The New Hampshire Gazette

ITALY.

Extract of a Letter from a Gentleman at Rome to his Friend in LONDON, dated April 23d. 1761.

The two extraordinary Persons who lately made their Appearance at Cologn having given sufficient Testimony to the French Envoy and Magistracy of that Town, were permitted by them to take their own Method of Travelling to the Capital of the Roman Catholick Religion, in order to be further examined concerning their Mission, &c. where they arrived sooner than the Account of their Departure could be received, although the Messenger dispatched for that Purpose, travelled Post. When they were sent for to appear by order of the Pope, before Cardinal Corsini, they gave such an Account of their Journey as astonished every one: They are now going into a very serious and curious Enquiry, that not only engages the Attention of the Clergy, but of the Laity also; By what has already transpired, and by Hints which have been dropped all Degrees of People are grown very impatient about them. They are acknowledged to be something astonishing, and are reverenced even by the Vulgar: By the Simplicity of their Manners, the Purity of their Opinions, and their Desire of doing Good, they gain greatly upon the Good-will of the Religious. The Pope, on their first Arrival, offered them a Guard, which they rejected, saying, they had that within them that would protect them from all Injury: There was both which they modestly refused. How they subsist, also an House provided and a Table appointed for them, or what their Resources are, is a Mystery to every one. They appear in Public every Day, but seem no Ways struck with the Grandeur of the Public Edifices, which they say fall very Short of the Magnificence of the Ancients. They speak every Language, the Dead as well as the Living; their Greek is very different from any Thing now spoken, and is supposed to be the same as in the Time of Homer; at least this is the Opinion of the learned Father, the Jesuit Salmuzzi, who has frequent Conversations with them, and delights much in their Company. They say, they are not to see the fulfilling of their own Prophecies, but are to be put to Death by the unbelieving Inhabitants of a great City. What they are, or whence they came, is impossible for me to determine. Multitudes are flocking hither from all Parts, and are far from thinking them Impostors; I have seen them, and notwithstanding their great Age, they are to outward Appearance in full Possession of the Strength and Vigour of Twenty five.