Several eminent Citizens have contributed very largely; M. Constans and Remusat, have by their Credit and Money procured twenty thousand Measures (called Charges) of Bread-Corn; M. Martins, Grimaud, and Beoland, have voluntarily taken inconceivable Pains so keep the Shambles supplied, and with very great Success; several others have contributed Money for buying up Corn in the Levant; even some of the Magistrates of the Soveraign Courts of the Province, as soon as the Plague had broke out, moved by their Generosity of Heart, and Grandeur of Soul, offered and even sent in all the Corn that was reaped on their own Lands; such are M. de Lubieres and de Ricardi, Counsellors of the Parliament, and M. de Rauville President of the Court of Accompts, Aids and Finances: We could not perish with so great and various Supplies; but Marseilles and its Territory are an Abyss; it cannot otherwise be filled, than by that prodigious Abundance, which Liberty, and the Concourse of the Commerce of Nations, bring into it.
The 18th M. Taxil, Agent of the India Company at Marseilles, remits to the Sheriffs one thousand six hundred Marks of Bullion, and twenty thousand and forty nine Marks in Pieces of Eight, which they cause to be conveyed to the Mint at Montpellier, there to be converted into new Specie.
The 19th the Distemper which had extremely decreased, having increased again a little, and there being Ground to believe that the Communication in some Churches which were opened, had occasioned it, the Bishop is desired to be pleased to order them to be shut up again.
The 20th, 21st, and 22d Vessels are fitted out to fetch Corn from the Levant, that we might not be wholly in want of it this Winter, and after the Plague and Scarcity fall into Famine.
The 23d Advice comes that one of the Vessels in which his Holiness's Ministers had caused to be laden at Civita-Vecchia, the Bread-Corn designed for the Poor of Marseilles, is unhappily wrecked on the Island of Porcherolles, and that of one thousand Measures it carried, not three hundred could be saved.
The 24th and 25th, the Contagion still continuing in the Territory, and the Persons who live there, or have retired thither, especially those who are struck with it, or suspect they are, using all manner of Artifice to steal into the City, where the Distemper has almost intirely ceased, M. de Langeron establishes such proper and exact Precautions, that no Endeavours of that kind can succeed.
The 26th he publishes an Ordinance, to serve for Rules at the Gates, prescribing the several Certificates which must be brought to obtain Permission to enter, and describing the Condition of Health and other Circumstances a Person must be in to be qualified for a Certificate from the Parish-Priests, Captains, and Commissaries.
The 27th he sends this Ordinance to be published in the Territory, and with it a circular Letter to all the Parish-Priests, Captains and Commissaries of the Quarters, for their more ample Instruction.
The 28th two other Vessels laden with the rest of the Bread-Corn given by his Holiness, arrive at Toulon: The Bishop comes to the Town-house, to concert with M. de Langeron and the Sheriffs, the Means of getting it brought to this City, whither those Vessels will not come because of the Contagion.
The 29th, the Difficulty made by the Masters of Vessels of Languedoc, to come laden with Provisions to the Port of Frioul in the Island of Roteneau, one of the Isles of Marseilles, whither the Barrier is removed from Lestaque, because after they have unladen at that Island, no Ballast is to be had there, without which they cannot sail empty, and return to their own Ports; this Difficulty, I say, obliges M. de Langeron and the Sheriffs to send for the Regulators of the Fishermen to the Town-house, and order them to see that no Boat goes out to fish, till it has first carried a lading of Ballast to that Isle of Roteneau.