_The Mutiny of Landais._
The Visit of Jones to Versailles.—Intrigues of Landais.—The Alliance
Wrested from Jones.—Complicity of Arthur Lee.—Magnanimity of
Jones.—Strong Support of Dr. Johnson.—Honors Conferred upon
Jones.—Strange Career of Landais.—His Life in America, and
Death.—Continued Labors and Embarrassments of Jones.—His
Correspondence.
Jones immediately, upon his arrival at L’Orient, made preparations for
his departure, with the two armed ships, the Alliance and the Ariel,
which were to convoy several American vessels, with cargoes amounting to
four hundred thousand dollars in value. Having heard that his authority
had been called in question, he, on the morning of the 13th of June,
mustered the crew of the Alliance on the quarter-deck, and caused his
commission from Congress to be read to them, together with the order
from Dr. Franklin for him to take command of the Alliance, and a
subsequent order to take her to Philadelphia. When he asked if any of
the crew had any complaint to make against him, not one stepped forward.
All seemed to be satisfied.
Soon after, he went ashore to confer with the French authorities in
reference to the armament of the Ariel. Landais was on the watch. As
soon as Commodore Jones stepped ashore, Captain Landais sent an order to
one of his confederates, by the name of Degges, who had been first
lieutenant of the Alliance, to take command of the ship until he should
receive further orders. Degges mustered the crew; read the order to
them, and also the very decided opinion of Commissioner Lee, that
Landais was the legal commander of the Alliance. The sailors were
bewildered. They were in danger of losing all their prize-money, and
their wages for several months of arduous and perilous labor. Landais
had made them golden promises. The majority decided for Landais. At that
opportune moment, he came over the side of the ship and took the
command.
Lieutenant Dale and the other officers of the Richard, who had come from
the Serapis on board the Alliance, and who remained faithful to
Commodore Jones, were thrust into boats and sent ashore. It is hardly
just to call this a mutiny, on the part of the sailors, for they were
reasonably in doubt as to who was the commander they were legally bound
to obey.
Commodore Jones, hearing the cheers of the crew of the Alliance,
hastened on board. He found Landais parading up and down the deck,
flourishing his commission in his hand, and haranguing the crew in
broken English. Jones was also unceremoniously sent ashore with his
officers. He hastened to Versailles, to inform the governmental
authorities there of what had transpired. On the 17th of June, Dr.
Franklin wrote to Commodore Jones. He had probably not then been fully
informed of the very serious character of the events which had taken
place. In this letter he said:
“Having been informed by several gentlemen of and from L’Orient, that it
is there generally understood the mutiny on board your ship has been
advised or promoted by the Honorable Arthur Lee, whom I had ordered you
to receive as a passenger, I hereby withdraw that order so far as to
leave the execution to your direction. If from the circumstances which
have come to your knowledge it should appear to you that the peace and
good government of the ship, during the voyage, may be endangered by his
presence, you may decline taking that gentleman; which I apprehend need
not obstruct his return to America, as there are several ships going
under your convoy, and no doubt many of their passengers may be
prevailed to change places. But if you judge these suspicions groundless
you will comply with the order aforesaid.”
Honorable Arthur Lee was a disappointed and angry man. He had quarrelled
with his associates, and was returning to America in very ill humor. The
Alliance was crowded with freight of the utmost importance to the
struggling colonies. Mr. Lee insisted upon large accommodation for
himself and family, for room for his carriage, and for a vast amount of
baggage. This would have demanded space which was needed for
transportation of the soldiers’ clothing. Commodore Jones, with his soul
absorbed in devotion to the public interests, and who scarcely allowed
chest-room for himself, objected to the surrender of so much space to
the commissioner and his family. This grievously offended Mr. Lee, and
added to his discontent. Commodore Jones gives the following account of
the difficulty:
“I am convinced that Mr. Lee has acted in this manner merely because I
would not become the enemy of the venerable, the wise, the good
Franklin, whose heart as well as head does, and will always do, honor to
human nature. I know the great and good, in this kingdom, better perhaps
than any other American who has appeared in Europe since the treaty of
alliance. And if my testimony could add anything to Franklin’s
reputation, I could witness the universal veneration and esteem with
which his name inspires all ranks, not only at Versailles and all over
this kingdom, but also in Spain and Holland. And I can add from the
testimony of the first characters of other nations that, with them, envy
itself is dumb when the name of Franklin is but mentioned.”
