JOHN PAUL JONES.

Ir would be impossible within our limits, to do justice to this most extraordinary man, whose exertions, in the dark hours of our country's peril, entitle him to the gratitude of every American.

John Paul was born at Arbigland, in Scotland, on the sixth of July, 1747, and the scenery and associations of his birthplace, and its vicinity, doubtless, encouraged a restless spirit of adventure, a love of change, and an ardent enthusiasm in the objects of his pursuits, which were so strikingly manifested in his life. His first voyage was made before he was thirteen years old; and maritime pursuits brought him to America. While here his feelings became interested in the cause of the colonies, and fully prepared him for the active part he afterward took in their defence. In 1773, John Paul removed to Virginia, to attend to the affairs of his brother who had died childless and intestate. He now assumed the additional surname of Jones. On the twenty-second of December, 1775, by a resolution of Congress, Paul Jones was appointed lieutenant in the American Navy, which then consisted of the Alfred, Columbus, Andrew Doria, Sebastian Cabot, and Providence; the whole mounting one hundred guns, and manned by eleven hundred and fifty seamen; Jones was attached to the Alfred, and was the first to hoist the American flag, which was first displayed on board that vessel. On the twenty-second of February, 1778, he thus wrote to the Marine committee: "I am happy in having it in my power to congratulate you on my having seen the American flag, for the first time, recognised, in the fullest and completest manner, by the flag of France." In April, 1778, his memorable visit to White Haven occurred. Time would fail us were we to recount all the various acts of bravery performed by Jones. But we must hasten to one of the bravest actions, in which Jones was ever engaged, and which we shall give in his own words, as contained in his life and correspondence, edited by Miss Jeanette Taylor.

imagined them to be a convoy bound from Londor. for Leith, which had been for some time expected. One of them had a pendant hoisted, and appeared to be a ship of force. They had not, however, courage to come on, but kept back, all except the one which seemed to be armed, and that one also kept to the windward, very near the land, and on the edge of dangerous shoals, where I could not with safety ap proach. This induced me to make a signal for a pilot, and soon afterward two pilot-boats came off. They informed me that a ship that wore a pendant was an armed merchantman, and that a king's frigate lay there in sight, at anchor, within the Humber, waiting to take under convoy a number of merchantships bound to the northward. The pilots imagined the Bon Homme Richard to be an English ship-ofwar, and consequently communicated to me the private signal which they had been required to make. I endeavoured by this means to decoy the ships out of the port; but the wind then changing, and with the tide, becoming unfavourable for them, the deception had not the desired effect, and they wisely put difficult and dangerous, and as the Pallas was not in back. The entrance of the Humber is exceedingly sight, I thought it imprudent to remain off the entrance; therefore steered out again to join the Pallas off Flamborough Head. In the night we saw and chased two ships until three o'clock in the mornthem, I made the private signal of reconnoissance, ing, when, being at a very small distance from which I had given to each captain before I sailed from Groix: one half of the answer only was return. ed. In this position both sides lay to till daylight, when the ships proved to be the Alliance and the

Pallas.

"On the morning of that day, the 23d, the brig from Holland not being in sight, we chased a brigantine that appeared laying to, to windward. About noon, we saw and chased a large ship that appeared coming round Flamborough Head, from the northward, and at the same time I manned and armed one of the pilot boats to send in pursuit of the brigantine, which now appeared to be the vessel that I had forced ashore. Soon after this, a fleet of forty-one sail This induced me to abandon the single ship which appeared off Flamborough Head, bearing N. N. E. had then anchored in Burlington Bay; I also called back the pilot boat, and hoisted a signal for a general chase. When the fleet discovered us bearing down, all the merchant ships crowded sail toward the shore. The two ships of war that protected the fleet at the same time steered from the land, and made the disposition for battle. In approaching the enemy, I crowded every possible sail, and made the signal for the "On the 21st, we saw and chased two sail off Flam-line of battle, to which the Alliance showed no attenborough Head; the Pallas chased in the N. E. quar- tion. Earnest as I was for the action, I could not ter, while the Bon Homme Richard, followed by the reach the commodore's ship until seven in the evenVengeance, chased in the S. W.; the one I chased, ing, being then within pistol-shot, when he hailed a brigantine collier in ballast, belonging to Scarbo- the Bon Homme Richard. We answered him by rough, was soon taken, and sunk immediately after-firing a whole broadside.

