Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

rell's), Blakeney's, Bragg's, Hopfon's, there in ambush, came from behind the Lord John Murray's (highlanders), Ken- point in boats, furrounded the British nedy's, Abercromby's, Warburton's, entirely, and cut off every one that was Lafcelles's, Webb's, Perry's, and two in the circle; that Capt Maginis and battalions of the Royal Americans, be- Shaw, Lieut Campbell and Cotes, and fides 500 rangers, and 300 of the royal a captain of the New Jersey regiment, regment of artillery. The fleet under were killed; that Capt. Woodward be. Adm. Holburne confifts of nineteen fhips ing terribly wounded, jumped over of the line, nine floops and frigates, two board, and was drowned; that Col. bomb-ketches, and a firefhip. The Parker and Capt. Ogden, the latter French are faid to have in Louisburg har much wounded, with about 70 men, bour (eventeen or nineteen men of war. escaped alive; all the reft, to the num A contagious distemper, called the black ber of 280, being either killed or taken. vomit, has broke out among them, It is added, that a letter had been rewhich has unmanned many of their fhips. ceived from a ferjeant of Capt. Maginis's It has got into the town, and cut off company, bearing, that, in the hotteft many of the inhabitants, and a confi- of the fire, they had forced their battoe derable number of the garrifon. The through the enemy's line, favoured with British troops are reprefented to be in the fmoke and fog, and that he, with high fpirits, and to be full of hopes of fix or feven more, escaped, and landed foon being masters of Cape Breton. Laft on the east fide, where he luckily met letters bear, that Lord Loudon was pre- with Capt. Weft from Fort Edward, paring with all speed to fet out on the then out on the head of a scouting parintended expedition; which is conjec- ty. Letters from New York of the ift tured to be an attack on Louifburg by of Auguft, fay, that 60 of the men emland, while Adm. Holburne is to block ployed in this expedition, who were fupit up by fea. pofed to have been killed, were returned, and that five others had joined Capt. Putman near fouth bay; fo that they hoped the lofs was not fo great as it was at firft imagined to be.

Letters from New York bear, that M. de Montcalm, the French general in Canada, was advancing, at the head of 9000 men, towards Albany; and that Gen. Webb, who commands there, has only 4000 men to oppose him.

A letter from Fort William-Henry on Lake George, dated July 26. bears, That Col. John Parker, with three of his captains, and fix or feven fubalterns, Capt Maginis and Ogden, and Lieut Campbell and Cotes, of the New York regiment, and 350 men, went out on the 21ft, in whale and bay boats, to attack the French advanced guard at Ticonderoga; that landing that night on an ifland, they fent, before break of day, three battoes to the main land; and the reft followed early in the morning; that the French getting notice of the expedition, waylaid and took the three battoes, and, as a decoy, contrived to have three battoes making for the fame landing-place; which the British imagining to be thofe fent the evening before, eagerly put to the land; that about 3co of the enemy, lying

A number of troops have been sent from Virginia and Penfylvania, to South Carolina, where an invafion by the French from Cape François has been for fome time dreaded. Mean time the French and hoftile Indians continue to commit dreadful ravages and murders on the frontiers of both thefe provinces.

In Penfylvania difputes run high between William Denny, Efq; the new governor, and the affembly. These dif putes chiefly relate to money and militia bills, about which the governor and the affembly have different views. But by thefe unhappy contefts, the province is left in a defenceless state, expofed to the depredations of their barba rous enemies.

As to Virginia, letters from Winchester, near the north frontier of that province, advise, that, toward the end of June, about 20co French and their confederated Indians marched from Fort du Quefne on the

Ohio, taking the road to Fort Cumberland; that the troops in those parts were above 250, and 80 friendly Indians; and that Col. Stanwix, of the Royal Americans, had marched fome time before, with about 500 of his battalion, and was to be joined by the provincials of Penfylvania and Maryland, to protect the places weft from Fort Cumberland. This march of the French fpread a general alarm. Lt-Gov. Dinwiddie of Virginia, iffued an order, dated at Williamsburgh, June 23. reprefenting, that he had received undoubted intelligence, that a large body of French and Indians, with a train of artillery, were actually marched from Fort du Quefne, with a defign of invading that province; and requiring the countylieutenants, and chief officers of the militia, to have their men well difciplined and armed, and ready to march on a minute's warning, or the first notice of the enemy's approach; to appoint proper places of rendezvous; to fend him immediate advice of the enemy's appearance, and to alarm the neighbouring counties.

