"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 ensure happiness. I profess myself a citizen of the world, totally unfettered by the little, mean distinction of climate or of country, which diminish the benevolence of the heart and set bounds to philanthropy. Before this war began, I had at the early time of life withdrawn from the sea-service, in favour of calm contemplation and poetic ease.' I have sacrificed not only my favourite 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 and good will among mankind.

"As the feelings of your gentle bosom cannot but be congenial with mine, let me entreat you, Madam, to use your persuasive art with your husband's to endeavour to stop this cruel and destructive war, in which Britain can never succeed. Heaven can never countenance the barbarous and unmanly practice of the Britons in America, which savages would blush at, and which, if not discontinued, will soon be retaliated on Britain by a justly enraged people. Should you fail in this, (for I am persuaded that you will attempt it: and who can resist the power of such an advocate ?) your endeavours to effect a general exchange of prisoners will be an act of humanity, which will afford you golden feelings on a death-bed.

"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. Let not, therefore, the amiable Countess of Selkirk regard me as an enemy; I am ambitious of her esteem and friendship, and would do any thing, consistent with my duty, to merit it.

"The honour of a line from your hand, in answer to this, will lay me under a singular obligation; and if I can render you any acceptable service in France or elsewhere, I hope you see into my character so far as to command me without the least grain of re

serve.

In answer to this letter, Lord Selkirk replied, that he would receive back the plate, if the Congress made an order for that purpose, but that he would not be indebted for it to the pri vate generosity of the captain. It does not appear that his Lordship ever saw a particle of it again.

At Brest Jones remained for several months, reduced to a state of the greatest necessity. He was left without provisions for his crew: his officers and men were without clothes; and he was not even permitted to sell his prizes until after the lapse of some weeks, during which he was wholly destitute of public support, had to refit his ship, and to sustain 200 prisoners of war, a number of sick and wounded, and a crew

almost naked. War had not been formally declared by France against Great Britain until the beginning of July : even then, Jones was not employed, although he had suggested both to Franklin and the French minister of marine a great choice of private adventures. His resources were unbounded. If alarming the coast of Britain were deemed inex→ pedient, he proposed to intercept our West India or Baltic fleets, or the Hudson Bay ships, or to destroy the Greenland fishery! Though all his offers were ineffectual, and though he was disappointed in obtaining the command of a considerable French expedition, and afterwards of an inferior armament, which had been promised him, and in expectation of which he had resigned the Ranger, he was determined to persevere. He offered to go as a volunteer on board the French fleet, under the Count d'Orvilliers. He panted for action." His desire for fame,' to quote his own words,' was infinite.' But he was treated on all sides like an 'officer cast off in disgrace.' He at length wrote a letter to his most Christian Majesty, complaining of the neglect to which he had been consigned. This letter had an instantaneous effect. Jones was forthwith appointed to the Duras, of 40 guns, with unlimited orders; and, with the permission of M. de Sartine, he changed the name to that of Bon Homme Richard, in token of his respect for Dr. Franklin, to whose "Poor Richard's Almanack" the new name had reference. It was at first intended that his naval force should be strengthened by a large body of troops under the command of General La Fayette, but this design was abandoned; and at length, on the 19th of April, 1779, a squadron, consisting of the Bon Homme Richard, 42 guns, Alliance, 36 guns, Pallas, 30 guns, Cerf, 18 guns, and the Vengeance, 12 guns, sailed from L'Orient, under the command of the 'Honorable Commodore John Paul Jones.' Three months passed away in an unsuccessful cruize. In August Jones was again at sea. His object was to make a diversion in favor of the combined fleets of France and Spain, under the command of D'Orvilliers, which had already appeared in the Channel, bearing a French army, intended for a descent. on the southern coast of England. He made an ineffectual attempt on Leith; and, after repeated disappointments, he thought of returning to France with his squadron, when, on the 23d of September, while off Flamborough-head, he observed a fleet of forty-one sail bearing N.N.E. He gave the signal for a general chase. The merchant-ships, discovering the American squadron bearing down on them, crowded sail towards the shore. They were protected by two ships of war, the Serapis, and the Countess of Scarborough, who instantly

19

made

made disposition for battle. Jones reached the English Commodore's ship about seven in the evening; and now,' says the biographer, commenced an engagement, the parallel of which is not to be found in the naval annals of any nation.'

The Serapis, 44 guns, was commanded by Captain Richard Pearson, an excellent officer. When the action commenced, the two ships were abreast of each other, and the broadsides were almost simultaneous. A few movements brought them in a line; the Bon Homme ran her bows into the stern of the Serapis, and Pearson hailed the Bon Homme to know whether she had struck. Jones answered, that "he had not yet begun to fight." By this time, however, his ship had received several 18 pounders under water, and leaked very much he backed her top-sails, and those of the Serapis being filled, the ships separated. By some misfortune the bowsprit of the Serapis now came over the Bon Homme's poop by the mizen-mast. Jones immediately grappled. The action of the wind on the sails of the Serapis forced her stern elose to the Bon Homme's bow, "so that the ships lay square alongside of each other, the yards being all entangled, and the cannon of each ship touching the opponent's side."

