Ships were lost during these dark voyages, and said to have had no chance of escape, but it is certain that the men on board were often sent ashore or to France to be exchanged, and I have known instances where whole crews were released from prison, and sent back to America while there was no provision for their return voyage, and they were left to find their own way home. Some of these wretches drifted to Brazil where they met their death by the way. One vessel was lost in 1806 on board of which was Capt. Edward King, who had been left prisoner on board the _Hermione_ for two years, and the survivors afterwards deserted and returned to France, and reported that Capt. King and the greater part of the crew were dead. Many captains of privateerships took out passports from the American Government for a certain number of men, and when their crews were all dead and they would be obliged to abandon the ship, they made reports and were given certificates of their deaths, and then were given passages to France in other vessels. The first privateers in connection with the American Revolution were armed from the ships of their commanders, but afterwards their crews volunteered to serve in the capacity of soldiers, and in those days money was very scarce, and a man often received $100 in money or a considerable quantity of goods on enlisting, for which he would be willing to fight two or three years, and sometimes he would be sent abroad to the French or British fleets on board a man-of-war and serve in them for a long time. The crews of the French ships were generally composed of prisoners, and were made to desert their own country and fight against their own families. It is said by the French that the _Tyrannicide_ was built in France, but she was purchased by John Paul Jones and fitted out in the United States. The name of this ship was changed to the _Bon homme Richard_, and it was her history that was the cause of the war between France and America. John Paul Jones was a very clever fellow, and went to France, where there was a great deal of excitement about the arrival of the _Bon homme_ Richard, and there was great anxiety for the ship as a prize. About the time she was on the point of being seized, Jones, who was with the crew, went ashore, and the following day he returned on board, with some of the crew, and said that they were going to scuttle the ship. To this, the other officers objected strongly, as they had their wives and children on board, and would all have been drowned. This angered Jones, and he got upon the quarter-deck, armed himself, and with an iron tube in his hand, swore that he would burn the ship, pierce the men with the tube, and not one should escape alive. He was seized and a guard placed over him, but his men were determined to get the ship out of the harbor, and at last they succeeded, and went out of the harbor and were pursued by some French ships, and Jones was carried as a prisoner of war to England, where he was detained on parole and was afterward exchanged, when he went to America again. After the return of Jones, some of the crew were captured by an English cruiser and were taken prisoners, and the captain of the privateer was compelled to scuttle the ship in order to release them. The American privateers were very different from the foreign ships, as they were usually fitted out from merchantmen, and though the owners of the merchant vessels usually fitted them out and let them into the privateers as agents for their private gain, they really did all they could to save the vessel. It must be understood that their purpose was to save the ship and not to take men or take the ship and kill the men. The practice in England and France was different. The captain, officers, and crew of a privateer were often Englishmen, foreigners, Frenchmen, or Irishmen, as happened to be in a particular vessel, and though they might have escaped from the same vessel, they would refuse to take the same risk in a neutral vessel. When a foreign vessel was taken, the crew generally got into their own boats and threw overboard anything that would sink, and some of the prisoners in the vessel said that they were saved by this trick, and told a tale which is not very uncommon, that the captain of the vessel told the crew to throw overboard certain papers of great value, the object of the captain and crew being to save their own lives. There is an instance, in the year 1770, where three French privateers were taken by the same vessel. On the first they threw away all the arms and provisions which they had brought with them, but on the second took a spar, put on some provisions, and tried to work it along side. The prize-master ordered them to throw over everything which they had with them, but the privateers said that they were saved by that. The crew of a vessel which captures a privateer is often tempted to carry away a part of the men, but a part are taken on board as hostages, that no further plundering or violence may be committed. It is, however, frequently a matter of great difficulty to get men into any squadron on board a man-of-war, for when a crew has worked off the coast it is very seldom that all the men will enlist, and a captain is at the mercy of the men whom he may select to serve him. After the _Bon homme Richard_ was lost, Capt. Jones wrote a letter to the officers of his vessel, expressing his regret at having scuttled her, and the same year he was appointed to a frigate, and he went out as commander-in-chief of her for the protection of the ocean. In the year 1783, a great misfortune befell the American navy, for it sustained one of the most disgraceful defeats in the history of the navy, and there were many reasons for it, and this was probably the cause that prevented the government from granting enough of money for the navy. There was a ship of one hundred and twenty guns, called the _United States_, and being captured by the _Constellation_, the commander, Capt. Barron, was shot by order of the crew, for having forced them to take an oath to serve on board. After this he was captured by a French man-of-war, but when he arrived in France, he was set at liberty, and it is said that an English admiral, with his ship in the West Indies, came in an American vessel with a number of French seamen in her, and when near the coast, took the French seamen out of the vessel, put the English seamen in their places and sent the vessel on her voyage. The _United States_ was afterward captured by the French, who burned her and carried her men away. These men were then employed by the French in the West Indies, and there was a rumor that two of them might have been the cause of a great catastrophe that happened in the English administration at Barbadoes in the West Indies, as both were connected with the French, but I have been unable to find any evidence of this. Among the first prisoners made by the English were Captain Maitland, and the officers who commanded on board the _Bon homme Richard_, and their escape from the prison ship is one of the most celebrated events of the French Revolution. CHAPTER IV. THE FRENCH SENT TO BOSTON.--A ROW BETWEEN THE FRENCH AND AMERICANS.-- ATTACKS AND DEFENCES.--RIVALRY OF THE COMMON SENTIMENT.--WAR OF LAWLESS TOMORROW.--THE FRENCH SEIZED BY A SHIP OF WAR.--THEY REFUSE TO LEAVE THE SHIP AND ARE SENT TO THE TOWER IN NEW YORK.--WAR ON LAND BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND THE FRENCH.--THE FRENCH TAKE POSSESSION OF NEW YORK.-- PURSUIT OF THE FRENCH AND BURNING OF NEW YORK.--THE FRENCH BRITISH AND THE AMERICANS OPPOSE A STRONG ENGLISH FORCE.--ATTACK ON NEWARK.--A ROW BETWEEN THE NEWARK AND EARL OF DUNMORE.--ATTACK ON SOUTH FREDERICK AND KILLING OF COL. SCOTT.--BRITISH ARE DEFEATED AT TOWN ISLAND.-- COLONEL DALTON.--ATTACKS BY THE SAVAGES ON STOCKTON AND DUNMORE.--RETURN OF THE FRENCH TO LONDON.--DESTRUCTION OF YORKTOWN.--PLANTERS' RUSTICAS.--EASTERN STATES CONCLUDE AN ARMISTICE WITH THE ENEMY. From the time when the French took possession of the island