His official account of the battle between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis, is as follows::

ward, as a fleet then appeared to the southward. "The battle being thus begun, was continued with This was so late in the day, that I could not come unremitting fury. Every method was practised on up with the fleet before night; at length, however, I both sides to gain an advantage, and rake each other; got so near one of them as to force her to run ashore and I must confess that the enemy's ship, being much between Flamborough Head and the Spurn. Soon more manageable than the Bon Homme Richard, after I took another, a brigantine from Holland, be- gained thereby several times an advantageous situalonging to Sunderland, and at daylight next morning, tion, in spite of my best endeavours to prevent it. seeing a fleet steering towards me from the Spurn, I│As I had to deal with an enemy of greatly superiour

force, I was under the necessity of closing with him, cluded that she was sinking, which occasioned the to prevent the advantage which he had over me in gunner to run aft on the poop, without my knowl point of manœuvre. It was my intention to lay the edge, to strike the colours. Fortunately for me, a Bon Homme Richard athwart the enemy's bow; but cannon-ball had done that before, by carrying away as that operation required great dexterity in the man- the ensign-staff; he was therefore reduced to the agement of both sails and helm, and some of our necessity of sinking, as he supposed, or of calling braces being shot away, it did not exactly succeed to for quarter, and he preferred the latter. my wish. The enemy's bowsprit, however, came "All this time the Bon Homme Richard had susover the Bon Homme Richard's poop, by the mizzen-tained the action alone, and the enemy, though much mast, and I made both ships fast together in that sit-superiour in force, would have been very glad to uation, which by the action of the wind on the ene- have got clear, as appears by their own acknowl my's sails, forced her stern close to the Bon Homme edgements, and by their having let go an anchor the Richard's bow, so that the ships lay square along- instant that I laid them on board, by which means side of each other, the yards being all entangled, and they would have escaped, had I not made them well the cannon of each ship touching the opponents. fast to the Bon Homme Richard. When this position took place, it was eight o'clock, "At last, at half past nine o'clock, the Alliance previous to which the Bon Homme Richard had re-appeared, and I now thought the battle at an end; ceived sundry eighteen-pound shots below the water, but, to my utter astonishment, he discharged a broadand leaked very much. My battery of twelve-pound-side full into the stern of the Bon Homme Richard. ers, on which I had placed my chief dependance, We called to him for God's sake to forbear firing being commanded by Lieutenant Dale and Colonel into the Bon Homme Richard; yet they passed Weibert, and manned principally with American sea- along the off side of the ship, and continued firing. men and French volunteers, was entirely silenced There was no possibility of his mistaking the enand abandoned. As to the six old eighteen-pounders emy's ship for the Bon Homme Richard, there being that formed the battery of the lower gun-deck, they the most essential difference in their appearance did no service whatever, except firing eight shots in and construction. Besides, it was then full moonall. Two out of three of them burst at the first fire, light, and the sides of the Bon Homme Richard and killed almost all the men who were stationed to were all black, while the sides of the prize were all manage them. Before this time, too, Colonel de Cha-yellow. Yet, for the greater security, I showed the millard, who commanded a party of twenty soldiers on the poop, had abandoned that station after having lost some of his men. I had now only two pieces of cannon, (nine-pounders,) on the quarter-deck, that were not silenced, and not one of the heavier cannon was fired during the rest of the action. The purser, M. Mease, who commanded the guns on the quarter-deck, being dangerously wounded in the head, I was obliged to fill his place, and with great difficulty rallied a few men, and shifted over one of the lee quarter-deck guns, so that we afterward played three pieces of nine-pounders upon the enemy. The tops alone seconded the fire of this little battery, and held out bravely during the whole of the action, especially the maintop, where Lieutenant Stack commanded. I directed the fire of one of the three cannon against the mainmast, with doubleheaded shot, while the other two were exceedingly well served with grape and cannister-shot, to silence the enemy's musketry and clear her decks, which was at last effected. The enemy were, as I have since understood, on the instant of calling for quarter, when the cowardice or treachery of three of my under officers induced them to call to the enemy. The English commodore asked me if I demanded quarter, and I having answered him in the most determined negative, they renewed the battle with double fury. They were unable to stand the deck; but the fire of their cannon, especially the lower battery, which was entirely formed of ten-pounders, was incessant; both ships were set on fire in various places, and the scene was dreadful beyond the reach of language. To account for the timidity of my three under-officers, I mean the gunner, the carpen-culty only keep the water from gaining. The fire ter, and the master-at-arms, I must observe, that the two first were slightly wounded, and, as the ship had received various shots under water, and one of the pumps being shot way, the carpenter expressed his fears that she would sink, and the other two con

