94 
PORTER’S JOURNAL, 
accident. I accordingly fired, and was succeeded by a volley ; one 
horse was crippled, and the seamen ran forward with clubs to 
knock him down, and already had hold of him, when a young offi¬ 
cer, who had the misfortune of being very near-sighted, (and who 
had reserved his fire, not having seen the drove,) ran forward, and 
seeing in the dark the groupe of saiiors about the animal, sup¬ 
posed it to be the horse, and fired ; unhappily, the ball passed 
through the breast of James Spafford, the gunner’s mate, one of 
the best and most trusty men in my ship. It is impossible for 
me to express what were my feelings, when, with the utmost 
composure, the poor fellow, with a firm voice, said, “ Sir, you 
have shot me ! I am a dying man; take me to the boat.” The dis¬ 
tress of the officer on the occasion, was beyond description. Doc¬ 
tor Hoffman was on shore, and gave us but little hopes of his life, 
as the ball had entered his right breast, and came out below his 
right shoulder, near the back-bone. A boat was immediately sent 
off to the ship with him, accompanied by doctor Hoffman and the 
officer, who had so unfortunately been the cause of the disaster; 
and on my arrival, which was speedily after him. I found him 
still alive ; but the chief surgeon, doctor Miller, could give me no 
reason to believe that he would recover. Had it not been for this 
dreadful accident, we should have been much delighted with our 
excursion on shore, as it had not only afforded us a pleasant re¬ 
creation after our excessive fatigues at sea, but had enabled us 
to extend the benefits of it to the whole ship’s company, as we 
had been so successful as to procure a fresh mess for all hands. 
The horse-meat, however, was generally preferred to the hogs, 
it being much fatter, and more tender; the hogs proved tough, 
and had, besides (to me), an unpleasant flavour, though I heard 
no complaints among the sailors on that subject, as their stomachs 
were perhaps less delicate. 
It was much to be regretted, that I had been so imprudently 
indulgent, as to permit so many to take muskets on shore, on 
many accounts ; but more particularly on account of the accident 
which happened to poor Spafford. The constant firing, by bad 
marksmen, in every direction, not only greatly alarmed the horses 
and hogs, and made them very shy, and thereby prevented the more 
