Commodore Jones was weary of war. He ever abhorred those atrocities inevitably involved in what Napoleon I. has called “The science of barbarians.” Just before the sailing of the fleet he thought he saw indications that peace was not far distant. There was quite a sum of money due to him from France, whose remittance he was daily expecting. There was a farm house and an extensive tract of excellent land for sale near Newark, New Jersey. It had been valued at forty thousand dollars. But property had so depreciated during the war, and money was so scarce, that it was now seeking a purchaser at ten thousand dollars. Commodore Jones, with his humane feelings, literary taste, and yearnings for the joys of domestic life, was anxious to purchase this property. He wrote accordingly, on the 24th of December, 1782, intrusting the business to his friend John Ross, Esq. But the money did not come. The purchase was not made. Jones was far away in the harbor of Port Cabello. He had received no response to his letter, and did not even know whether his agent had ever received it. In this uncertainty he again wrote to Mr. Ross, from Port Cabello, on the 16th of March, 1783. After briefly recapitulating the contents of his former letter he added: “As New York will probably be one of our first naval ports, the proximity of that estate made me more desirous to own it. If, therefore, you should find, on inquiry, that I have been rightly informed, and if you can turn the merchandise in your hands into money, to answer for the purchase, I pray you to act for me as you would for yourself on the occasion. “We have as yet no certain news from Europe. If the peace should, as I wish it may, be concluded, I wish to establish myself on a place I can call my own, and offer my hand to some fair daughter of liberty. If, on the contrary, Count d’Estaing should come out with fifty sail of the line, copper sheathed, and eighteen thousand troops, I shall have instructions at the greatest military school in the world.” The satisfaction of Jones, upon the establishment of peace, and the independence of the land of his adoption, appears to have been unqualified. He immediately wrote to a friend: “The most brilliant success, and the most instructive experience in war could not have given me a pleasure comparable with that which I received, when I learned that Great Britain had, after so long a contest, been forced to acknowledge the independence and sovereignty of the United States of America.”