On the 11th of November, Mr. Jones sailed from New York on his mission to Denmark. Unfavorable weather caused the ship to put into Dover early in December, 1787. He repaired to London and spent a few days with our minister at the court of St. James, Honorable John Adams. He proceeded to Paris, where he arrived on the 11th of the month. For some unexplained reason he did not wish to have the fact of his arrival noised abroad. The day after he reached Paris, he had a private interview with Mr. Jefferson. In this interview he received the startling and flattering announcement, that the Empress of Russia was anxious to engage his services as an officer, in the war she was then carrying on against the Turks. M. Simolin, the Russian ambassador at Versailles, had been instructed to apply to Mr. Jones, through Mr. Jefferson, to see if the services of the chevalier could be engaged as an officer in her navy. While this plan was under consideration, he called upon several of the French ministers, from whom he met a very cordial reception.
On the 4th of March, 1788, after a long and fatiguing winter journey, Mr. Jones reached Copenhagen. He was then but forty years of age. His health, however, was much impaired by the cares, toil, and exposure of his stormy life. Soon after his arrival he breakfasted with the chamberlain of the king of Poland, for the purpose of meeting Mr. Simolin, the Russian ambassador. He informed Mr. Jones, that in consequence of the knowledge which the empress had obtained of his character, she wished him to take command of her fleet in the Black Sea, and that she would soon make to him advantageous proposals. After the Russian ambassador had retired, the chamberlain, whose guest the commodore was, informed him that Mr. Simolin had written to the empress:
“If your Imperial Majesty will confide to Commodore Jones the chief command on the Black Sea, with carte blanche, I will answer for it, that, in less than a year he will make Constantinople tremble.”
Soon after this he was presented to the royal family, to all of the corps diplomatique, and to many other distinguished personages of the court. In speaking of his reception by the king, the queen dowager, and the young prince and princess royal, he wrote:
“The queen dowager conversed with me for some time, and said the most civil things. Her majesty has a dignity of person and deportment which become her well, and which she has the secret to reconcile with great affability and ease. The princess royal is a charming person; and the graces are so much her own, that it is impossible to see and converse with her without paying her the homage which artless beauty and good-nature will ever command. All the royal family spoke to me except the king, who speaks to no person when presented. His majesty saluted me with great complaisance at first, and as often afterwards as we met in the course of the evening. The prince royal is greatly beloved, and extremely affable. He asked me a number of pertinent questions respecting America. I had the honor to be invited to sup with his majesty and the royal family.[family.] The company at table, consisting of seventy ladies and gentlemen, including the royal family, the ministers of state, and foreign ambassadors, was very brilliant.”[brilliant.”]
Very earnestly Commodore Jones engaged in the object of his mission. He had a double motive to impel him to make all possible haste. In addition to the natural desire to close up the business, which had been thus lingering for years, he was now daily expecting offers of employment from the Empress of Russia, which it might be greatly for his interest to accept. The Algerines, those merciless pirates of all seas, were united with the Turks of Constantinople, in their warfare against Russia. An opportunity might thus be afforded him to strike a blow for the liberation of the American captives. This was an object very near his heart.
There is power in an illustrious name. The achievements of Commodore Jones were well known at Copenhagen. He had received a golden medal, for his services, from the Congress of the United States. The king of France had honored him with a gold-headed sword, and had conferred upon him the distinguished honor of constituting him a Knight of the Order of Military Merit. It was also known that he had won the esteem of the most distinguished men in Paris, and was an honored guest in the highest circles of the court. These considerations were all elements of power, of which Mr. Jones very wisely availed himself. In urging the Danish minister, Count de Bernstorf, to a prompt decision, Mr. Jones wrote under date of March 24th:
“The promise you have given me of a prompt and explicit decision, from this court, inspires me with full confidence. I have been very particular in communicating to the United States all the polite attentions with which I have been honored at this court. And they will learn, with great pleasure, the kind reception I have had from you. I felicitated myself on being the instrument to settle the delicate national business in question, with a minister who conciliates the views of the wise statesman with the noblest sentiments and cultivated mind of the true philosopher and man of letters.”
If any one regards this as excessive in its complimentary tone, as it certainly appears to be, let him read the next letter to Count Bernstorf, after a delay of six days, which indicates that he could deal with other coin besides that of laudation. This letter was dated March 30th.
“Your silence on the subject of my mission from the United States to this court, leaves me in the most painful suspense; the more so as I have made your excellency acquainted with the promise I am under, to proceed, as soon as possible, to St. Petersburg. This being the ninth year since the three prizes reclaimed by the United States, were seized upon in the port of Bergen, in Norway, it is to be presumed that this court has long since taken an ultimate resolution respecting the compensation demand made by Congress.