nt of the navy, which were adopted on the 28th
(see journal of Congress 1, page 255). On the 2d of December the
committee was authorized to prepare a commission for the captains of
armed vessels in colonial service. On December 9th the pay of naval
officers, marines and seamen was adopted, and on December 11th a
committee was appointed of one from each colony as a Committee of Ways
and Means on Naval affairs. This committee reported on the 13th that a
number of vessels could be prepared for sea by March, 1776, and that it
would cost over eight hundred thousand dollars to purchase them and fit
them out. This report was adopted, and the same committee was ordered to
go ahead and prepare the vessels for sea, which was accordingly done,
and the following vessels were made ready for service: Alfred, Dorea,
Columbus, Lexington, Fly, Hornet, Wasp, Cabot, Randolph, Franklin,
Providence, Dolphin and Lynch.

In April, 1776, the council of the Massachusetts Colony adopted a device
for a flag for privateers, and its own armed vessels a white flag with a
green pine tree on it (see Fig. 2); but the general Congress made no
provision whatever for a naval flag distinct from the Grand Union Flag
hoisted in January at Cambridge, as stated. In July, 1776, John Jay
complained in a letter that Congress had fixed upon no device
"concerning continental colors, and that captains of the armed vessels
had followed their own fancies." In the latter part of 1775, M. Turgot,
the French Premier of Louis XVI received a report from an agent of his
kept in the Colonies that "they have given up the English flag, and have
taken as their devices a rattlesnake with thirteen rattles, or a mailed
arm holding thirteen arrows." The reason given for the maintenance of an
agent by the French government was to assure the Colonists that they
were esteemed and respected by the French people. The ulterior purpose,
however, of Vergennes and Turgot was to recover back if they could the
Canadian provinces they had lost in their war with the British. Many
such flags were in use, and some were embellished with mottoes the
principal one being "Don't tread on me." Such a motto was upon the flag
of Proctor's Westmoreland County Battalion of Pennsylvania (see Fig. 9).
This flag was displayed at the centennial of Westmoreland County,
Pennsylvania, at Greensburg, held in the year 1873. A splendid cut of
the above flag is in Vol. XIV of the Archives of Pennsylvania. Others
had