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fourth of July, and the Pfalzgraf John Casimir writes to
Oxenstierna about having despatched them.1 Towards
the end of May in the next year Captains Bothwell and
Ballantyne arrive with 90 Scotsmen off Gothenburg to fill
up the regiments. No money being available for their
expedition, the Count advanced three hundred Thaler out
of his own pocket and sent the men forward by boat. In
short, hardly a year passed in which we do not read of
some recruiting business done in Scotland. In 1627, for
instance, James Bannatyne receives a passport issued at
Elbing for his voyage there in order to fill up the gaps in
his regiment.2 In 1629 Gustavus writes with regard to
the new levies in Scotland, that he trusted there would
be no difficulty for them now to pass through the Sound
in safety. It was this letter in which he expresses his
determination not to dismiss any of his Scottish officers
but rather try and “ courtisiren ” (humour) them. These
were Duwall’s levies, concerning whom General Wrangel
writes to the Chancellor that he feared, if their pay was
not forthcoming soon, they would all run away and go
to Danzig, where they received five ducats as handsel.
During the time of the plague at Stralsund in the summer
of 1629, a great many officers died, and the Scottish
regiments were decimated.
Other officers as well were employed to levy troops in
Scotland at about the same time. How dangerous such
an errand was has been graphically told us in a Latin
letter of Arfvid Forbes to Axell Oxenstierna, dated
Frankfort-on-the-Main, November 1633. How he was
shipwrecked and imprisoned and ransomed, how through
the negligence and dishonesty of others he lost all his
1 Oxenstierna’s Scr. och Brefvexling, x. 536.
2 Ibid., iii. 678. A letter of his is extant praying for the refunding of
his expenses. Riles A.
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