The French have a confiderable fquadron collected at Martinico, compofed chiefly of thofe fhips that have fo much diftreffed the British trade on the coaft of Africa; and feveral ftorefhips with troops have lately arrived there. The British in the Leeward iflands are under terrible apprehenfions from this fquadron; and particularly thofe in St Christopher's.

Letters from the EAST INDIES, by the company's fhips the Clinton and the Hector, lately arrived from Bombay at Corke, bear, that, in the beginning of January laft, the Arabs attacked the company's factory in the gulf of Perfia, in the dead of the night, drove the British out, and entirely deftroyed it; and that the inhabitants who efcaped, arrived at Bombay on the 22d of that month, just before the Clinton and Hec tor failed. By the fame letters, there is advice, that in the retaking of the British fettlements in Bengal, the Moors loft at least 10,000 men, while the British had not loft above 150.

ENGLAND.

The King has lately been pleafed to prefent to the British mufæum that fine collection of books and manuscripts com, monly known by the name of the King's library, confifting of about 10,200 volumes, and about 1800 manufcripts, This library was founded by Henry Prince of Wales, eldest son of James I. It was kept in the fame house with the Cotton library, till the fire, Oct. 3. 1731, and fuffered little by that fire, It was afterwards kept in the Old Dor mitory, Westminster.

An hofpital erected on the fouth fide of Westminster bridge, for the relief of indigent people afflicted with ruptures, was opened about the beginning of Auguft, for the reception of patients, under the direction of Mr Lee of Arundel ftreet, furgeon.

Two boys went into the Thames near Hampton, July 26. and foon after one of them ran up the beach, and said his companion was drowned. On which one Ruff, a fisherman, took his punt, and shoved to him immediately; and feeing him lay in a hole about fix feet deep, he pulled him up with his hitcher, and carried him upon the beach: where he was rolled and blooded; but it was twenty minutes before any life appeared in him. He then came to himself, and was carried to the Red Lion in Hampton, where being put to bed, he foon recovered. [xi. 404.]

Our navigators employed in the Greenland fishery, about midnight on Friday June 3. in 77° 30′ N. lat. the weather being clear, obferved the fun to be very bright, and incompaffed with a luminous circle, coloured like the rainbow, at the distance of 10 deg. from his body. After this they had dark close weather; and at four in the morning the appearance of a bright fun broke out to the eastward, about 60 deg. above the horifon, accompanied with a broken halo, or femicircle, diftant from it 11 deg. the back of which was turned toward the true fun, and from this halo iffued a tail, or stream of light, extending 50 deg. in length towards the 322

north.

north. This ftrange phenomenon, the failors thought to be the comet foon expected [xviii. 550.], but it feems only to have been a perihelion, many of which are defcribed by Defcartes, Havelius, and others.

Letters from Cornwall bear, That between one and two o'clock, Aug. 2. as James Tillie, Efq; with his neighbours and fervants, were lying aground on a fand-bank in the river Thamar, waiting to throw the net to catch falmon, a fudden clap of thunder broke over their heads, with a large ball of fire in a direct line from the larboard bow to the ftern: That James Widear, Mr Tillie's fervant, had a violent blow on his right shoulder and head; Mr Samble, who fat next to him in the bow, was ftruck deaf for fome time; and Mr Tillie had a violent blow on his head, and the corner of his hat finged: That Mr Pethen, a tenant of Mr Tillie's, who was ftanding up on the feat in the ftern, was ftruck on the left temple by the fire-ball, and fell overboard, but was immediately taken up by three of Mr Tillie's fervants then on fhore; and Robert Atkins, in the ftern near Mr Pethen, was ftruck on his back, and fpeechlefs: That one of the three on the fand was violently ftruck on the head, another had his eye finged, and the ball fell between the legs of the third in the fand, whence he only perceived a fudden warmth: and, That Mr Pethen was immediately carried to Pentittie key, and put into a warm bed, and all poffible means were used to reftore him; but in vain. His hat was rent three inches broad, the lining only ripped; his peruke had a hole burnt as large as a crown-piece, but the wound in his head not more vifible than the puncture of a pin; and on viewing the corpfe next morning, his hips nd thighs appeared very black, in fpots, as if gunpowder had been blown into them, and his peruke and cloaths imelt like gunpowder newly difcharged. Robert Atkins was immediately put to bed, and was thought out of danger, but violent pains and numbness in his limbs continued next day.