Upon the day of the mutiny which put Landais in possession of the
Alliance, Paul Jones dined with the French admiral. He was keenly
sensible of the disgrace to our nation should two commissioned officers,
in a foreign port, each perhaps leading two hundred men, have a bloody
battle on the deck of one of our war-ships. Such an untoward event would
have disgraced our country, and the holy cause in which we were engaged,
in the eyes of all Europe. And it would but add to our reproach that, in
this deplorable conflict, the commissioners, sent to Paris to win France
to our cause, were divided, Mr. Lee being on the one side and Dr.
Franklin on the other.
The Alliance was in a French port, and consequently under French law.
When the commissioners were in antagonistic opinion whether Jones or
Landais was the legal commander of the ship, the sailors might well be
excused for being also honestly divided in their views. Commodore Jones,
a humane man, a lover of peace and justice, could not bear the thought
of strewing the deck of the ship with the bloody corpses of these
ignorant men. He preferred to submit the question to the arbitration of
the laws, rather than to brutal violence.
Jones despatched an express to the court, at Versailles, and immediately
followed it. Upon his arrival he found, that through the intervention of
Dr. Franklin, orders had already been issued for the detention of the
Alliance, and the arrest of Landais. Journeying was comparatively slow
in those days. After the absence of a week Commodore Jones returned. He
found that, during the night preceding his arrival, Landais had warped
the ship from the inner to the outer harbor, which was called Port
Louis. There was still a narrow entrance through which the ship must
pass before it could be out at sea. A battery commanded that passage. A
boat was sent on board, with an officer, to arrest Landais in the king’s
name, and to announce that the Alliance would be sunk should she attempt
to leave the port. Captain Landais, standing beneath the Stars and
Stripes, and surrounded by his men, refused to surrender himself.
The Alliance had been placed by Congress at the disposal of Dr.
Franklin. He, as the representative of the Government, was to order all
her movements in Europe. This both Lee and Landais knew perfectly well.
The French officer now presented to Landais the positive orders of Dr.
Franklin to Landais, his officers and his men, to surrender the ship to
the command of Commodore Jones.
The commodore now had the ship completely in his power. One or two
broadsides from the battery would sink her and all her crew in the
bottom of the bay. French soldiers were accustomed to obey command. The
guns were loaded. The gunners stood ready with lighted matches. At one
word of command a storm of balls would pierce the ship, and all France
would receive another impressive lesson of the peril involved in
disobeying the orders of the king. And yet the madman Landais, reckless
of all consequences, was firm in his insubordination.
The Alliance was by far the finest ship in the feeble navy of the
colonies. It was freighted with stores of inestimable value to our
thinly clad, hungry, ill-provided soldiers, struggling against the most
formidable military power then upon the globe. A large minority,
probably a majority of the sailors were in favor of Commodore Jones.
Those who adhered to Landais were assured by Commissioner Lee that they
were surely in the right, and that if they abandoned Landais they would
be exposed to be hung for mutiny against their lawful commander.
All the sailors felt deeply wronged. They could not understand why they
received neither wages nor prize-money. They could not know but that the
malignant and artful representations of Landais were true; that Jones,
with his confederate aristocrats of the court, was squandering, in
luxurious dissipation, their hard earnings. Under these circumstance it
would have been cruel to consign these poor men to destruction, and our
country to so great a loss. Commodore Jones, forgetting his resentment,
acted the part of a magnanimous man, for which he merits the highest
commendation.
He hastened to the quarters of M. Thevenard, the commandant of the port,
and by his personal interposition, prevented him from opening fire upon
the Alliance. He wrote to Dr. Franklin:
“Thevenard had received orders to fire on the Alliance and sink her to
the bottom, if they attempted to approach and pass the barrier that had
been made across the entrance to the port. Had I even remained silent an
hour the dreadful work would have been done. Your humanity will, I know,
justify the part I acted, in preventing a scene that would have rendered
me miserable for the rest of my life. Yesterday the within letter was
brought me from Mr. Lee. He has pulled off the mask, and I am convinced
is not a little disappointed that his operations have produced no
bloodshed between the subjects of France and America. Poor man!”
The commandant of the port called all his officers together, and they
signed a paper, minutely stating the preparations they had made to
render the departure of the Alliance impossible, and their great
admiration of the magnanimity of Commodore Jones in causing their
operations to be suspended.