signal of our reconnoissance, by putting out three lanterns, one at the head, another at the stern, and the third in the middle, in a horizontal line. Every tongue cried that he was firing into the wrong ship, but nothing availed; he passed round, firing into the Bon Homme Richard's head, stern, and broadside, and by one of his volleys killed several of my best men, and mortally wounded a good officer on the forecastle. My situation was really deplorable; the Bon Homme Richard received various shots under water from the Alliance; the leak gained on the pumps, and the fire increased much on board both ships. Some officers persuaded me to strike, of whose courage and good sense I entertain a high opinion. My treacherous master-at-arms let loose all my prisoners without my knowledge, and my prospects became gloomy indeed. I would not, however, give up the point. The enemy's mainmast began to shake, their firing decreased fast, ours rather increased, and the British colours were struck at half an hour past ten o'clock

"This prize proved to be the British ship of war, the Serapis, a new ship of forty-four guns, built on the most approved construction, with two complete batteries, one of them of eighteen-pounders, and commanded by the brave Commodore Richard Pearson. I had yet two enemies to encounter, far more formidable than the Britons, I mean fire and water. The Serapis was attacked only by the first, but the Bon Homme Richard was assailed by both; there was five feet water in the hold, and though it was moderate from the explosion of so much gunpowder, yet the three pumps that remained could with diffi

broke out in various parts of the ship, in spite of all the water that could be thrown in to quench it, and at length broke out as low as the powder-magazine, and within a few inches of the powder. In that dilemma, I took out the powder upon deck, ready to

in a state to pursue the fleet, not having had a single man wounded, or a single shot fired at her from the Serapis, and only three that did execution from the Countess of Scarborough, at such a distance that one stuck in the side, and the other two just touched, and then dropped into the water. The Alliance killed one man only on board the Serapis. As Captain de Cottineau charged himself with manning and securing the prisoners of the Countess of Scarborough, I think the escape of the Baltick fleet cannot so well be charged to his account.

be thrown overboard at the last extremity, and it | lieutenant and fifteen men. The Alliance, too, was was ten o'clock the next day, the 24th, before the fire was entirely extinguished. With respect to the situation of the Bon Homme Richard, the rudder was cut entirely off, the stern-frame and transoms were almost entirely cut away, and the timbers by the lower deck, especially from the mainmast toward the stern, being greatly decayed with age, were mangled beyond my power of description, and a person must have been an eyewitness to form a just idea of the tremendous scene of carnage, wreck, and ruin, which everywhere appeared. Humanity cannot but recoil from the prospect of such finished horrour, and lament that war should be capable of producing such fatal consequences.

"I should have mentioned, that the mainmast and mizzentopmast of the Serapis fell overboard, soon after the captain had come on board the Bon Homme

"After the carpenters, as well as Captain Cotti-Richard." neau and other men of sense, had well examined and surveyed the ship, (which was not finished before five in the evening,) I found every person to be convinced that it was impossible to keep the Bon Homme Richard afloat so as to reach a port, if the wind should increase, it being then only a very moderate breeze. I had but little time to remove my wounded, which now became unavoidable, and which was effected in the course of the night and next morning. I was determined to keep the Bon Homme Richard afloat, and, if possible, to bring her into port. For that purpose, the first lieutenant of the Pallas continued on board with a party of men to attend the pumps, with boats in waiting ready to take them on board, in case the water should gain on them too fast. The wind augmented in the night, and the next day, the 25th, so that it was impossible to prevent the good old ship from sinking. They did not abandon her till after nine o'clock; the water was then up to the lower deck, and a little after ten I saw, with inexpressible grief, the last glimpse of the Bon Homme Richard. No lives were lost with the ship, but it was impossible to save the stores of any sort whatever. I lost even the best part of my clothes, books, and papers; and several of my officers lost all their clothes and effects.

