Letter 2234

Martini laments that he no longer hears from ‘foreign curious Friends and Patrons’. His friend, David Krieg, died during the last bout of the plague. Martini enjoyed Sloane’s History of Jamaica. He fondly remembers visiting Sloane in 1702 and 1703. The war of ’18 Years Standing’ has caused the deaths of all the interesting people in Riga and Martini has only ‘small provision’ because of the siege. He offers his service and would be happy to trade sugar and tobacco from Sloane’s Jamaican plantation in the Baltic after the war comes to an end and ships can travel freely. He suggests buying one thousand loaves of refined sugar ‘with the lowest price a pound’ due to the large quantity. Martini asks whether Flagsby and Wilson are still alive and wants to know ‘whiter [sic] the first hath invented no new baro and thermometers and the last no new curious microscopes’.