be considered in security, and both Franklin and Jones, as a personal kindness, had solicited and obtained the consent of the French government that these prisoners should be exchanged for the Americans, then prisoners in England. The Serapis had been dismasted in the late engagement, and as it was probable that, even on the short voyage to Dunkirk, Jones might encounter his watchful foe in some force, it was necessary to refit his ship. For this purpose he went to Amsterdam. Thus time wore on. The English ambassador from remonstrances came to threats. The Dutch, driven to their wit's end, remonstrated and menaced by turns; and Jones, unable to be longer silent, wrote as follows to the French ambassador : : "On board the Bon Homme Richard's Prize the Ship of War Serapis, at the Texel, November 4th, 1779. "MY LORD, "This morning the commandant of the Road sent me word to come and speak to him on board his ship. He had before him on the table a letter which he said was from the Prince of Orange. He questioned me very closely whether I had a French commission, and, if I had, he almost insisted upon seeing it. In conformity to your advice "Cet avis donné au commencement n'etoit plus de saison depuis l'admission de l'escadre sous Pavillon Americain," I told him that my French commission not having been found among my papers since the loss of the Bon Homme Richard, I feared it had gone to the bottom in that ship; but that, if it was really lost, it would be an easy matter to procure a duplicate of it from France. The commandant appeared to be very uneasy and anxious for my departure. I have told him that as there are eight of the enemy's ships laying wait for me at the south entrance, and four more at the north entrance of the port, I was unable to fight more than three times my force, but that he might rest assured of my intention to depart with the utmost expedition, whenever I found a possibility to go clear. 66 "I should be very happy, my Lord, if I could tell you of my being ready. I should have departed long ago, if I had met with common assistance; but for a fortnight past I have every day expected the necessary supply of water from Amsterdam in cisterns, and I am last night informed that it cannot be had without I send up water-casks. The provision, too, that was ordered the day I returned to Amsterdam from the Hague, is not yet sent down; and the spars that have been sent from Amsterdam are spoiled in the making. None of the iron-work that was ordered for the Serapis is yet completed, so that I am, even to this hour, in want of hinges to hang the lower gun-ports. My officers and men lost their clothes and beds in the Bon Homme Richard, and they have yet got no supply. The bread that has been twice a week sent down from Amsterdam to feed my people, has been, literally speaking, rotten, and the consequence is that they are falling sick. "It is natural also that they should be discontented, while I am not able to tell them that they will be paid the value of their property in the Serapis and Countess of Scarborough, if either or both of them should be lost or taken after sailing from hence. "Thus you see, my Lord, that my prospects are far from pleasing. I have but few men, and they are discontented. If you can authorize me to promise them, at all hazards, that their property in the prizes shall be made good, and that they shall receive the necessary clothing and bedding, &c. or money to buy them, I believe I shall soon be able to bring them again into a good humour. In the meantime I will send a vessel or two out to reconnoitre the offing and to bring me word. Whatever may be the consequence of my having put into this harbour, I must observe that it was done contrary to my opinion, and I consented to it only because the majority of my colleagues were earnest for it," &c. &c. The French government, to rid themselves of farther importunity, now fell on a new expedient. The cruise was suddenly declared at an end, and the ships were dismissed; Franklin agreed to place the captured frigates under the flag of France, and that Jones should be removed to the only ship now ostensibly American, the Alliance, which, on Landais having been ordered to Paris to answer to the plenipotentiaries for his misconduct on the cruise, had been left without a commander. Jones received this intimation with disgust and chagrin; but such were the orders of Sartine and Franklin, such the course sound policy dictated; and after an altercation lasting, he states, for thirteen hours, with the French ambassador at the Hague, he most reluctantly left the Serapis, whose deck seemed the theatre of his glory, and went on board the Alliance. The squadron soon afterwards sailed under a Dutch convoy, and Jones was left alone in his new ship. His French commission had never yet been produced; the English ambassador had repeatedly alleged that he held no legal commission from any sovereign ;* and to relieve the Dutch government from their * About this time, a seaman's wife of Burlington addressed a letter to Sir Joseph Yorke at the Hague, imploring tidings of her husband, of whom, since the engagment of Jones with the Serapis, she had never heard, and who, she feared, had fallen in that fight. Sir Joseph gallantly and humanely complied with the poor Englishwoman's request, and as he was aware that his epistle to Mrs Burnot would appear in all the English and French newspapers, he, with considerable covert-humour, contrived to have a hit at the shuffling policy of the Dutch, and the chamelion character of the squadron they sheltered, while he replied to the seaman's wife:-" Mrs Burnot, As soon |