ENGAGEMENT WITH PAUL JONES. 75 



Selkirk, for whose ransom they anticipated a considerable sum might be realised. This,, 

 Jones declared, was the object of their first visit, in which having failed, they began to 

 murmur on their return on board, and insisted on their landing again and plundering the 

 castle ; he was therefore reluctantly obliged to give his assent. He added that he would 

 endeavour to buy the plunder they had so disgracefully brought away, and transmit the 

 whole, or such as he could obtain, to her ladyship. 



"Several years elapsed without hearing anything from Jones, and all hope of realisa- 

 tion of his promises had vanished; but in the spring of the year 1783, to the great 

 and agreeable surprise of her ladyship, the whole of the plate was returned, carriage paid, 

 precisely in the same condition in which it had been taken away, and to every appear- 

 ance without having ever been unpacked, the tea-leaves remaining in the silver teapot, 

 as they were left after breakfast on the morning of the plunderers' visit to the castle." 

 It is hardly to be doubted that Jones was sincere in this matter, and that the real 

 state of the case was that he had spoken before the others of Lord Selkirk's estate and 

 his early experiences, until they had become inflamed with a desire to plunder the castle, 

 and, if possible, secure the person of that nobleman, with the hope of obtaining a large 

 ransom. This, at first sight the most piratical act of Paul's life, really shows him to 

 advantage, and that he had some humanity left for his early associates. Lord Selkirk 

 himself received the news in London, with a few additions, to the effect that his castle 

 had been burned to the ground and his family taken prisoners. Those were not the days 

 of special correspondents and telegraphy. About half-way on his journey he, however, 

 obtained a more correct version of the affair. 



Jones now made for the Irish coast, where in the Belfast Loch he burned or cap- 

 tured several fishing-boats. A sloop-of-war, the Drake, under the command of Captain 

 Burden, was lying there. The commander thought that the Ranger was a merchantman, 

 and sent off a boat's crew to impress some of her men for the navy. Jones allowed 

 them to come on board, and then impressed them ! He did not, however, wish to risk 

 an engagement just then, and therefore put about and crowded on all sail. Captain Burden, 

 finding that his boat did not return, at last suspected something wrong, gave chase, and, 

 coming up with the privateer, opened a sharp fire. The night was so dark that the firing 

 could not be continued with any prospect of success. Next morning the engagement was 

 renewed, and at the end of over an hour's gallant fighting on both sides by which time 

 Captain Burden, his first lieutenant, and some of the crew, being killed, and more disabled, 

 and the ship much damaged the Drake surrendered to the Ranger. Jones took his prize 

 into Brest and communicated his success to Dr. Franklin,* then the American diplomatic 

 agent in Paris. 



In the following winter we find Jones in command of a frigate, the Bonne Homme 

 Richard, of forty guns, with a complement of 370 men, having under him another frigate, 

 the Alliance, of nearly equal size, a brig, and a cutter, all acting in the service of the 

 American Congress. A French frigate, the Pallas, also formed one of the squadron. Some 

 of his first essays were failures. Landing a boat's crew on the coast of Kerry to take 

 some sheep, the farmers and people defended their property bravely, and the aggressors 

 * Few readers will need reminding that the same Dr. Franklin was the celebrated philosopher. 



