Year: 1865

and made known his situation and pas


history to a member of Congress, VIII


saw the stuff he was made of, took hi


cause in earnest, and got him lieuten


ants commission in the navy of the Uni


ted States. Let US say however tha


Paul Jones was not needy ADVENTURE


He was wholly devoted to the cause o


his adopted country He understood tn


quarrel between the colonies and tn


mother country, and embraced the righ


side of the dispute with all his heart anc


mind.


His success on the sea was wonderful
In one short cruise on the American coas


he took sixteen prizes, of which he burn


eight that we're not worth saving, anC
sent in eight. He did not refuse battle
even with the King ships, one of which
he captured that had on board a company
of troops and ten thousand suit of clothes,
which were worth to Congress, just then
their weight in silver. In about eight
months he made fortune in prize money,
and had absolutely spept the coast clear
of all the British vessels sailing without
powerful convoy.


Congress was prompt in rewarding him.
July IA, 1777, when he was not yet thirty
years old, he was appointed to command
the Ranger" the best vessel of our in
fant navy, ranking as sloop of war. At
the mast head of this immortal ship, the
Stars and Stripes we're first flung to the
breeze; it was on this ship that the en-
sign of the Union first received a salute
from the guns ola friendly nation. This
occurred in the French harbOr of Brest in
February, 1778, just week after Dr.
Franklin had signed the treaty ofalliance
with France.


A new and brilliant scene now opened
in the career of this heroic sailor. Clos
ing the ports of the Granger" and re-
moving every other trace Of her warlike
character, he sailed boldly into the Chan
mel, and made his way to that part of the
coast upon which he was born, and to the
town from which he had sailed ten years
before, every wharf and lane of which he
knew. 1t was Whitehaven, place of
several thousand inhabitants, and the
harbor Of which contained three hundred
vessels, fastened close-together. At day
break, with two boats and thirty one men,
he landed on a wharf of the town, pro-
vided with lantern and two tar barrels.
He went alone to a fort defending the
town, and, finding it deserted, climbed
over the wall, and spiked every gun, with
out alarming the garrison, who were all
asleep in the guard house near by. Then
he surrounded the guard-house, and took
every man prisoner. Next, he sprang
into the only other remaining fort, and
spiked its guns. All this, which was the
work of ten minutes, was accomplished
without noise and without resistance
The ships being then at his mercy, he
made bonfire in the storage of one of
them which blazed up through the hatch
way, while Jones and his men stood by,
pistol in hand, to keep off the people,
whom the flames had alarmed, and who
came running down to the shore in hun
dreds. " To the forts p was the cry.
But the forts were harmless. When the
fire had made such headway that the de-
struction of the whole feet seemed GER
tain, Captain Jones gave the order to en-
bark. He was the last to take his place
in the boat. He moved off leisurely from
the shore, and regained his ship without
the loss of man. The people however,
succeeded in eonfning the fire to two or
three ships. But the whole coast was
panic stricken. Every able bodied man
Joined the companies of patrolmen. 1t
was many month before the inhabitants
of that shore went to sleep at night with
out a certain dread of Paul Jones.


The next day he landed near the cas-
tie of the Earl Of Selkirk, intending to
take the Earl prisoner, and keep him as
a hostage for the better treatment of
American prisoners in England, whom
the King affected to regard as felOns, and
who were confined in common jails. The
Earl was absent from home. The crew
demanded liberty to plunder the castle,
in retaliation for the ravages of British
captains on the coast of America. Cap
tain Jones could not deny the justice of
their demand yet, abhorring the princi-
pie of plundering private houses, and
especially one inhabited by lady, he
permitted the men to take the silver plate
only, forbidding the slightest approach
to violence or disrespect. The silver
plate he himself bought when the plum
der was sold, and sent it back to the
Countess of Selkirk, with a polite letter
of explanation and apology. The haugh-
ty Earl refused to receive it; but Cap
tain Jones, after long correspondence,