72 THE SEA. 



Kirkcudbright, Scotland, in 1728, his father being- head gardener. Young Paul worked 

 with his father for some length of time, and there is a story recorded of the elder Paul 

 which showed him to possess a good sense of humour. In the gardens were two summer- 

 houses, exactly alike in build and size. One day Lord Selkirk, while strolling about the 

 walks, observed a young man locked up in one of the summer-houses and looking out 

 of the window. In the other house young Paul appeared, looking out of the corresponding 

 window. His lordship inquired why the lads were confined, to which the gardener 

 replied, " My lord, I caught the rascal stealing your lordship's fruit." " But/' said the 

 nobleman, " there are two of them. What has your son done ? is he also guilty ? " 

 "Oh no, please your lordship/' old Paul coolly replied, "I just put him in for the sake 

 of symmetry ! " But it appears that afterwards young Paul got himself in serious trouble, 

 and deserved to have been locked up in some stronger place than a summer-house, and 

 on other grounds than symmetry, and after some specially knavish trick he was dismissed 

 from his employment, and almost immediately took to a seafaring life. He speedily rose 

 to be mate, and soon after master. 



In 1777, when the rupture broke out between America and Great Britain, he was 

 in New England, and 'he immediately enlisted among the revolutionists, who appointed 

 him commander of the Ranger privateer, mounting eighteen guns and several swivels, and 

 manned with a picked crew of 150 hardy men. 



In the course of the, following winter he put to sea, and made two captures, which 

 were sold in. a French port, and in 1778 made an attempt to burn and destroy the town 

 and shipping of Whitehaven. Having got near the land, he kept cautiously in the offing, 

 but at midnight, having proceeded nearer, he despatched his boats with thirty daring 

 sailors. A little battery at the entrance of the harbour was easily taken, and the small 

 garrison made prisoners before they could raise an alarm, and the guns spiked. The vessels 

 inside were laying close together at low water, and as no enemy was expected there 

 were no watches kept. The privateers deposited combustibles, trains of powder, and 

 matches, ready primed, on the decks and about the rigging, and all was ready for the signal 

 to be given, when a commotion and loud knocking was heard in the main street, and 

 crowds came running to the piers, attracted by the lights which were being hastily 

 thrown on the ships by the enemy. The attacking party could only just manage to get 

 away and back to the ship, when, on the muster being called, ene man was missing. 

 He it was who, either from hopes of great reward, or, let us hope, from some purer 

 motive of humanity, had started the alarm, and saved both town and shipping, for only 

 one vessel was seriously scorched. 



Paul Jones therefore left Whitehaven : the expedition had been a most complete 

 failure. He next made for the harbour of Kirkcudbright, at the entrance of the river 

 Dee on which that " jolly miller " once lived of whom we sing. A little distance from 

 the sea the Dee expands into an estuary, in which is the island of St. Mary, the very 

 place on which Lord Selkirk's castle and estate stood. Early in the morning the privateer, 

 with her guns and generally warlike appearance, had been observed, but her character 

 was not known. Few vessels of size ever entered the river, and in this case she was 

 supposed to be an English man-of-war, possibly bent on " impressing " men for the 



