a
determined view to get those I had already taken in safe and after
landing the prisoners to put out immediately; but meeting with blowing
weather and high sea, I lost the sails of the head and was in great
danger of losing the head, which accident obliged me to put in here,
where I arrived yesterday with the four prizes. After repairing the
damages and getting what the ships may want I shall put to sea on a
cruise."

While at L'Orient, Captain Barry was invited by Lafayette to come to
Paris, but as he had been "indisposed with a fever which confined him
for ten days" and the ship ready to sail, he could not accept, but wrote
the Marquis he envied the Captain who was to take him to America, but as
that pleasure could not be his, Barry hoped to command the ship that
would convey Lafayette back to France, when he would visit Paris and
"have the honor of seeing Lady Fayette," an honor his brother who since
was lost at sea had had.

CHAPTER XIII.

OFFICERS OF THE "ALLIANCE" REFUSE TO SERVE--PEACE.

Though in October Captain Barry hoped in a few days to proceed on a
cruise it was not until December 8, 1782, that he was ready to sail,
which he did the next day. Lieutenants Patrick Fletcher and Nicholas
Gardner, John Buckley, Master; James Geagan, Surgeon, and Samuel Cooper,
Purser, demanded two-thirds of their wages, "though they had received as
much prize-money as they knew what to do with." Captain Barry informed
them that he had no authority to pay them and had no money if he had.
They refused to go on board the "Alliance" and do their duty.
Accordingly, Captain Barry placed them under arrest until tried by
Court-Martial in the United States. He was obliged to appoint others,
"not adequate to the duty of the stations, 'but necessity knows no
law,'" he wrote Thomas Barclay, Consul-General of the United States and
Commissioner of the Navy in France, who justified Barry's course and
concurred in the appointments he made.

All this time there were rumors of peace. On November 30, 1782,
preliminary articles of peace had been signed. On December 5th King
George III announced that he had given the "necessary orders to prohibit
the further prosecution of offensive war upon the Continent of North
America."

Though Captain Barry, early in December, 1782, had "great reason to
think peace was concluded," he decided to make another cruise by
"running down the coast of Guinea" and returning to America by way of
Mart