name of the best of all corsair captains. In 1777 he was
appointed to the command of a French-built ship under American colours,
and he then proceeded upon a cruise to the coast of Britain. Many were
the exploits which he transacted. He took many prizes in places where
the American flag had never before been seen; he made a descent at the
mouth of the Dee, near to Kirkcudbright, and plundered the house of the
Earl of Selkirk; and he made another descent on the Cumberland coast,
spiked the guns of the fort at Whitehaven, and burned one or two
vessels. He also cruised up and down between the Solway and the Clyde;
scaring the whole coast, after which he returned to Brest, boasting that
he had kept the north-western coast of England and the southern coast of
Scotland in a constant state or alarm. In the summer of the present year
he returned to cruise along our eastern coasts, having at this time a
squadron manned by desperadoes of various countries under his command.
Alarm spread from Flamboroughhead to the Frith of Tay, for the name of
Paul Jones had become synonymous with all that is terrible. His great
object this year was to intercept the Baltic trade, which was under the
convoy of Captain Pearson, in the ship "Serapis," of forty guns, and
Captain Piercy, in the "Countess of Scarborough," of twenty guns. This
fleet arrived safely off the Yorkshire coast, when Paul Jones appeared
to encounter it. Captain Pearson made a signal for his convoy to bear
down under his lee; and he himself made way to get between the enemy's
ships and the convoy. The "Countess of Scarborough" took a similar
position, and while the enemy was advancing, the merchant-vessels made
their way in haste to the shore. At length the squadron of Paul Jones,
consisting of three large ships, a cutter, and a brig, reached the
"Serapis" and the "Countess," and a terrible conflict took place between
the former and the "Bon Homme Richard," a two-decker, carrying forty
guns, and which was Paul Jones's own ship. The two ships were brought
into such a situation that the muzzles of their guns came in contact,
and in this manner the action continued with the greatest fury for two
hours, during which time Jones, who had far more men than his opponent,
vainly attempted to board, and the "Serapis" was set on fire ten or
twelve times. The fire each time was extinguished, and Captain Pearson
had the best of the battle; but, in the meantime the "Countess of
Scarborough" h