""The battle," to use Jones's own words, "was fought with unremitting fury." The rammers were run into the respective ships to enable the men to load. The Serapis now fought with the actual view of sinking the enemy, and her broadsides were incessant. The battery of twelve pounders, on which Jones had placed his chief dependance, which was commanded by his only lieutenant, and manned by Americans, was entirely silenced and abandoned; of the six old eighteen pounders that formed the battery of the lower gun-deck, most burst, and killed almost all the men who were stationed to manage them. At the same time, Colonel Chamillard, who commanded a party of twenty French volunteers on the poop, abandoned his station, after having lost nearly all his band. There were only two nine pounders on the quarter-deck, that were not silenced. The purser, who commanded the party that worked these guns, was shot through the head; and Jones, in this critical moment, when he almost required the faculty of ubiquity, was obliged to fill the purser's place. With great difficulty he rallied a few men, and shifted over one of the lee-quarter-deck guns; these three nine pounders played well, but not one of the heavier cannon of the Bon Homme was fired during the rest of the action.

'Jones directed the fire of one of the three cannons against the mainmast of the Serapis with double headed-shot, while the two others were equally well served with grape and canister to silence the enemy's musketry and clear her decks. The fire from the tops of the Bon Homme was conducted with such skill and effect, that, ultimately, every man who appeared on the deck of the

E 4

Serapis

Serapis was immediately disposed of. Captain Pearson then ordered the survivors to keep below. Here they were not more secure. The powder-monkies of the Serapis finding no officer to receive the eighteen-pound cartridges, which it was their duty to supply, threw them on the main deck and then went off for more. These cartridges being scattered along the deck, and many of them being broken, it so happened, that some of the hand-grenades thrown from the fore-yard of the Bon Homme, which was directly over the main hatch of the Serapis, fell upon this powder, and produced a most awful explosion. The effect was terrific : more than twenty of the English were blown to pieces. Pearson, as he afterwards acknowledged, was now on the point of surrendering, when the cowardice of three of the under officers of the Bon Homme induced them to call out" Quarter!" The English commander personally demanded of Jones whether he surrendered; the American commander personally answered in the most decided negative.

The action now commenced with redoubled fury: Jones still succeeded in keeping the enemy's deck clear; but the fire of their cannon, especially of the lower battery which was formed of eighteen pounders, was incessant. Both ships were now on fire in several places. The Bon Homme was several times under the necessity of suspending the combat to extinguish the flames, which were often within a few inches of the magazine. The water

also gained upon them. "I had two enemies to contend with," said Jones, "besides the English, fire and water!"

It was a grand scene that the Channel witnessed that night. A numerous fleet had taken refuge under the walls of Scarborough Castle; the Bon Homme and Serapis, joined in an encounter almost unparalleled for its fierceness and duration, finely contrasted with the picturesque and shattered appearance of the Pallas and the Countess of Scarborough, now both silenced; and the moon, which was extremely bright and full, lighted up, not only this magnificent scene, but Flamborough Head, and the surrounding heights covered with the inhabitants of all the neighbouring

towns.

While the American commodore appeared to be hesitating, whether he should follow the advice of his officers, his master at arms, who was frightened out of his wits, suddenly let loose all the prisoners, amounting to nearly five hundred, telling them, "to save themselves as the ship was going to sink."

This last misfortune seemed to be decisive. One prisoner jumped over to the enemy, and told them, that if they held out a moment longer the enemy must strike. "Our rudder," says Jones, in his letter to Franklin, was entirely off; the stern-frame and transoms were almost entirely cut away; the timbers by the lower deck, especially from the mainmast to the stern, being greatly decayed by age, were mangled beyond every power of description; and a person must have been an eye-witness, to have formed a just idea, of the tremendous scene of carnage, wreck, and ruin, that every where appeared." Yet, notwithstanding this state, notwithstanding that the prisoners were loose, that the ship was on

fire in many places, and that there was five feet of water in the hold, Jones determined to fight on. He observed what his affrightened crew had overlooked - he saw the mainmast of the Serapis shake, and his practised ear told him that "their firing decreased." He took care that his own should immediately increase; and at half past ten, in the sight of thousands, the flag of England, which had been nailed to the mast of the Serapis, was struck by Captain Pearson's own hand. Her mainmast at the same time went overboard.

Had Napoleon commanded the British frigate, he would have said, that he ought to have won." Very probably the brave English captain thought the same.

Before any thing, except the wounded, could be removed, the Bon Homme Richard sank. The Countess of Scarborough had previously struck to the Pallas.'

We shall not criticize very minutely this account of the battle: the victor and the vanquished were both British; and their valor was such as we see on every occasion where a British tar is employed. It may be observed, however, that the biographer does not mention correctly how the Alliance, 36 guns, and the Vengeance, 12 guns, were engaged during the contest. The Cerf, he says, had been altogether absent, and the Alliance and Vengeance, though in sight of the action, refrained from taking any part in it, until towards the close, when the Alliance assisted in giving a few broadsides not to the Serapis, but to the Bon Homme! This we disbelieve. It is not, in the first place, probable that Landais, the French commander, however unfriendly to Jones, personally, would have assisted a British man of war against his own ally, still less probable that he would have fired upon his own countrymen, a band of whom were on board the Bon Homme, under the military command of Chamillard. The presence of this corps is even mentioned only by a lapse of the pen; and the superiority of the Bon Homme to the Serapis in armed men is not at all stated. Pearson, in his report of the engagement, said repeatedly that he was committed with the two ships of the enemy; and if it were not true, he would hardly have ventured such an assertion, when he knew that the action was witnessed by thousands of spectators, who covered Flamborough Head and the surrounding heights.

After this battle Jones proceeded with his squadron to the Texel to refit. Various circumstances, however, soon contributed to induce the French government to detach from his command their own ships as well as the prizes, and Jones was left alone with the Alliance, to make the best of his way out of the Texel. He effected his escape; and when

he