Captain Jones then wrote to Lafayette: “So flattering and affectionate a proof of your esteem and friendship has made an impression on my mind that will attend me while I live. This I hope to prove by more than words. Where men of fine feelings are concerned there is seldom misunderstanding. And I am sure that I should do violence to my sensibility if I were capable of giving you a moment’s pain by any part of my conduct. Therefore, without any apology, I shall expect you to point out my errors, when we are together alone, with perfect freedom; and I think I dare promise you your reproof shall not be lost. I have received from the good Dr. Franklin instructions at large, which it will give me the truest satisfaction to execute.”
Much to Captain Jones’s disappointment this proposed coöperation with Lafayette was soon abandoned. Spain was preparing to unite with France and America against England. An invasion of the island of Great Britain, by the allies, was contemplated. Large forces were raised in the northern provinces of France, and marched to the coast, while general officers were named to conduct the enterprise. Lafayette was appointed to command a portion of this army. In his letter to Jones, informing him of the change which the ministry had made in his plans, he wrote:
“I am only to tell you, my good friend, how sorry I feel not to be a witness of your success, abilities, and glory.”
The Richard was soon fitted for sea with a battery of forty guns; six only of these were eighteen-pounders. The rest were of but twelve-pound calibre. There were three hundred and twenty-nine officers and privates on the muster-roll. The crew had been hastily gathered from American prisoners rescued from the English prisons, from French peasants, and from vagabond English sailors who were ready to enlist under any flag for the money. There were not more than thirty Americans among the crew.
Four other vessels composed the little squadron. The American frigate Alliance, of thirty-six guns, was under the command of the French officer, to whom we have before alluded, Pierre Landais. The conduct of this officer was so extraordinary that it can only be accounted for on the supposition that he was actually insane. The Pallas mounted thirty-two guns. It was a merchant-ship, purchased by the King of France and hastily fitted up at Nantes. The Cerf had eighteen guns, and the Vengeance twelve.
The state of affairs on board the Alliance was such that the frigate was no help, but rather a hindrance to the enterprise. The crew were in a state bordering on open mutiny. The first and second lieutenants had deserted. The captain and his other officers were in a state of open and shameful hostility, ready to cut each other’s throats. The Vengeance was also a merchant vessel, very poorly prepared for battle. The Cerf was a fine cutter, and the only vessel in the squadron which was well fitted and manned.
Captain Jones, who ever sought the most heroic enterprises, had formed the bold plan of appalling England by the capture of the city of Liverpool. But the withdrawal of Lafayette and his land forces from the expedition rendered it necessary to abandon this all-important measure. The squadron was first employed in convoying a fleet of merchant vessels down the coast of France, a distance of about two hundred miles, from L’Orient to Bordeaux, and to drive all of the English cruisers out of the Bay of Biscay.
On the night of the 20th of June, Pierre Landais contrived to run the Alliance upon the Richard. He thus lost his own mizzen-mast, while he tore away the head and bowsprit of the Richard. This pretended accident was probably intentional. It soon became evident that he would be glad to cripple the Richard, probably hoping that she would be sent back for repairs, and that he, instead of being a subordinate, might be intrusted with the supreme command of the expedition. Through all the confusion of the scene, when, in almost midnight darkness and on a stormy sea, both vessels were in imminent peril of being sunk, with all their crews, he behaved like a madman. It was attested, by the officers, in the trial which took place—
“That the captain of the Alliance did not take the steps in his power to prevent his ship from getting foul of the Richard; for instead of putting his helm aweather, and bearing up to make way for his commanding officer, which was his duty, he left the deck to load his pistols.”
The next day a British vessel hove in sight. Captain Jones found that the Richard proved to be a lumbering concern and a slow sailer. He therefore sent the swifter-winged cutter Cerf in pursuit of the stranger. It will be remembered that the Cerf carried but eighteen guns. The vessel proved to be a war-sloop of fourteen guns. A warm engagement took place. The thunders of this naval tempest swept the ocean far and wide. The Cerf was victorious. Grappling her battered and blood-stained prize, she was making her way back to the squadron when a large British frigate bore down upon her. The Cerf, maimed by the conflict, was compelled to abandon her prize, and escaping to the squadron, was sent back to L’Orient to refit.