He was a brave sailor, and he was in France to get help and not compliments. He wished a new ship to take the place of the old Richard, which had gone to the bottom after its great victory.
So, though the King of France honored him and received him splendidly and made him presents, he kept on working to get another ship. At last he was made captain of a new ship, called the Ariel, and sailed from France. He had a fierce battle with an English ship called the Triumph, and defeated her. But she escaped before surrendering, and Captain Jones sailed across the sea to America.
He was received at home with great honor and applause. Congress gave him a vote of thanks, "for the zeal, prudence and intrepidity with which he had supported the honor of the American flag"—that is what the vote said.
People everywhere crowded to see him, and called him hero and conqueror. Lafayette, the brave young Frenchman who came over to fight for America, called him "my dear Paul Jones," and Washington and the other leaders in America said, "Well done, Captain Jones!"
The King of France sent him a splendid reward of merit called the "Cross of Honor," and Congress set about building a fine ship for him to command. But before it was finished, the war was over; and he was sent back to France on some important business for the United States.
Here he was received with new honor, for the French knew how to meet and treat a brave man; and above all they loved a man who had humbled the English, their ancient foes. Captain Jones had sailed from a French port and in a French ship, and they looked on him almost as one of their own. But all this did not make him proud or boastful, for he was not that kind of man.
In later years Paul Jones served in Russia in the wars with the Turks. But the British officers who were in the Russian service refused to fight under him, saying that he was a rebel, a pirate, and a traitor. This was because he had fought for America after being born in Scotland. So, after some hard fighting, he left Russia and went back to France, where he died in 1792.
In all the history of sea fighting we hear of no braver man, and the United States, so long as it is a nation, will be proud of and honor the memory of the gallant sailor, John Paul Jones.