HKB
the Canaries, where for some Time past the Inhabitants have been in great Want of Corn. On the 9th Instant died Mr. Charles, His Britannick Majesty's Consul at St. Lucas.
Berne, Aug. 20. The Deputies of this Canton who went to the Diet at Frawenfeldt, are now assembled at Baden with those of Zurich and Glaris, to regulate certain Affairs relating to the Town and County of Baden, which formerly belonged to the Eight Eldest Cantons, but in the last Swiss War was given up to Zurich and Berne in Propriety, with a Reservation to the Canton of Glaris (which is mostly Protestant) of the Share it had before in the Sovereignty of that District. The three Deputies of Zurich, Lucern &c Ury, who were commissioned by the late General Dyet to go to Wilchingen, to try to compose the Differences which have been long standing between the Inhabitants of that Place and the Canton of Schafhuysen whose Subjects they are, have offered those Inhabitonts a full Pardon for all past Misbehavior, and the Maintenance of their Privileges for the future, provided they forthwith return to their Duty; but it is advised that those of Wilchingen persist hitherto in this Disobedience.
Schaffhausen Sept. 1. They write from Italy, that the Plague is no longer observ'd at Marseilles, Aix, & several other Places; and that at Toulon it is very much decreas'd: But alas! how should it be otherwise, when the Distemper hath hardly any Objects left to work upon? At Arles it is likewise abated, we fear for the same Reason. Mean while, it spreads in the Gevaudan; and two large Villages in the Neighbourhood of Frejus were attack'd the beginning of this Month. The French Court hath prohibited all communication with the Gevaudan upon severe Penalties. The Plague is certainly got into the small Town of Marvegue in that District, which Town is shut in by eight hundred Men. Letters from Geneva say, the two Battalions employ'd in surrounding La Canourgue, are infected; and that Maages is very much suspected. The Marquis de Quelus had retired to a Castle near Avignon; but the Sickness being got among his Domesticks, he was fled farther away.
Paris, Sept. 5. The District over which the Duke of Berwick is to have the Command, extends to the Borders of the Bourbonnois; and the Court puts a great Confidence in the Care of that General to hinder the Infection from spreading. The Marquis de Verceil is actually drawing Lines to shut in the Gevaudan; and twelve Regiments of Foot, and as many of Dragoons, are marching to reinforce the Troops already posted on that side. The Plague seems to have almost spent itself in Provence. Tho' it is yet a great way off of us, Men talk nevertheless of laying up Magazines of all sort of Provisions here, and of making twenty thousand Beds, to be set up in the Hospitals and Tennis-Courts.
Hague, Sept. 9. The Deputies of our Admiralties had, last Saturday, an extraordinary Conference with those of the States General, upon the spreading of a Report, that ten or twelve Persons died daily at a certain Place in Normandy, which was therefore suspected to have received the Contagion; But upon the matter, it doth not appear there was the least Foundation for such a Report; tho' it is too plain the Distemper gains ground space in the Southern Parts of France.
We can by no means penetrate into the Designs of the Czar; who, notwithstanding 'tis confidently written that the Peace between him and Sweden is as good as concluded, hath a Fleet of thirty Men of War and two hundred Galleys at Sea near Aland. However, an Express gone by from Stockholm, doth not confirm.
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