LETTER TO THE KING. 97 vices which he wished me to execute. This request they readily granted, and I was flattered by the prospect of being enabled to testify, by my services, my gratitude to your Majesty, as the first prince who has so generously acknowledged our independence. "There was an interval of more than three months before the Indian could be gotten afloat. To employ that period usefully, when your Majesty's fleet was ordered to sail from Brest, I proposed to the minister to embark in it as a volunteer, in pursuit of marine knowledge. He objected to this, at the same time approved of a variety of hints for private enterprises, which I had drawn up for his consideration. Two gentlemen were appointed to settle with me the plans that were to be adopted, who gave me the assurance that three of the best frigates in France, with two tenders, and a number of troops, should be immediately put under my command, to pursue such of my own projects as I thought proper; but this fell to nothing, when I believed that your Majesty's signature only was wanting. "Another armament, composed of cutters and small vessels, at L'Orient, was proposed to be put under my command, to alarm the coast of England and check the Jersey privateers; but, happily for me, this also failed, and I was saved from ruin and dishonour, as I now find that all the vessels sailed slow, and their united force is very insignificant. The minister then thought fit that I should return to Brest to command the Lively, and join some frigates on an expedition from St. Malo to the North Sea. I returned in haste for that purpose, and found that the Lively had been bestowed at Brest before the minister had mentioned that ship to me at Versailles. This was, however, another fortunate disappointment, as the Lively proves, both in sailing and equipment, much inferior to the Ranger; but, more especially, if it be true, as I have since understood, that the minister intended to give the chief command of the expedition to a lieutenant, which would 98 LETTER TO THE KING. have occasioned a very disagreeable misunderstanding: for, as an officer of the first rank in the American marine, who has ever been honoured with the favour and friendship of Congress, I can receive orders from no inferior officer whatever. My plan was the destruction of the English Baltic fleet, of great consequence to the enemy's marine, and then only protected by a single frigate! I would have held myself responsible for its success had I commanded the expedition. "M. de Sartine afterwards sent orders to Count D'Orvilliers to receive me on board the fleet, agreeably to my former proposal; but the order did not arrive until after the departure of the fleet the last time from Brest, nor was I made acquainted with the circumstance before the fleet returned here. "Thus 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 honour as I cannot again expect this war; and, to my infinite mortification, having no command, I am considered everywhere an officer cast off and in disgrace for secret reasons. "I have written respectful letters to the minister, none of which he has condescended to answer; I have written to the Prince de Nassau with as little effect; and I do not understand that any apology has been made to the great and venerable Dr. Franklin, whom the minister has made the instrument of bringing me into such unmerited trouble. "Having written to Congress to reserve no command for me in America, my sensibility is the more affected by this unworthy situation in the sight of your Majesty's fleet. I, however, make no remark on the treatment I have received. "Although I wish not to become my own panegyrist, I must beg your Majesty's permission to observe, that I am not an adventurer in search of fortune, of which, thank God, I have a sufficiency. LETTER TO THE KING. 99 "When the American banner was first displayed, I drew my sword in support of the violated dignity and rights of human nature; and both honour and duty prompt me steadfastly to continue the righteous pursuit, and to sacrifice to it, not only my private enjoyments, but even life, if necessary. I must acknowledge that the generous praise which I have received from Congress and others exceeds the merit of my past services; therefore I the more ardently wish for future. opportunities of testifying my gratitude by my activity. "As your Majesty, by espousing the cause of America, hath become the protector of the rights of human nature, I am persuaded that you will not disregard my situation, nor suffer me to remain any longer in this insupportable disgrace. I am, with perfect gratitude and profound respect, SIRE, Your Majesty's very obliged, very obedient, and J. PAUL JONES." There is no satisfactory evidence that the above letter was ever presented, or indeed that it ever came into the hands of the Duchess of Chartres; yet the fact appears to be assumed by some of the biographers of Jones; and the letter itself, as expressive of his sentiments at this crisis, is too important to be suppressed. The correspondence and journals of Jones contain no allusion to any effect produced by that letter,-not even the extract of his journal made long afterwards, expressly for the perusal of the king; and the postscript of a letter written by Mr. Temple Franklin is at least complete proof that, if the letter to the king was ever delivered, it was decidedly against the judgment of Franklin. The letter of the younger Franklin is dated the 22d October, the postscript the 24th. It says, " Since writing the above, I have received 100 JONES'S GRATITUDE. yours of the 19th instant (the letter to the king.) I would willingly do everything you there desire of me, but it is my grandfather's opinion that there will be no occasion to send those letters; and I imagine they were wrote before you heard of the minister's final determination. If, however, you still think they ought to be sent, you have only to order it." From this it would appear that the minister's "final determination" to buy Jones "a suitable ship" had preceded the letter to the King and was not a consequence of it. In a letter to M. de Chaumont, of the 30th November, Jones thus expresses himself with regard to M. de Sartine:-" My best respects and most grateful thanks await the minister for the very honourable things he said of me to the Duc de la Rochefoucault. It shall be my ambition, when he gives me opportunities, to merit his favour and affection." DECLINES THE COMMAND OF PRIVATEERS. 101 CHAPTER V. HE gratitude of Jones to the minister of marine was premature. But it would be tiresome to follow the train of petty disappointments which this brave man had yet to encounter before he got once again fairly afloat. From the month of June, 1778, till the month of February of the following year, he was condemned to feel to its utmost extent the misery there is— "In suing long to bide." In this interval some proposals were made to Captain Jones while at Brest to take the command of privateers. This he decidedly declined; and he even resented the supposition that, bearing, as he did, the commission of Congres, he should act at any time as the commander of privateers. So nice was he on this point, that in one instance we find Franklin himself condescending to sooth his hasty feelings. "Depend upon it," says the sage, "I never wrote Mr. Gillon that the Bon Homme Richard was a privateer. I could not write so, because I never had such a thought. I will next post send you a copy of my letter to him, by which you will see that he has only forced that construction from a vague expression I used, merely to conceal from him (in answering his idle demand that I would order your squadron, then on the point of sailing, to go with him to Carolina,) that the expedition was at the expense and under the direction of the king, which |