Away they went, east and west, north and south, around the British isles, seeking for the men-of-war which should have swarmed in those seas, but finding only merchant vessels, a number of which were captured and their crews kept as prisoners. But the gallant commodore soon got tired of this. He had come out to fight, and he wanted to find something worth fighting. At length, on September 23d, he came in view of a large fleet of merchant ships, forty-two in all, under the charge of two frigates, the "Serapis," of forty-two guns, and the "Countess of Scarborough," of twenty-two smaller guns. Commodore Jones left the smaller vessel for his consorts to deal with, and dashed away for the "Serapis" as fast as the tub-like "Bon Homme Richard" could go. The British ship was much stronger than his in number and weight of guns, but he cared very little for that. The "Serapis" had ten 18-pound cannon in each battery, and the "Bon Homme Richard" only three. And these were such sorry excuses for cannon that two of them burst at the first fire, killing and wounding the most of their crews. After that Jones did all his fighting with 12 and 8-pound guns; that is, with guns which fired balls of these weights. It was night when the battle began. Soon the 18-pounders of the "Serapis" were playing havoc with the sides of the "Bon Homme Richard." Many of the balls went clear through her and plunged into the sea beyond. Some struck her below the water level, and soon the rotten old craft was "leaking like a basket." It began to look desperate for Jones and his ship. He could not half reply to the heavy fire of the English guns, and great chasms were made in the ship's side, where the 18-pound balls tore out the timbers between the port holes. Captain Pearson of the "Serapis" looked at his staggering and leaking enemy, and thought it about time for the battle to end. "Have you surrendered?" he shouted across the water to Commodore Jones. "I have not yet begun to fight," was the famous answer of the brave Paul Jones. Surrender, indeed! I doubt if that word was in Paul Jones' dictionary. He would rather have let his vessel sink. The ships now drifted together, and by Jones' order the jib-boom of the "Serapis" was lashed to his mizzen-mast. This brought the ships so close side by side that the English gunners could not open their ports, and had to fire through them and blow them off. And the gunners on both sides had to thrust the handles of their rammers through the enemy's port holes, in order to load their guns. Affairs were now desperate. The "Bon Homme Richard" was on fire in several places. Water was pouring into her through a dozen rents. It seemed as if she must sink or burn. Almost any man except Paul Jones would have given up the fight. I know I should, and I fancy most of you would have done the same. But there was no give up in that man's soul.