Apprenticeship
The apprenticeship of Paul was of short duration. The
failure of his employer threw the youth upon his own
resources; but he lost no time in taking care of
himself. His studies on shipboard had already qualified
him for the higher duties of the mercantile service; the
slave-trade, the active pursuit of those days, offered
him an engagement; he sailed for the African coast in
the King George, a vessel engaged in this infamous
traffic, out of Whitehaven, and in his nineteenth year
was trusted as chief mate of the Two Friends, another
vessel of the trade, belonging to Jamaica. Having
carried his human cargo to the island, sickening of the
pursuit, he sailed as a passenger to Kirkcudbright, in
his native district. Opportunities are always presenting
themselves to the watchful and the initiated. The chief
officers of the vessel died of the fever; Paul took
command and carried the ship in safety to the owners.
They put him in command of the brig, the John, on
another West India voyage.
Finally, in 1771, he left Scotland never to return to
it, save to carry terror among its population. He
proceeded to London; found employment in the West India
trade, and in 1773 settled himself for a while in
Virginia on the estate of his brother, to whom he had
now become heir. This was a grand turning-point of his
career, and to signalize it properly, Paul, who was
somewhat of a fanciful turn, added the name Jones to his
proper appellation, John Paul.
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Introduction
| Apprenticeship
| Early Adventures
| Return To Scotland
| His Greatest Exploits
| Service in France
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