The New Hampshire Gazette

PHILADELPHIA. SEPT.6.

Extract of a letter from a respectable merchant in Suabia, dated December 31, 1805. to his correspondent in this city.

"The distress with us is so great that my pen is unable to describe it; several hundred villages in Upper Suabia, are deprived of the necessaries of life. The inhabitants are without victuals, without clothing and without money, or other means to alleviate their distress. They see nothing around them but ruin. Empty barns and destroyed orchards--all their cattle taken from them; all employments, by which they used to provide for their families, are at an end. In the neighborhood of Ulm, Memingen, &c. distress has attained its highest pitch. A loaf of bread costs four guilders (one dollar and sixty cents) and a scheffel (about half a bushel) potatoes, three guilders (one dollar and twenty cents.) The neighboring counties, which were so fortunate as to escape utter ruin, though they themselves have suffered much, supply those of Ulm, &c. with articles of the most immediate and pressing necessity; contributing as much as their own distressed situation will permit.

The cities and villages on the main road suffer also very much by the numerous troops they have to lodge and victual. A few days ago I received a letter from the widow W---t at Hedelfingen, (two miles from Stutgard,) in which she says that she had to lodge and victual 182 men at one time, who, completely emptied her house of all her provisions, clothing, bedding, &c. This is one instance of what occurred; but the same thing has taken place in all the country through which the armies marched."