The voyage was successfully prosecuted, and the brig John (that was her name) started on a second voyage to the same regions. On the passage a difficulty arose between Paul and the carpenter of the ship, Mungo Maxwell by name, which resulted in the latter being tied up and flogged in the usual brutal style of the navy. The punishment was undoubtedly called for, but it was an unfortunate necessity. Maxwell left the ship, and soon after was seized with a fever, of which he died. There is no doubt now that the man owed his death entirely to the action of malignant disease, but at the time it was broadly asserted that the flogging had caused it, and in Scotland especially this cruel rumor was believed to the prejudice of Paul. The owners of the brig, however, gave him an honorable discharge when they dissolved partnership; but, in spite of this, it is probable that he experienced difficulty in getting a new ship.

In 1773 he went to Virginia, to arrange the affairs of a brother who had died there intestate and without children. He became possessed of the estate of this brother, and at once entered on the career of an agriculturist; but, from incumbrances on the farm or other causes, he found it extremely difficult to gain a living, and when the war of the Revolution broke out, was, according to his own account, in great penury. Although he had only resided in the country for two years, he espoused its cause from the first, and tendered his services to the government. On the 22d of December, 1775, he received a commission as lieutenant in the navy, and in this document his name first occurs as John Paul Jones.

Why he added the last name to his patronymic we can only surmise; he gives no reason himself. It is probable that he wished to efface some of the events of his early life for which he had become notorious, such, for instance, as the death of the carpenter, and a brief career on the Scottish coast as a smuggler. He might have felt that it was necessary for the preservation of discipline in any position he might acquire that these circumstances should be forgotten.

At the end of the first voyage Paul Jones was promoted to the command of the Alfred, but was afterward superseded on the 14th of January, 1777-probably on account of his being a foreigner. The Marine Committee, however, expressed regret that they had not a good ship vacant for him, and Congress expressed its satisfaction with his first cruise (in which he took several prizes, and inflicted serious injury on the enemy) by giving him, a few months later, the command of a new ship called the Ranger. On the 1st of November, 1777, he sailed from Portsmouth, bound for Nantes, in France. On the passage he made two prizes, in spite of a fleet of ten sail which gave him chase. He succeeded also in getting the American flag (which he was the first to hoist on an American ship) properly saluted by a foreign power. We copy his own account of this event. "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. I was off their bay on the 13th instant, and sent my boat in the next day to know if the admiral would return my salute. He answered that he would return to me, as the senior American Continental officer in Europe, the same salute which he was authorized by his court to return to an admiral of Holland, or any other republic, which was four guns less than the salute given. I hesitated at this, for I had demanded gun for gun ; therefore I anchored in the entrance of the bay, at a distance from the French fleet; but, after a very particular inquiry on the 14th, finding that he had really told the truth, I was induced to accept of his offer, the more so as it was, in fact, an acknowledgment of American independence. The wind being contrary and blowing hard, it was after sunset before the Ranger got near enough to salute La Motte Piquet with thirteen guns, which he returned with nine. However, to put the matter beyond a doubt, I did not suffer the Independence (a vessel of Jones's squadron) to salute till

next morning, when I sent the admiral word that I would sail through his fleet in the brig, and would salute him in open day. He was accordingly pleased, and returned the compliment also with nine guns."

Paul Jones sailed from Nantes for the Irish and Scotch coasts. The course he had laid down for himself, and which proved so eminently successful, was to make sudden descents on unexpected spots, and, by striking a rapid succession of small blows, in this way to stupefy and confuse the enemy. One of the first places to which he paid some attention was the port of Whitehaven, where, it will be remembered, he had commenced his maritime career. It was his intention to set fire to all the shipping, and for this purpose he made a bold attempt with two boats and thirtyone men. He only succeeded in setting fire to one ship and in spiking a few guns. There was no fighting on either side. Jones's next attempt was to seize the person of the Earl of Stirling (in whose family he once lived), imagining that the possession of this nobleman's person might be useful when exchanges were made between the two countries. The earl being absent from home,

he did not succeed in his base scheme; his men, however, plundered the house, Paul waiting outside, like an experienced burglar, while his men performed the dirty work. He became properly ashamed of this transaction, and, to his credit be it said, returned the plunder.

These incursions alarmed the enemy, and a ship of war called the Drake was sent in pursuit of Jones. A regular engagement took place between them, and was kept up obstinately at close quarters for more than an hour. At length the British vessel surrendered. Her captain and first lieutenant were killed, and no fewer than forty-two of the ship's company were found to have been killed or wounded, while Jones, on his side, merely lost one officer, one seaman, and six wounded. The prize was carried in safety to Brest, and the hero of the fight became a great lion. He was not without his troubles, however; money was scarce, and the men became dissatisfied. Jones, too, was ambitious and hasty; he wanted to get into a larger ship, and took every opportunity of magnifying his own importance, which was, of course, annoying to other officers. The lieutenant, in particular, was indignant, and his indignation aroused the resentment of Jones, who made all sorts of charges against him, demanded a court

martial, and did other intemperate things. The result was, that Jones's ship, the Ranger, was placed under charge of Lieutenant Simpson, and ordered back to America, and Jones himself was requested to remain in France, to be in readiness for some important operations which were about to be undertaken. For five months he remained in a state of inactivity, employing his time mostly in indefatigable correspondence with every one who was in the slightest degree likely to forward his interests. He was an excellent letter-writer, clear, forcible, and persuasive; but men in office are not easily moved by letters, even when they are written with the most masterly ability, and those of Jones's were without a result. One day, while fretting and fuming at the unmerited neglect with which he was treated by the French government-who, after having promised to furnish him with a vessel for the service of the American cause, displayed such unwillingness to do so-his eye fell on one of Poor Richard's proverbs. It was in Franklin's famous Pennsylvania Almanac, and was to this effect: "If you would have your business done, go; if not, send." It occurred to him instantly that if, instead of writing letters, he were to proceed. to the French capital, and spend time in personally advocating his claims, a better and more immediate result might be obtained. Without any farther delay he hurried to Paris, and not an official in that large city could call a moment his own until Jones's claims had been listened to. He hunted them like rabbits; waited outside their holes, and pounced upon them the instant they put out their heads. No circumlocutionoffice could resist, such direct and inveterate application. In a very few days Jones received a letter from the French minister, informing him that the ship Duras, of forty guns, was placed at his command. Paul Jones asked leave to change the name of the vessel, and, on obtaining it, rechristened the ship to the Bon Homme Richard, out of respect to Poor Richard's Almanac, which he imagined had first indicated the proper course to adopt to secure a result.

In his first cruise, Jones conceived some bold designs against the enemy—such, for instance, as the meditated attack on the town and harbor of Leith, in Scotland; but the squadron which was supposed to be under his command had a voice in the direction of affairs, and interposed many obstacles in the way of the daring commander.

On the coast of Scotland, however, he came