THE DESERTED CHILDREN.

"I WILL record in this place," says Mr. Flint, in his Travels in America, a narrative that impressed me deeply. It was a fair example of the cases of extreme misery and desolation that are often witnessed on the Mississippi river. In the Sabbath School at New Madrid we received three children, who were introduced to that place under the following circumstances: A man was descending the river with these three children in his pirogue. He and his children had landed on a desert island, on a bitter snowy evening in December. There were but two houses, and these at Little Prairie opposite the island, within a great distance. He wanted more whiskey, although he had been drinking too freely. Against the persuasion of his children, he left them, to cross over in his pirogue to these houses, and renew his supply. The wind blew high, and the river was rough. Nothing could persuade him from this dangerous attempt. He told them that he should return to them that night, left them in tears, and exposed to the pitiless pelting of the storm, and started for his carouse. The children saw the boat sink before he had half crossed the passage; the man was drowned. These forlorn beings were left without any other covering than their own scanty ragged dress, for he had taken his blankets with him. They had neither fire nor shelter, and no other food than uncooked pork and corn. It snowed fast, and the night closed over them in this situation. The elder was a girl of six years, but remarkably shrewd and acute for her age. The next was a girl of four, and the youngest a boy of two. It was affecting to hear Captain Cottineau engaged the Countess of her describe her desolation of heart, as she set herself Scarborough, and took her, after an hour's action, to examine her resources. She made them creep while the Bon Homme Richard engaged the Ser- together, and draw their feet under her clothes. She apis. The Countess of Scarborough is an armed covered them with leaves and branches, and thus ship of twenty six-pounders, and was commanded they passed the first night. In the morning, the by a king's officer. In the action, the Countess of younger children wept bitterly with cold and hunger. Scarborough and the Serapis were at a considerable The pork she cut into small pieces. She then distance asunder; and the Alliance, as I am inform-suaded them to run about by setting them the examed, fired into the Pallas and killed some men. If it ple. Then she made them return to chewing corn should be asked, why the convoy was suffered to and pork. It would seem as if Providence had a escape, I must answer, that I was myself in no con- special eye to these poor children, for in the course of dition to pursue, and that none of the rest showed the day some Indians landed on the island, found any inclination; not even Mr. Ricot, who had held them, and as they were coming up to New Madrid, off at a distance to windward during the whole took them with them.

Having thus endeavoured to give a clear and simple relation of the circumstances and events that have attended the little armament under my command, I shall freely submit my conduct therein to the censure of my superiours and the impartial publick. I beg leave, however, to observe, that the force put under my command was far from being well composed, and as the great majority of the actors in it have appeared bent on the pursuit of interest only, I am exceedingly sorry that they and I have been at all concerned.

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action, and withheld by force the pilot-boat with my

per

PUTNAM AND THE WOLF.

Ir needs not that we remind the reader what is the subject of our frontispiece to the present number. Every child in the land has heard its grandmother tell the story, and we are all familiar with it. Dr. Anderson, however, has a way peculiar to himself, in perpetuating the recollection of these familiar incidents, as will be seen by reference to the engraving opposite-and he desires that the "common version" should also be given, in order that the curious may compare notes.

To gratify him, therefore, we give the story as told by Col. Humphreys, the biographer of the intrepid Putnam.

"In the year 1799, Putnam removed from Salem, Mass., to Pomfret, an inland fertile town in Connecticut, forty miles east of Hartford; where he plied himself successfully to agriculture.

into the cavern and shoot the wolf; the negro declined the hazardous service. Then it was, that their master, angry at the disappointment, and declaring that he was ashamed to have a coward in his family, resolved himself to destroy the ferocious beast, lest she should escape through some unknown fissure of the rock. His neighbours strongly remonstrated against the perilous enterprise: but he, and having provided several strips of birch-bark, the knowing that wild animals were intimidated by fire, only combustible material which he could obtain, that would afford light in this deep and darksome cave, prepared for his descent. Having, accordingly, divested himself of his coat and waistcoat, and havmight be pulled back, at a concerted signal, he entering a long rope fastened round his legs, by which he ed head foremost, with the blazing torch in his hand.