Between five and fix in the evening, Aug. 15. a ball of fire was feen to fall on a houfe near Woodbury hill, Dorfetfhire, which broke through the roof and chamber-floor, and burft by the woman of the house on the bricks of the under-floor. It foon fet fire to the infide of the house, and in lefs than two hours confumed it. The fame day, great part of Lady Petre's houfe near Brentwood, in Effex, was burnt down by lightning. This tempeft was fo terrible at Lewis in Suffex, that a whole farm belonging to Mr Venn, in that neighbourhood, was in a manner deftroyed by it.

Another letter in the Gentleman's Magazine [372.], figned C. D. and dated, Penzance, Aug. 24. gives the following account of an American aloe, now actually in full bud near that town. "This aloe has food about forty years in a gentleman's garden at Moufe-hole, (but is fuppofed much older), and for more than thirty years paft hath been entire. ly neglected, and expofed to all the inclemency of the weather, both winter and fummer; and in that time frequently removed to make room for other things thought more valuable. The height, diameter, and circumference of the plant, are rather lefs than thofe of the Leyden aloe; but it is equally vigorous. About the latter end of laft May it began to rife, and continued rifing, at the rate of eight or nine inches a-day, till the ftalk was about fourteen feet high; during all which time it nearly refembled an afparagus. Its branches then began to fhoot, at about seven feet from the top of the plant, and continued gradually increafing in fize and length, and bending upwards at the extremities as far as the apex, (not altogether unlike a fconce), and forming a kind of cone. On each of thefe branches, of which there are forty-three, ftand a great number of buds. On the lower Branches, where they are most numerous, I reckoned more than 220. The extreme height from the ground is now about twenty-three feet, the diameter of the ftalk at bottom is about fix inches. It promises to flower foon, and will

then,

then, in all probability, make an elegant appearance.

[ocr errors]

About the middle of August a head of oats was plucked in a field near New. castle, which had upwards of 340 grains upon it; and other two ftalks came up with it, all sprung from one corn, which had each near as many grains: fo that the increafe was a thoufand fold.

The quantity of foreign corn imported into the port of London, from April 9. to Aug. 13. inclufively, amounts to 56,199 quarters.

By an affize of bread fet forth at London, Aug. 16. and to take place the 18th, the price, and the weight, if weighed before a magiftrate within twenty-four hours after baking, or expofing to fale, was fixed as follows, viz. the penny loaf, white bread, 8 oz. I dr.; wheaten, 12 oz. 1 dr.; houfehold, 1 lb. 2 dr. and the half-peck loaf, to weigh 8 lb. 11 oz. dr.; and to be fold, the wheaten, for 11 d. 2 f. and the household, for 8 d. 2 f.. At the end of the month the price was higher. The judge of the fheriff's court, London, gave his opinion, July 30. in relation to a difpute about diffenters ferving the office of sheriff, by which it appears that they are no way excufed by any law whatever.

Matthew Snatt, a baker, was brought to the bar at Chelmsford, July 29. to be tried for robbing the Norwich mail; and would not, for a confiderable time, plead to the indictment, till Lord Chief Juftice Mansfield, who was on the bench, was obliged to give orders to the gaoler to take him away, and let him be preff ed gradually with weights till he agreed to plead, otherwife in that manner to prefs him to death, which is the punishment the English law appoints for thofe that will not plead; but upon the above order being given, he pleaded Not guilty, and put himself upon his trial. He was found guilty, and fentenced to be hanged, and his body hung in chains at Laytonstone, where he committed the robbery; and was hanged accordingly. He behaved with great audacioufhefs, throwing apples and pears among the populace in his way to the gallows.

Two remarkable trials came on before Mr Baron Adams, at Bristol affizes, Aug. 24. One was an action against Mr Greaves, a regulating captain, for illegally impreffing Mr Dennison, a tradefman, houfekeeper, and free burgefs of Bristol; in which the jury gave Mr Dennifon a verdict with 200 1. damages. The other was an action against Felix Farley, printer of the Briflol journal, for printing in his paper a paragraph relating to the election of Jarrit Smith, Efq; one of the prefent reprefentatives of that city, which the profecutor pleaded was a libel but the jury unanimoufly acquitted the defendant. The jury was fpecial in both cafes.

