Cooper says: “In battle, Paul Jones was brave; in enterprise, hardy and original; in victory, mild and generous; in motives, much disposed to disinterestedness, although ambitious of renown and covetous of distinction; in his pecuniary relations, liberal; in his affections, natural and sincere; and in his temper, except in those cases which assailed his reputation, just and forgiving.” Moreover, he was a true and patriotic American, and, except Columbus, the Admiral of the Ocean Seas, Paul Jones was the very boldest man who ever sailed blue water.
Molly Elliot Seawell.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FACING PAGE [The guns broke loose]Frontispiece [“Hooray for Cap’n Paul Jones!”]23 [The Ranger and the Drake]43 [“Haul away! Yo ho, boys!”]50 [At the first discharge two of the guns burst]93 [Battle of the Bonhomme Richard and the Serapis]102 [Paul Jones and Franklin at the Court of Louis XVI]147 [Paul Jones]162
PAUL JONES.
CHAPTER I.
On a bright day in January, 1776, a lithe, handsome young man, wearing the uniform of a lieutenant in the Continental navy, stood on the dock at Philadelphia gazing keenly down the river. His eyes were peculiarly black and beautiful, and had an expression of command in them that is seldom absent from those of a man born to lead other men. His figure was slight, and he was not above medium height; but he was both graceful and muscular.
The river was frozen, except a tortuous channel cut through the ice and kept open with difficulty. Innumerable masts and spars made a network against the dull blue of the winter sky, and fringed the docks and wharves; while far down the glittering sea of ice lay a small squadron of five armed vessels, which was the beginning of the glorious navy of the United States.
This young lieutenant, Paul Jones by name, looked about for a boat to take him down the river to the squadron; and seeing a ragged, bright-eyed boy about twelve years old sitting in a rickety skiff from which a passenger had just been landed, he called the boy, and, jumping lightly into the boat, said: