command was a small one, the sloop-of-war Providence, with
fourteen guns and 107 men, but in six weeks he had captured sixteen
prizes, of which eight were manned and sent to port, and eight
destroyed at sea; was twice chased by frigates, escaping capture only by
the most brilliant manoeuvring; and made two descents on the coast of
Nova Scotia, releasing some American prisoners, capturing arms and
ammunition, dispersing a force of Tories, and destroying a number of
fishing smacks; and finally reached port again with a crew of
forty-seven, all the rest having been told off to man his prizes.

Work of so brilliant a description won instant recognition, especially
as contrasted with the failure of the first cruise, and Jones was
promoted to a captaincy, and the Alfred, a ship mounting twenty-eight
guns, added to his command. A cruise of thirty-three days in these two
vessels resulted in seven prizes, two of them armed transports loaded
with supplies for the British army.

Fired by these successes, Jones's great ambition was for a cruise along
the coast of England. He argued that the time had come when the American
flag should be shown in European waters, and that the moral effect of a
descent upon the English coast would be tremendous. It would have this
further advantage, that England was expecting no such attack, that her
ports would be found unprepared for it, and that great damage to her
shipping could probably be done. Lafayette, who had become a warm friend
of the daring captain, heartily approved the plan, and on June 14, 1777,
the Congress passed the following resolution:

_Resolved_, That the Flag of the Thirteen United States of America
be Thirteen Stripes, Alternate Red and White; that the Union be
Thirteen Stars in a Blue Field, Representing a New Constellation.

_Resolved_, That Captain John Paul Jones be Appointed to Command
the Ship Ranger.

That these two acts should have been joined in one resolution seems a
remarkable coincidence. "The flag and I are twins," Jones used to say;
"we cannot be parted in life or death"; and it was this flag he carried
with him when he sailed from Portsmouth in the dawn of the first day of
November, 1777. Something else he carried, too--dispatches which had
been placed in his hands only a few hours before, telling of Burgoyne's
surrender. "I will spread the news in France in thirty days," Jones
promised, as his ship cast loose, and he actually did land