Landais, unopposed, warped his ship through the mouth of the harbor and
cast anchor in the roadstead of Groix. We must now take leave of
Landais, with but a brief record of his subsequent career.
Pierre Landais was the youngest son of one of the proudest and, in rank,
one of the most illustrious families in Normandy. Their ancestral
estates had gradually passed away, and the family had become
impoverished, but not the less proud. Pierre entered the Naval School,
and was thoroughly instructed in the theory both of building and
navigating a ship. He, however, found it difficult to get a commission
so as to put his knowledge into practice. He had neither money, nor
interest at court, with which to purchase court favor.
He was thus kept a mere midshipman until he was thirty-two years of age.
Then for many years he remained in the humble situation of a
sub-lieutenant. He was serving in this capacity, greatly discontented
with his lot, when the war broke out between England and her American
colonies. Landais then came to this country in command of a French
merchant-ship laden with public stores. He was a man of much address and
of boundless assurance. According to his representation he enjoyed the
rank of captain in the royal navy; had commanded a ship of the line; had
been chief officer of the naval depot at the port of Brest, and could
have commanded any advancement he desired in his own country.
But he said that his love for freedom was such, and such his admiration
of the heroism of the Americans in drawing the sword in defence of
popular rights, against such a gigantic power as that of Great Britain,
that he had declined receiving the Cross of St. Louis, and had abjured
the Roman Catholic religion, the religion of his forefathers, that he
might, with all his energies, enter into the service of America.
Believing all this, and wishing, as we have said, to compliment France,
Congress placed its finest frigate in the hands of Landais. The result,
until the time when the Alliance left L’Orient, the reader knows.
The Alliance, with Mr. Lee on board, at length reached Philadelphia. The
conduct of Landais, whose title to command his own men doubted, was so
insane that the officers, passengers and crew all became incensed. Mr.
Lee was prominent in this movement. The ship was committed to the
officer next in rank. A court of inquiry was held, in which Mr. Lee
testified strongly against the captain as insane. The charge was so
fully sustained that he was dismissed from the service of the United
States. It was not deemed expedient to waste time by prosecuting the
more serious charges against him. He was consequently consigned to
insignificance. Thus thrown out of service, Landais took up his
residence in the city of New York. Destitute of funds, he was miserably
poor, living, one can hardly tell how, upon an income of but two hundred
dollars a year. Still he retained all his ancient pride, maintaining the
air of a gentleman, and refusing any assistance which could indicate
that he was in want.
He contrived, at every session of Congress, whether at Philadelphia or
Washington, to make his appearance, and to urge a memorial expressive of
the injustice which he thought had been done him, and demanding
restitution to his rank and the arrears of pay. It is said that at one
time he was reduced almost to nothing, when an unexpected division of
some prize-money gave him an annuity of one hundred and five dollars.
With true French hilarity he said, “I have now two dollars a week on
which to live, and an odd dollar for charity at the end of the year.”
To the last he kept up the exterior and the courtly bearing of a
gentleman. All that was visible of his linen was ever spotlessly clean.
His thread-bare coat was brushed with the utmost neatness. On
ceremonious occasions, or when making a call, he wore conspicuously a
pair of paste knee-buckles, yellow silk stockings, carefully preserved,
though much faded, and which were adorned with what were then called red
clocks.
Claiming to be an officer in the United States Navy, unjustly deprived
of command, he ever wore upon his hat the American cockade. On the
Fourth of July, and on the day which commemorated the evacuation of the
city of New York by the British troops, Landais, who had assumed the
title of admiral, invariably dressed himself in his old Continental
uniform. The large brass buttons, though they had lost their brilliance,
attracted attention. The long skirts of his blue coat reached almost to
his heels, enveloping his thin, shrivelled form. The sleeves seemed to
have shrunken, for they scarcely came to his wrists. He thus paraded the
streets, with all the airs of a nobleman of the ancient regime.
His spirit of independence was such that he refused all presents, even
the most trifling. A gentleman, on one occasion, sent him a dozen
bottles of Newark cider. He returned them because it was not in his
power to reciprocate.
He became, with advancing years, very irritable in temper. In one of the
debates in Congress in reference to his claims, a member spoke, as he
thought, disrespectfully of him. He dressed himself in his uniform,
belted a small sword at his side, and repairing to the gallery of the
House, announced to all the acquaintances he met, that he was prepared
to fight a duel with any gentleman who might give him occasion to do so.
