“The inhabitants,” writes Captain Jones, “began to appear in thousands, and individuals ran hastily toward us. I stood between them and the ship on fire, with a pistol in my hand, and ordered them to retire, which they did with precipitation. The sun was a full hour’s march above the horizon, and, as sleep no longer ruled the world, it was time to retire. We reëmbarked without opposition, having released a number of prisoners, as our boats could not carry them. After all my people had embarked, I stood upon the pier, for a considerable space, yet no person advanced. I saw all the eminences round the town covered with the amazed inhabitants.” When the boats had been rowed some distance from the shore, the English began to run to their forts, to open fire from the great guns. To their surprise they found the garrisons locked up in the guard-houses, and the cannon all spiked. After some delay they found one or two cannon on the beach, which were dismounted, and which had not been spiked. These they hastily loaded and fired; but with such ill-directed aim that the shot all fell wide of their mark. Captain Jones’s men, in derision, fired their pistols, returning the salute. If the boats could have entered the harbor a few hours earlier, the success would doubtless have been complete, and not a vessel would have escaped the flames. “But what was done,” writes Captain Jones, “is sufficient to show that not all their boasted navy can protect their own coasts; and that the scenes of distress, which they have occasioned in America, may be soon brought home to their own door.” The Ranger now struck across the broad mouth of Solway Frith, to St. Mary’s Island, on the Scottish shore, in Kirkcudbright Bay. Here Lord Selkirk had his residence, in a fine mansion. It will be remembered that the father of Paul Jones had been attached to his household. The British were shutting up our most illustrious men in the hulks of prison ships, and treating them with barbarity which would have disgraced savages. Captain Jones deemed it of the utmost importance, as a measure of humanity, to seize some distinguished Englishman and hold him as a hostage, to secure the better treatment of our own noblemen who had fallen into the enemy’s hands. For this patriotic movement the English press denounced him in terms of unmeasured abuse. The motive which influenced him was an exalted one. And he merits the highest encomiums for the manner in which he conducted the enterprise. In justice to Captain Jones, I feel bound to give the narrative in his own words. It is contained in letter which he wrote to the Countess of Selkirk, with whom he was personally acquainted, immediately after the Ranger returned from its cruise to Brest. “RANGER, BREST, May 8. ”TO THE COUNTESS OF SELKIRK.