we had, the
Countess of Scarborough, was slow, so that I remember we lay to
for her. Jones was as anxious as we were to fight. We neared each
other steadily till seven in the evening or later. The sun was
down, but it was full moon,--and as we came near enough to speak,
we could see everything on his ship. At that time the Poor Richard
was the only ship we had to do with. His other ships were after
our consort. The Richard was a queer old French Indiaman, you
know. She was the first French ship-of-war I had ever seen. She
had six guns on her lower deck, and six ports on each side
there,--meaning to fight all these guns on the same side. On her
proper gun-deck, above these, she had fourteen guns on each
side,--twelves and nines. Then she had a high quarter, and a high
forecastle, with eight more guns on these,--having, you know, one
of those queer old poops you see in old pictures. She was,
therefore, a good deal higher than we; for our quarter-deck had
followed the fashion and come down. We fought twenty guns on our
lower deck, twenty on our upper deck, and on the forecastle and
quarter-deck we had ten little things,--fifty guns,--not unusual,
you know, in a vessel rated as a forty-four. We had twenty-two in
broadside. I remember I supposed for some time that all French
ships were black, because the Richard was.

"As I said, I was on the main deck, aft. We were all lying
stretched out in the larboard ports to see and hear what we could,
when Captain Pearson himself hailed, "What ship is that?" I could
not hear their answer, and he hailed again, and then said, if they
did not answer, he would fire. We all took this as good as an
order, and, hearing nothing, tumbled in and blazed away. The Poor
Richard fired at the same time. It was at that first broadside of
hers, as you remember, that two of Jones's heavy guns, below his
main deck, burst. We could see that as we sighted for our next
broadside, because we could see how they hove up the gun-deck
above them. As for our shot, I suppose they all told. We had ten
eighteen-pounders in that larboard battery below. I do not see why
any shot should have failed.

"However, he had no thought of being pounded to pieces by his own
firing and ours, and so he bore right down on us. He struck our
quarter, just forward of my forward gun,--s