“If there is any bad blood in Congress,” said he, “I am prepared to draw
it.” He always affirmed that he, and not Jones, captured the Serapis.
The ship, he said, was compelled to surrender because he raked her with
the guns of the Alliance.
Thus this strange man lived for forty years, until he had attained the
age of eighty-seven. He died, or, to use his own language, disappeared
from this life, in the summer of 1818. As he was buried in the
church-yard of St. Patrick’s Cathedral it is probable that he had
returned to the Roman Catholic faith. Some unknown friend raised a plain
marble slab over his remains with the inscription, beneath a cross:
A la Mémoire
de
Pierre de Landais,
Ancien Contre-Amiral
au service
Des Etats-Unis.
Qui Disparut,
Juin 1818.
Age, 87 years.
Let us now return to Paul Jones. There were five hundred tons of public
stores still at L’Orient to be shipped to the United States. The Ariel,
which was in port preparing to sail, could afford additional room for
but about one hundred tons. There were thus four hundred tons to be
provided for. The Serapis, which Paul Jones had so heroically captured,
was one of the finest and most strongly built war-ships in the British
navy. The king had just purchased the prize for a sum amounting to about
forty thousand dollars. As France was certainly indebted to an American
commodore for his valuable prize, and as France was in alliance with
America, and as the cause of the two countries was, in some respects, a
common cause, France wishing to resist the intolerable tyranny of
England on the seas, Jones made the very reasonable suggestion to Dr.
Franklin, that he should obtain the loan of the Serapis, to accompany
the Ariel in conveying these stores across the Atlantic. Upon their
arrival in America, the two ships, as he thought, might inflict very
serious damage on the common enemy. Franklin, deserted by his colleague
Lee, mortified by the flight of Landais with the Alliance, and
embarrassed for want of money, was in a state of great perplexity.
Through irregularity of the mails he had not received Commodore Jones’s
letter of the 21st of June, giving him the particulars of the departure
of the Alliance. He had, however, received his letter of the 27th,
proposing the loan of the Serapis. Philosopher as he was, he could not
conceal the perplexities which annoyed him. He wrote:
“I only knew, by other means, that the Alliance is gone out of the port;
and that you are not likely to recover, and have relinquished the
command of her. So that affair is over. And now the business is, to get
the goods out as well as we can. I am perfectly bewildered with the
different schemes that have been proposed to me for this purpose. Mr.
Williams was for purchasing ships. I told him I had not the money; but
he still urges it. You and Mr. Ross proposed borrowing the Ariel. I
joined in the application for that ship. We obtained her. She was to
convey all that the Alliance could not take.
“Now you find her insufficient. An additional ship has already been
asked and could not be obtained. I think therefore that it will be best
that you take as much into the Ariel as you can, and depart with it. For
the rest I must apply to the government to contrive some means of
transporting it in their own ships. This is my present opinion. When I
have once got rid of this business, no consideration shall tempt me to
meddle again with such matters, as I never understood them.”
The stores which were ready to be transported to America, amounted in
value to about four hundred thousand dollars. It was needful that
immediate and vigorous measures should be taken to send them on their
way. Commodore Jones, on the 27th of June, wrote, as in duty bound, to
the Honorable Robert Morris, giving him a very unimpassioned and
truthful account of the untoward events which had occurred. He closed
this admirable letter with the following words:
“I cannot see where all this will end. But surely it must fall
dreadfully on the heads of those who have stirred up this causeless
mutiny. For my own part I shall make no other remark than that I have
never directly or indirectly sought after the command of the Alliance.
But after having, in obedience to orders, commanded her for seven
months, and after Mr. Lee had made a written application to me, as
commander of that ship, for a passage to America, I am at a loss what
name to give to Mr. Lee’s late conduct and duplicity in stirring up a
mutiny in favor of a man who was first sent to America, contrary to Mr.
Lee’s opinion, by Mr. Deane, and who is actually under arrest by order
of his sovereign.
“What gives me the greatest pain is, that after I had obtained from
government the means of transporting to America, under good protection,
the arms and clothing I have already mentioned, Mr. Lee should have
found means to defeat my intentions. You will bear me witness, my worthy
friend, that I never asked a favor for myself from Congress. You have
seen all my letters, and know that I never sought any indirect
influence; though my ambition to act an eminent and useful part in this
glorious revolution is unbounded.
