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Prussia. His great business was then to strengthen
the place. New sconces and redoubts were being built,
under the supervision of an engineer called Thomæ, for
which he afterwards received in donation the rents of all
the farms, freehold properties, and estates in the district of
the small town of Mehlsack. Leslie’s next anxiety was
the victualling. He caused a mill driven by horses to be
erected, and complains of the magistrates of Königsberg,
who refuse to let him have the necessary timber for
the purpose. As a great relief there comes the timely
offer of a merchant called Morenberg, who not only
promised to take the whole business of food-supply for
the garrison upon himself, but also advanced large sums of
money. In a letter from Dirschau, King Gustavus writes
about the wisdom of courting this man’s friendship,
who might buy a Danish ship laden with some hundred
tons of grain then lying in the harbour of Pillau, to make
malt and brew beer for the troops (6th August, 1626). In
one of the following letters in which Leslie reports on the
progress of the fortification-works and on the probable
intentions of the Brandenburgers, he defends himself
against the charge of levying ten Thaler of duty from
every incoming ship, whilst he only received half a Thaler.
On the 16th of January, 1628, he pronounces the mill
completed, but now another grave anxiety arises: signs of
a terribly infectious disease, called the plague. Very
wisely he removes his sick men out of the town to a place
called Tiegenhoff, together with Lieutenant Johnson, an
ensign, a “Predikant” (clergyman), a barber (surgeon),
and some non-commissioned officers (2nd May, 1628).
But the frightful havoc of the disease would not be
stayed; it raged especially in Stralsund during the
following year, where the Burgomaster, together with many
officers, succumbed. Of the newly levied troops which
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