The aperture of the den, on the east side of a very high ledge of rocks, is about two feet square; from thence it descends obliquely fifteen feet, then running horizontally about ten more, it ascends gradap-ually sixteen feet toward its termination. The sides of this subterraneous cavity are composed of smooth and solid rocks, which seem to have been divided from each other by some former earthquake. The top and bottom are also of stone, and the entrance, in winter, being covered with ice, is exceedingly slippery. It is in no place high enough for a man to raise himself upright; nor in any part more than three feet in width.

The first years on a new farm, are not, however, exempt from disasters and disappointments, which can only be remedied by stubborn and patient industry. Our farmer, sufficiently occupied in building a house and barn, felling woods, making fences, sowing grain, planting orchards and taking care of his stock, had to encounter, in turn, the calamities occasioned by drought in summer, blast in harvest, loss Having groped his passage to the horizontal part of cattle in winter, and the desolation of his sheep- of the den, the most terrifying darkness appeared in fold by wolves. In one night he had seventy fine front of the dim circle of light afforded by his torch. sheep and goats killed, besides many lambs and kids It was silent as the house of death. None but monwounded. This havock was committed by a she-sters of the desert had ever before explored this solwolf, which, with her annual whelps, had for several itary mansion of horrour. He, cautiously proceedyears infested the vicinity. The young were coming onward, came to the ascent, which he slowly monly destroyed by the vigilance of the hunters, but mounted on his hands and knees, until he discovered the old one was too sagacious to come within reach of gunshot: upon being closely pursued she would generally fly to the western woods, and return the next winter with another litter of whelps.

the glaring eyeballs of the wolf, who was sitting at the extremity of the cavern. Startled at the sight of fire, she gnashed her teeth and gave a sullen growl. As soon as he had made the necessary disThis wolf, at length, became such an intolerable covery, he kicked the rope as a signal for pulling nuisance, that Mr. Putnam entered into a combina- him out. The people at the mouth of the den, who tion with five of his neighbours to hunt alternately had listened with painful anxiety, hearing the growluntil they could destroy her. Two, by rotation, ing of the wolf, and supposing their friend to be in were to be constantly in pursuit. It was known, the most imminent danger, drew him forth with such that, having lost the toes from one foot by a steel celerity, that his shirt was stripped over his head trap, she made one track shorter than the other. By and his skin severely lacerated. After he had adthis vestige, the pursuers recognised, in a light snow, justed his clothes and loaded his gun with nine the route of this pernicious animal. Having fol- buck-shot, holding a torch in one hand and the muslowed her to Connecticut river, and found she had ket in the other, he descended the second time. turned back in a direct course toward Pomfret, When he drew nearer than before, the wolf, assu they immediately returned, and by ten o'clock the ming a still more fierce and terrible appearance, howlnext morning, the blood-hounds had driven her into ing, rolling her eyes, snapping her teeth, and dropa den, about three miles distant from the house of ping her head between her legs, was evidently in Mr. Putnam. The people soon collected with dogs, the attitude and on the point of springing at him. guns, straw, fire, and sulphur, to attack the common At this critical instant, he levelled and fired at her enemy. With this apparatus, several unsuccessful head. Stunned with the shock, and suffocated with efforts were made to force her from the den. The the smoke, he immediately found himself drawn out hounds came back badly wounded and refused to re- of the cave. But having refreshed himself, and perThe smoke of blazing straw had no effect. mitted the smoke to dissipate, he went down the Nor did the fumes of burnt brimstone, with which third time. Once more he came within sight of the the cavern was filled, compei her to quit the retire-wolf, who appearing very passive, he applied the ment. Wearied with such fruitless attempts, (which torch to her nose; and perceiving her dead, he took had brought the time to ten o'clock at night,) Mr. hold of her ears, and then kicking the rope, (still Putnam tried once more to make his dog enter, but tied round his legs,) the people above, with no small in vain. He proposed to his negro-man to go down exultation, dragged them both out together."

turn.