The tickets of the state-lottery were firft delivered at the bank, and the advertifement bore that no tickets would be delivered after the 31ft of July ; but, by an order of the Lords of the Treafury, of Aug. 4. & 11. notice was given in the gazette, that the tickets not difposed of would be distributed at the exchequer, at one guinea each, every day from the 12th to the 31ft of August inclufively. The drawing begins Sept. 5. By another advertisement notice was given, that their Lordships being informed, that printed fchemes had been published in Dublin and in England, for an Irish lottery, to be determined by the drawing of the prefent ftate-lottery, had given directions to their folicitor for profecuting all perfons that had been or fhould be concerned in it.

Notice was given at the general poftoffice, London, Aug. 12. that from thenceforth the mails between England and Flanders were to go to and fro between Harwich and Flufhing.

One of the princes of the blood of Portugal landed at Portsmouth, Aug. 4. from that court. He was received there by the Portuguese ambaffador, and had all the honours due to his high birth, paid him, by the commanding officer of the garrifon, and by the town.

Before the middle of Auguft the marine fociety had, fince its inftitution, completely clothed, and fitted out for the navy, 2251 men, and 1750 boys.

By a return made, Aug. 17. to the

lord

[ocr errors]

lord lieutenant of the weft riding of the county of York, of the men able, and within the defcription of the late act, to ferve in the militia, the numbers were 56,130, befides 1989 deemed incapable; fo that in that riding one man in forty-five makes up the quota allotted by the act. [346.]

A letter from Stowe in Lincolnshire, of Aug. 26. gives the following account. "We are here in the greatest confternation. The conftables having taken the names of all perfons eligible to ferve in the militia, the mob rofe, and forced the lifts from them. On Tuesday laft the mob proceeded to the house of Mr Hall, an aged clergyman at Washinbrook, and demanded half a guinea and a barrel of ale; which not being complied with, they broke all his windows, and did him other confiderable damage. After this, gathering ftrength in every town through which they paffed, they proceeded to Lincoln. The mayor met them in the ftreet coming into the town; and asked what was their bufi. nefs. The answer was, The feveral lifts to be returned which the constables have brought in, and a guinea from each confta ble. This, to prevent further trouble, was complied with. They declared, one and all, they were willing to facrifice their lives in defence of their king and country, but would not be obliged to quit home for fix pence a-day to serve in the militia."- According to another letter, of the 28th, the people had gone home, and all was quiet.

In the end of July arrived at the refpective places of their destination, the fleet of merchantmen from the Leeward iflands. When they came from the West Indies, they amounted to 175 fail, including those bound for different ports in America, and not a fingle fhip of them was miffing. This fleet was computed to be worth at least two millions Sterling. There was not above 150,000l. infured, occafioned, by a French privateer's taking a fhip in which there were orders to infure for a much larger fum. And on the 24th of Auguft arrived in the Downs the Jamaica fleet, confifting of 140 merchantmen, under convoy of

the Shoreham and Rye men of war, al. fo without the lofs of a fhip.- -The safe arrival of two fuch fleets, says the Gentleman's Magazine very justly, in time of a vigorous war, is a proof of great knowledge in those who have the direction of our marine affairs, and of prudence in those who are intrufted with the execution of their orders.— -Adm. Coates, before he would permit the Jamaica fleet to depart, failed with his own fquadron to Hifpaniola, to reconnoitre the fituation of the enemy; and finding the feas clear, fent the Sphinx down to Jamaica, with orders for the fleet's failing on the day appointed, and that, for their better fecurity, the Sphinx fhould accompany them through the Gulf, and the Affiftance and Lynn fhould join them off Cape Antonio, and fee them fafe to the mouth of the Gulf; which was accordingly done,

Vice-Adm. Knowles arrived at Portfmouth, Aug. 4. from London, and immediately hoifted his flag on board the Neptune. Sir Edward Hawke, commander in chief on the expedition, arrived there on the 7th, and hoisted his flag on board the Ramillies at Spithead. In a few days after, Sir John Mordaunt, commander in chief of the land-forces on the expedition, was at Portsmouth, and had a conference with the three admirals.

About the middle of Auguft the three regiments of guards received orders to prepare their field-equipages, that they might be ready to march at a moment's warning. They had been exercifing fome time before, and were very dextrous in the Heffian difcipline. A great number of scaling-ladders of a new conftruction has been put on board tranf ports, defigned to carry troops for fome important expedition. These ladders may be inftantly fixed, and thirty men may mount abreast together upon them. In this expedition Adm. Knowles, it is faid, is to act as chief engineer; and it is added, that he folicited the affistance of fome officers in the artillery, and of fome experienced gunners in the navy, that his orders may be properly executed.

SCOT

« ZurückWeiter »