Independent Journal, Or, The General Advertiser

A pamphlet, lately published at Berlin, gives the following account of three islands, little known in general, situate in the gulph of Finland, viz. Hahlande, Tyttersaari, and Seitsaari.

"Those islands, says the writer, were ceded to Russia by the treaty of Nystadt, and are now incorporated into the government of Wibourg. In the year 1760, laws were, for the first time, given to the inhabitants, who were amongst other things strictly ordered to abstain from infanticide and from pillaging the wrecks; which proves, that it was the barbarous custom amongst them to destroy their new-born children, and inhumanely prey on the misfortunes of navigators. There are only thirty-two families in the first, about forty in Lavanasaari; as to the other islands they are not half so peopled. The inhabitants are very poor, living on the services they have an opportunity, at distant times, to render to the traders by sea, and by catching sea dogs, feeding on the coarse flesh, and selling the fat. The stromling, a kind of small herring, is also very abundant along the coast. They import their corn and garden-stuff from Estonia. They are much addicted to the grossest superstition, in which they are carefully entertained by the droves of gypsies who visit those parts every year. Two pharos, or light houses, are placed in the islands of Hahlande, for the security of navigators."