but did not seem anxious to go within grapeshot; and Jones,
with his heavier ships, went to capture five Turkish galleys lying under
the cover of the guns of the Turkish battery and flotilla. Two of these
galleys were captured and the others destroyed. Nassau and Alexiano
directed their belligerent efforts against the captured galleys, one of
which was--with all the slaves on board,--ruthlessly burned. Other
Turkish ships were likewise needlessly destroyed, a mode of warfare
quite at variance with the traditions of Jones. He expressed his
consequent disgust in terms more genuine than diplomatic.

As a reward of his idiotic actions, on the basis of an inflated and
dishonest report of the battle which was sent to the empress, Nassau
received a valuable estate, the military order of St. George, and
authority to hoist the flag of rear-admiral; other officers were also
substantially rewarded; while all that was given to Jones, whose honest
but unflattering report had been rejected by Potemkin, was the order of
St. Anne. It is easy to imagine Jones's bitterness. He says in his
journal: "If he (Nassau) has received the rank of vice-admiral, I will
say in the face of the universe that he is unworthy of it."

Referring to the cowardice of his associates who, in order to escape, he
says, provided their boats with small _chaloupes_, Jones writes:--

"For myself I took no precautions. I saw that I must conquer or die."

Jones's bitterness, partly justified by the facts, seems at this time to
have reached almost the point of madness, and the quarrel between him
and his associates increased in virulence. In the course of the
unimportant operations following the defeat of the Turks, during which
the squadron maintained a strict blockade of Oczakow, Jones was sent on
a number of trivial enterprises by Potemkin, whose language was
carefully chosen to irritate the fiery Scotchman. On one occasion he
commanded Jones "to receive him (the Capitan Pacha) courageously, and
drive him back. I require that this be done without loss of time; if
not, you will be made answerable for every neglect." In reply, Jones
complained of the injustice done his officers. Shortly afterwards Jones
doubted the wisdom of one of Potemkin's orders, and wrote: "Every man is
master of his opinion, and this is mine." When Potemkin again wrote
Jones "to defend himself courageously," the latter's annotation was: "It
will be hard to believe that Prince Potemkin address