“However, I by no means repine, as it is a maxim with me to do my best and leave the rest to Providence. I shall take no step whatever without your knowledge and approbation. I have had several very severe fevers lately, which have reduced me a good deal, though I am now perfectly recovered. I must beg you to supply my mother, should she want anything, as I well know your readiness. I hope yourself and family enjoy health and happiness. “I am, most sincerely, sir, yours always, “JOHN PAUL.” In 1773, John Paul’s brother died, in Virginia. He died childless, and left no will. John repaired to his brother’s former residence to settle the estate. Here, for some reason which has never been satisfactorily explained, he assumed the surname of Jones, so that he ever afterward became familiarly known as Paul Jones. His subsequent achievements became such, that probably that name will never be obliterated from the memories of men. He had acquired considerable property, which he intrusted to agents at Tobago, and it was all lost. Captain Jones, weary of the wandering life of a sailor and its unsatisfactory results, was now disposed to devote his days to the peaceful pursuits of agriculture and to study, for which he had very strong predilections. In his letters to his friends he often expressed his desire to enter upon a life of “calm contemplation and poetic ease.” Man proposes, God disposes. The tumultuous career into which he was led, was not one which he would have sought for himself. He was almost forced into it by the state of the times. When in the midst of the stormiest scenes, without a family and without a home, he wrote pensively to the Countess of Selkirk, that duty to his country had compelled him “to sacrifice not only his favorite scheme of life, but the softer affections of his heart, and his hopes of domestic happiness.” His letters all indicate that he was a thoughtful man, one who deeply pondered the mystery of this our earthly being, and who made frank acknowledgment of his moral and religious obligations. His favorite poet was Thomson; and his “Seasons” he read and re-read. It is not possible that any man of frivolous nature should develop a taste so serious and so elevating. The loss of all his property at Tobago disheartened him, and repelled him from the risks of a commercial life. This probably decided him to settle down as a planter in Virginia, and to remain satisfied with the humble competence of a cultivator of the soil, in a rural home. He wrote to the Hon. Robert Morris: