“I am happy in having it in my power to congratulate you on my having seen the American flag, for the first time, recognized in the fullest and completest manner by the flag of France. I was off their bay the 13th instant, and sent my boat in, the next day, to know if the admiral would return my salute. He answered that he would return to me, as the senior American Continental officer in Europe, the same salute which he was authorized, by his court to return to an admiral of Holland, or any other republic; which was four guns less than the salute given. I hesitated at this, for I had demanded gun for gun. “Therefore I anchored in the entrance of the bay, at a distance from the French fleet. But, after a very particular inquiry, on the 14th, finding that he had really told the truth, I was induced to accept of his offer, the more so as it was, in fact, an acknowledgment of American independence. The wind being contrary and blowing hard, it was after sunset before the Ranger got near enough to salute La Motte Piquet with thirteen guns, which he returned with nine. However, to put the matter beyond a doubt, I did not suffer the Independence to salute till next morning, when I sent the admiral word that I would sail through his fleet in the brig, and would salute him in open day. He was exceedingly pleased, and he returned the compliment also with nine guns.” The Independence here alluded to, it is said, was a privateer which had been fitted out to sail under the orders of Captain Jones. His sailing through the French fleet was characteristic of the man, as he fully appreciated, at this time, the importance of this interchange of national courtesies, and the importance that it should be so emphatically done that there could be no denial of it. Thus he who first raised the American Pine-Tree flag to the topmast of the Alfred, and who first unfurled the national banner from the Ranger, now enjoyed the honor of being the first to secure for that flag a national salute. The times have changed. The infant republic has become one of the most powerful nations on the globe. There is no Government now which hesitates to return, in salute of our national banner, gun for gun. On the 10th of April, Captain Jones, in the Ranger, sailed from Brest. It was his intention to strike a blow first upon some unprotected point on the south side of England. It was indeed a bold and chivalric movement for the little Ranger, with her eighteen guns, to plunge into the very heart of the British Channel, which was crowded with the massive seventy-fours of Britain’s proud navy. England was discharging the broadsides of her invincible fleet upon our defenceless towns, and was landing her boats’ crews to apply the torch to our peaceful villages. Not a fishing-boat could leave a cove without danger of capture and the imprisonment of all the crew.