The Virginia Gazette

Translation of a Letter from Leghorn, dated July the 19th, to an Italian Merchant in London.

"Yesterday landed here, from three Sardinian Feluccas, a Deputation from the free Corsicans, of seven Persons, with their Attendants and Baggage, who set out at Sunrise this Morning for Florence, and are immediately to proceed for Vienna, with Proposals to the Emperor to guarantee their Treaty with the Grand Duke, whom they are ready immediately to declare King, and hereditary Sovereign of all Corsica, with an annual Tribute of eight Hundred Thousand Sequins, to be levied and collected in whatever Manner the General Assembly of the Deputies of the different Pieve’s shall think proper. The Corsicans engage to support a constant Body of regular Troops, of six Thousand Men, to be annually recruited from their Militia, which is to consist of the male Inhabitants of the whole Kingdom from the age of twenty to forty Years, to be supplied with Arms and Ammunition at the Expense of each Pieve; that their Sovereign, the Grand Duke, shall maintain in Corsica nine Battalions of Infantry, three Troops of Hussars, a Corps of Artillery of three Hundred and sixty Men, with three Trains of light Artillery; and that this military Force shall be landed in Corsica within four Months after the signing the Treaty, which is acceded to even by all the Corsicans, now exposed to the Barbarity of the French Troops, of whom they are positive they have destroyed seven Thousand within the last nine Months. Many they have destroyed by poisoning the Wells and Rivulets that supply their Garrisons; their Marksmen constantly shoot the French Officers; their Horses are always hamstrung during the Night, when they are at Grass; the Hay Ground is regularly burnt up by their Countrymen; their Bridges of Communications are no sooner finished than blown up; their new Roads are immediately rendered impassable by a small Kind of Mine, called a Fougue, in which Work the Corsican Peasants are very expert; for twenty of them can, in one Night, destroy what has employed a French Battalion six Weeks with infinite Labour. They now declare, from the late Examples of French Courage, in their glorious Victory over the French Army, they have not the least Dread of a Hundred French Battalions. Nothing but the savage Barbarity of these French in stabbing the Corsican Children, ravishing and then hanging their Women, putting their Countrymen first to the Torture, and butchering them upon the Rack (Marks of Inhumanity unknown and unpractised in any Age) are, they say, a sufficient Apology with Mankind for using some Retaliation upon the unprovoked Butchers of their Infants, their Parents, their Wives, and themselves."