Enterprise and Adventure/True History of Paul Jones
forts, with thirty pieces of cannon, and burnt the shipping in the harbour. The crew of the dreaded privateer landed on St. Mary's Isle, which was the property of the Earl of Selkirk, and which contained that nobleman's seat. Here Paul Jones hoped to seize the person of the Earl, and intended carrying him to France or to America as a hostage for the better treatment of American captives. Lord Selkirk, however, was absent, and the expedition embarked, but not without carrying away the family plate—a fact of which Jones was unaware until the expedition had put to sea. Lady Selkirk had been alone in the mansion when the attack was made, and Jones, scorning to play the part of a common pirate, wrote to her immediately after his return to France, informing her that her house had been plundered without his knowledge, and that he would send back her plate at his own expense—a promise which he faithfully performed. His letter then entered into a statement of his motives and feelings, which appears to have been strongly characteristic of the writer. "Though," he says, "I have drawn my sword in the present generous struggle for the rights of men, yet I am not in arms as an American, nor am I in pursuit of riches. I profess myself a citizen of the world, totally unfettered by the little mean distinctions of climate or of country, which diminish the benevolence of the heart, and set bounds to philanthropy. Before this war began, I had, at an early time of life, withdrawn from the sea service in favour of 'calm contemplation and poetic ease.' I have sacrificed not only my favourite scheme of life, but the softer affections of the heart and my prospects of domestic happiness, and am ready to sacrifice my life also with cheerfulness, if that forfeiture could restore peace and goodwill among mankind. As the feelings of your gentle bosom cannot but be congenial with mine, let me entreat you, madam, to use your persuasive art with your husband to endeavour to stop this cruel and destructive war, in which Britain can never succeed. Heaven can never countenance the barbarous and unmanly practice of the Britons in America, which savages would blush at, and which, if not discontinued, will soon be retaliated on Britain by a justly-enraged people. Should you fail in this—for I am persuaded that you will attempt it, and who can resist the power of such an advocate?—your endeavours to effect a general exchange of prisoners will be an act of humanity which will afford you golden feelings on a deathbed."
Paul Jones was a native of Scotland, the son of a gardener at Kirkcudbright. Having taken early to a seafaring life, he went to America, where he obtained the command of several merchant ships. At the commencement of the revolution in that country he entered ardently into the cause of the colonists against the mother country, and volunteered his services in that species of naval warfare which afterwards rendered his name so famous. In one of his letters, in reply to the charge that he had waged war against his native country, he says:—"I was indeed born in Britain, but I do not inherit the degenerate spirit of that fallen nation, which I at once lament and despise. It is far beneath me to reply to their hireling invectives. They are strangers to the inward approbation that greatly animates and rewards the man who draws his sword only in support of the dignity of freedom. America has been the country of my fond election from the age of thirteen, when I first saw it. I had the honour to hoist with my own hands the flag of freedom, the first time it was displayed, on the Delaware, and I have attended it with veneration ever since on the ocean."
It is now generally acknowledged that these romantic sentiments were strictly in accordance with the principles which actuated the famous "pirate" of the American revolution throughout his romantic career.