The affair happened on the 12th [sic 11th] of August [1775] . . . The Admiral was going to the General's, when Mr. H------ll made after and overtook him, and insisted upon an answer to some letters, but the Admiral said he would never answer them; Mr. H------ll repeated his demands several times, and the Admiral always made the same reply: then says Mr. H------ll, you are no Gentleman but a Scoundrel upon which the Admiral hitting him a very slight slap in the face, drew his sword, and Mr. H------ll cried out, what draw a sword upon a naked man, give me a stick, a stone, and made a noise to bring people round him. The Admiral immediately returned his sword to the scabbard, and walked on slowly towards the General's; but Mr. H------ll picked up a stone, followed him again, and called out to speak to him, upon which the Admiral stopped to let him do so, imagining probably he meant to challenge him, when Mr. H------ll coming close up, in a low whispering voice said, you are a damned scoundrel, whereupon the Admiral struck with his fist with great resentment, cutting him across the nose with his knuckles so as to make the blood trickle, and a scuffle ensued. The mob, which had collected very fast, now pressed in and squeezed upon both, which gave an opportunity to Mr. H------ll to take away the Admiral's sword, but a soldier perceiving this, caught hold of the sword, and in the struggle between them it was broke. I can't suppose, as some of the spectators fancied, that Mr.H------ll meant in his passion to stab the Admiral, but it looked to me if it had not been for the mob, the Admiral, although he must be near 60, would have drubbed Mr. H------ll confoundedly, notwithstanding he is a stout young man of 34 or 35 years of age; as it was, he was blind for a week as they told me. By Mr H------ll's coming without a sword, it seemed plain that he designed to make a mobbish affair of it, and in such circumstances I do not see how the Admiral could act otherwise than he did. The true cause, or merits of the altercation I know nothing of myself, but it was reported that Mr. H------ll had long bore a grudge to the Admiral for bringing a relation (a Captain of a man of war) to a court martial for disobedience of orders; although the immediate pretence for this attack I understood to arise from the Admiral's not granting Mr. H------ll a pass for some men to go down the harbour to cut hay on Gallops island; the Admiral's friends gave out that he did not think it just or equal for any one man to engross (in a time of such scarcity) so much hay to himself, that the brother-in-law of Mr. H------ll commanded the man of war then near Gallop's island, that the army was in great want of provender for their horns there being 17 or 18 marines employed to cut grass for them, the ships generally weak in hands, and information received of 170 whaleboats having been drawn over a narrow neck of land with intent to burn and plunder the islands; besides which, Mr. H------ll's requests and letters were so improper, and in such gross and indecent terms, as to be entitled to no answer. I pretend however to form no judgment of the matter, and am a stranger to both parties. Mr. H------ll is a native of Boston, the son of a Carpenter, bred to the sea, much liked in the town, universally known to the navy and people, and bears a good character: the Admiral is counted by the fleet a good seaman and brave, and is very active, but somewhat severe, of few words, and rough in his manner.