“I pledge myself to you and to America that my zeal receives new ardor
from the opposition it meets with; and I live but to overcome them, and
to prove myself no mock patriot, but a true friend to the rights of
human nature upon principles of disinterested philanthropy. Of this I
have given some proofs, and I will give more. Let not, therefore, the
virtuous Senate of America be misled by the insinuations of fallen
ambition. Should anything be said to my disadvantage, all I ask is a
suspension of judgment until I can appear before Congress to answer for
myself.”
The next day after Commodore Jones had written this letter, on the 28th
of June, a letter was despatched to him, from Monsieur de Sartines, the
French minister, dated at Versailles. He wrote:
“The king, sir, has already made known his satisfaction with the zeal
and valor which you have displayed in Europe, in support of the common
cause of the United States of America and his majesty; and he has also
informed you of the distinguished proofs he is disposed to give you
thereof. Persuaded that the United States will give their consent that
you should receive the Cross of the Order of Military Merit, I send you,
in the accompanying packet addressed to M. de Luzerne, the one designed
for you. You will be pleased to deliver him this packet, and he will see
that the honor is conferred by a knight of the order agreeably to his
majesty’s orders.”
Before the Alliance sailed, the trunks of Commodore Jones which were on
board that ship were broken open, robbed of their most valuable
contents, and sent on shore. Those who openly adhered to Jones, refusing
to obey Landais, were confined and carried away in irons. Almost
innumerable obstacles arose to delay the sailing of the Ariel and the
other vessels needed to transport the stores. Never did a man consecrate
himself more entirely to the promotion of the public interests, to the
neglect of all selfish considerations, than did Paul Jones during the
months of June and July. A detailed account of his difficulties and
disappointments would but weary the reader. His soul was almost consumed
with the desire to strike the haughty enemy blows which he would feel.
He was willing to go back to America, animated by the hope that the
government, hearing of what he had already achieved, would place such a
force at his command as to enable him to do something effectual toward
the emancipation of America from British thraldom. On the 2d of August,
just before he was ready to sail, he wrote to the Count of Vergennes.
After expressing his gratitude for the favors he had received from the
French court, and his intense desire for active employment, he added:
“It is absolutely necessary, my lord, to destroy the foreign commerce of
the English, especially their trade to the Baltic, from whence they draw
all the supplies for their marine. It is equally necessary to alarm
their coasts, not only in the colonies abroad, but even in their islands
at home. These things would distress and distract the enemy much more
than many battles between fleets of equal force.
“England has carried on the war against America in a far more barbarous
form than she durst have adopted against any power of Europe. America
has the right to retaliate; and, by our having the same language and
customs with the enemy we are in a situation to surprise their coast and
take such advantage of their unguarded situation, under the flag of
America, as can never be done under the flag of France. This is not
theory, for I have proved it by my experience. And if I have opportunity
I will yet prove it more fully.”
Still there were the most annoying delays. Nothing in this world can be
more difficult than to fit out a military expedition without money and
without credit. The Ariel sailed out of the harbor and cast anchor in
the road of Groix. Commodore Jones received during this time many
flattering letters from admiring ladies of the French court. But his
engagements were so pressing that he found but little time to reply to
them. His instinctive sense of courtesy was such that this apparent
neglect sometimes quite seriously annoyed him. To one lady he wrote:
“When one is conscious of having been in fault, I believe it is the best
way to confess it and to promise amendment. This being my case in
respect to you, madam, I am too honest to attempt to excuse myself; and
therefore cast myself at your feet and beg your forgiveness, on
condition that I behave better hereafter. For shame, Paul Jones! How
could you let the fairest lady in the world, after writing you two
letters, wait so long for an answer. Are you so much devoted to war as
to neglect wit and beauty? I make myself a thousand such reproaches, and
believe I punish myself as severely as you would do, madam, were you
present here.”
Again he wrote to a noble lady, Madame L’Ormoy: “My particular thanks
are due you, madam, for the personal proofs I have received of your
esteem and friendship, and for the happiness you procured me in the
society of the charming countess and other ladies and gentlemen of your
circle. But I have a favor to ask of you, madam, which I hope you will
grant me. You tell me, in your letter, that the inkstand I had the honor
to present you as a small token of my esteem, shall be reserved for the
purpose of writing what concerns me. Now I wish you to see my idea in a
more expanded light, and would have you make use of that inkstand to
instruct mankind, and support the dignity and rights of human nature.”