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[Illustration: THE ATTACK ON WHITEHAVEN.]




                                THE LIFE
                                   OF
                     REAR ADMIRAL JOHN PAUL JONES.

                                   BY
                           JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.

[Illustration]

                               NEW YORK:
                        DODD & MEAD, PUBLISHERS,
                             762 BROADWAY.

                   _AMERICAN PIONEERS AND PATRIOTS._

------------------------------------------------------------------------

                        THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES

                                   OF

                     REAR-ADMIRAL JOHN PAUL JONES,

                            COMMONLY CALLED

                              PAUL JONES.




                                   BY

                           JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.




                           ------------------

                              ILLUSTRATED.

                           ------------------




                               NEW YORK:
                        DODD & MEAD, PUBLISHERS,
                             762 BROADWAY.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

       Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by
                              DODD & MEAD,
       in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

                                   TO

           THE OFFICERS AND SEAMEN OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY,


                              THIS VOLUME,
      COMMEMORATIVE OF THE HEROIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF ONE OF THE MOST

              ILLUSTRIOUS OF THEIR NUMBER, IS RESPECTFULLY

                              DEDICATED BY

                                                  JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.

FAIR HAVEN, CONN., 1874.




                                PREFACE.


I commenced writing the Life of Paul Jones with the impression, received
from early reading, that he was a reckless adventurer, incapable of
fear, and whose chief merit consisted in performing deeds of desperate
daring. But I rise from the careful examination of what he has written,
said, and done, with the conviction that I had misjudged his character.
I now regard him as one of the purest and most enlightened of patriots,
and one of the noblest of men. His name should be enrolled upon the same
scroll with those of his intimate friends, Washington, Jefferson,
Franklin, and Lafayette.

As this exhibition of the character of Admiral Jones is somewhat
different from that which has been presented in current literature, I
have felt the necessity of sustaining the narrative by the most
unquestionable documentary evidence. Should any one, in glancing over
the pages, see that the admiral is presented in a different light from
that in which he has been accustomed to view him, I must beg him, before
he condemns the narrative, to examine the proof which I think
establishes every statement.

The admiral had his faults. Who has not? But on the whole he was one of
nature’s noblemen. His energies were sincerely and intensely devoted to
the good of humanity. He was ambitious. But it was a noble ambition, to
make his life sublime. He was a man of pure lips and of unblemished
life. His chosen friends were the purest, the most exalted, the best of
men. He had no low vices. Gambling, drinking, carousing, were abhorrent
to his nature. He was a student of science and literature; and in the
most accomplished female society he found his social joy. While forming
the comprehensive views of statesmenship and of strategy, and evincing
bravery unsurpassed by any knight of romance, he was in manners,
thought, and utterance, as unaffected as a child.

                                                  JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.




                               CONTENTS.

                             --------------


                              CHAPTER I.
                                                                 PAGE
                 _The Early Life of John Paul Jones._

  His Birth and Childhood.—Residence and Employments in
    Scotland.—His Studious Habits.—First Voyage to
    America.—Engaged in the Slave Trade.—Reasons for
    Abandoning it.—False Charges against him.—His
    Sensitiveness to Obloquy.—Espouses the Cause of the
    Colonies.—Developments of Character.—Extracts from his
    Letters.                                                        9

                              CHAPTER II.
                          _The Infant Navy._

  Rescuing the Brigantine.—Commissioned as Captain.—Escape
    from the Solway.—Conflict with the Milford.—Adventures at
    Canso and Madame.—Return with Prizes.—Expedition to Cape
    Breton.—Wise Counsel of Jones.—Brilliant Naval
    Campaign.—Saving the Prizes.—Value of the Mellish.—Mission