Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/220

280 from captivity those citizens of America who had fallen under the power of the enemy, and in general for the good conduct and eminent services by which he had added lustre to his character and to the arms of America." No farther opportunity for distinguishing himself occurred during- the war; but, after its conclusion, Congress, as an expression of gratitude, had a gold medal struck with appropriate devices to perpetuate the memory of his valour, and the singular services he had performed for the States.

In the year 1787, the chevalier Jones, being charged with a mission to the court of Denmark, sailed for that country in the month of November, and passing through Paris tfn his way, he was strongly solicited by the agents of Russia to take the command of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. This he declined, but he was scarce arrived at Copenhagen, when the empress Catharine, sent him, by a special messenger, an urgent invitation to visit St Petersburg. After what he had performed, it would have been strange if the chevalier Jones had not felt some reluctance to enter into the service of Russia, where every maxim by which he had been guided during his exertions for liberty behoved to be reversed, and where, instead of being directed by the united voice of an intelligent people, he must regulate his conduct by the single will of a despot. It is one of the greatest evils of despotism, that the despot, once established, hag the means of corrupting and enslaving even the most generous minds. The chevalier Jones saw many reasons for declining to enter into the service of Catharine; but, flattered by her attention and kind offers, he thought he could not do less than to wait upon and thank her in person for her friendly intentions. For this purpose he set out instantly from Copenhagen, by the way of Sweden, but at Gushelham found the gulf of Bothnia blocked up by the ice. After making several unsuccessful attempts to reach Finland by the islands, he conceived a plan for effecting his progress by doubling the ice to the southward. With this view he sailed from Gushelham in a boat thirty feet long, followed by a smaller one that might be hauled over the ice, but told none of those who accompanied him what were his intentions. Having set out early in the morning, he had by the evening got nearly opposite Stockholm, when, instead of landing as the boatmen expected, he drew out a pair of pistols and ordered them to proceed in the direction he had previously determined upon. Resistance with a man of the chevalier's character was probably judged by the simple boatmen to be in vain ; and following his orders, with a fair wind they expected to reach the coast of Finland by the morning. An impenetrable bar of ice, however, defied all their efforts, nor from the state of the weather was it possible for them to return. Their only resource was to sail for the gulf of Finland, which they did, steering at night by a pocket compass, lighted by the lamp of the chevalier's carriage, and in four days, having lost the smaller of their boats, landed at Revel in Livonia. The chevalier hasted from Revel to St Petersburg, where he met with a most gracious reception, and, unable any longer to hold out against the kind wishes of the empress, entered into her service, without any stipulations but that he should not be at any time condemned without being heard. Invested with the rank of rear-admiral, he proceeded without delay to take the command of a fleet stationed at the Liman or mouth of the Dnieper, destined to oppose the Turkish fleet under the capitan Pacha. He hoisted his flag as commander of this fleet on the 2Gth of May, 1788, on board the Vlodimer, and was supported by a flotilla under the prince of Nassau, and a number of land troops under prince Potemkin. Throughout this campaign, though it produced little that is worthy of the notice of the historian, the chevalier Jones had many opportunities of displaying his professional skill and the singular intrepidity of his character; but mean jealousy and the malignant