120 



PORTER^S JOOliNAL, 



directed to give all the solemnity to the inquiry that circum- 

 stances will admit of. 



(Signed) ' D.PORTER. 



After the officers composing the inquest had obtained 

 every satisfactory information on the subject, they drew up 

 and sent me a report, from which the following is an ex- 

 tract : 



" Having examined the witnesses as above, we beg leave 

 to express our full belief that the death of James Spaflford 

 was caused by an accidental shot, hred by ; 

 and are of opinion that farther proceedings in the case of 

 the unfortunate officer are entirely unnecessary. 



(Signed) JOHN DOWNES, 



JAMES P. WILMER, 

 JAMES WILSON, 

 JOHN GAMBLE. 

 VniUd States f rigate Essex^ at 6'c«, 

 Jpril 5,1813. 



After this the body of SpafTord was committed to the 

 deep, according to the funeral ceremonies of the church. 



We, as I before observed, steered to the W. N. W., and 

 at two P. M. on the 6th, the man at the mast-head cried 

 out a sail ; but on standing toward it, in a short time dis- 

 covered it to be the Rock of Pelado, bearing N. E. by N. 

 We soon gave up the chase and stood on our course, as I 

 was anxious to get an offing to fall in with the track of 

 whalers, as, from the best information I could collect on this 

 subject, on this part of the coast they keep at the distance 

 of from thirty to fifty leagues. 



At half past three, a sail was discovered from the mast- 

 head, bearing W. N. W\, and we immediately made all sail 

 in chase of her, the Barclay making every exertion to keep 

 up with us ; but by sundown we had run her out of sight 

 astern. At seven o'clock we brought the chase to. She 

 proved to be a Spanish brig from Callao, bound to Con- 

 ception, but had taken in a load of salt at Oucho, a place 

 a short distance to the north of Callao. The captain and 

 supercargo of this vessel both came on board, and suppo- 

 sing the Essex to be an English vessel, were disposed to 

 give us every information in their power ; and, what was 



