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186] ANNUAL REGISTER

belonging to their titles of Earls, their Earls coat of arms is to be broken by the hands of the common hangman. This being done, their right hands shall be cut off, next their heads; then shall their bodies be quartered, and laid upon the wheel, and their heads and hands fixed upon iron spikes.
The aforesaid dead warrants were executed the 28th of April, in a field without the Eastern Gate. A scaffold was erected, nine yards in height, and eight yards square, whither both the prisoners were carried in hackney coaches: in the first went the Attorney-General, and some attendants. Brandt appeared first on the scaffold; he had on a gold-laced hat, a green suit of cloaths, with gold binding, and boots. He spoke for some little time to the Clergyman, Mr. Hee, after which the sentence was read, and executed; his head was several times exposed to the view of an immense crowd of spectators. Next appeared Struensee on the scaffold, accompanied by Dr. Munter, having his hat in his hand, and dressed in a blue superfine suit; he spoke to Dr. Munter, and, when done, his sentence was executed in every shape like the foregoing one; their corpses were carried to the usual place of execution to be there exposed. Struensee behaved very penitently; but this cannot be said of Brandt, for his whole conduct was remarkably bold. Several files of soldiers and sailors guarded the scaffold, and the town guards were also reinforced. Though immense numbers were, for want of room, disappointed of seeing this execution, and all seeming, for a while, in a violent ferment, yet the whole went off undisturbed and quietly.
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The crimes they were charged with, are as follow: Struensee was accused of having embezzled from the King's coffers a large sum amounting to 125,000 [[?]]. sterling ; of having issued many orders from the Cabinet without the King's knowledge ; of having been guilty of criminal conversation with the [[?]]; of having secreted from the King several letters sent to his Majesty, &c.  Count Brandt was accused of having been privy to the Struensee's criminal conversation, and all his other crimes, without divulging them, and having laid violent hands upon the King's Majesty, &c.

Extract of a letter from the Mauritias, of the loss of the Verelst East-India-man.
"MR. Walter Brown, lately a passenger with me, being now going to Europe in a different ship, makes it uncertain which will arrive first; therefore sent you the following short, melancholy account by him, viz. I was dispatched from Bengal the third of March, after which was unfortunately wrecked here the 25th of last April about twelve at midnight. Besides the total loss of the Verelst, and all the cargo, five-and-twenty people were unfortunately drowned in attempting to get through a tremendous surf, much larger than that at Madrass, which we were all obliged to pass through before we could receive any assistance from the French, who durst only venture to the edge of it (no boat being able to live a moment in the surf) and their anchor between that and the
[182 For the YEAR 1772.
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the land, which was full four miles distant from thence. Our situation was such, that in all probability every soul among us would have perished, but for the assistance of the French, who did every thing in their power to save as many of us as possible, and in our landing behaved with the greatest tenderness and humanity imaginable to us all.
"I remained on board two days and nights, after the ship first sunk, and in a situation too dreadful and horrid for pen to describe, with the surfs continually battering and making a fair breach all over us. The 27th at 5 P.M. found the ship began to separate and part a midships, the decks were before all fallen in holes fore and aft; had seen the chief mate, and several others, taken up the day before by the French boats, who could not come within half a mile of us for the surf; likewise saw fifteen people drowned in attempting to get through. Our situation was then become desperate: to continue longer by the wreck had no appearance of safety, and to quit her was certain immediate destruction to some of us. In this dreadful dilemma I preferred the latter for the most expeditious and probable means of deliverance; accordingly quitted her upon a large raft of spars, booms &c. as well spread, secured, and lashed together, as our unhappy circumstances would admin to, which we had all along reserved for the last stake. Mr. Gruchen, Mr. George Williamson, Mr. Matthew Miller, and Mr. Martin, passengers; Mr. Baldock, second officer; Mr. James Collins, midshipman; my brother and others, to the number of fifty in all (determining to
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share the same fate with me) came away at the same time; Mr. Martin, and Thomas Harrison, caulker's mate, being too eager in getting on the raft, were drowned along side the wreck. Large and stout as our raft was, the surf overset it before we had got half through, and turned us all adrift, by which misfortune poor Mr. Matthew Miller, Mr. James Collins, and fiver others, were drowned. My brother, Mr. Gruchen, Mr. Williamson, Mr. Baldock, and others, to the number of forty-one of us in all, fortunately scrambled on the raft again after it was overset, and got safe to the French boats, who were waiting ready to take us in.
"When first we struck, there were 126 should on board in all, 101 of whom were saved, and 25 perished. Thank God we lost no more, for a French ship, being wrecked in the same place a few years ago, had only nine people saved out of 250.
"Being obliged, for self-preservation, to quit the wreck without a coat to my back, I had no opportunity of saving a journal, or any papers to assist me in making out a regular list of every body's names that were on board; those of all the drowned I have given you in the inclosed, and those that were saved as far as I can recollect; which is all likewise but those of two foreigners, shipped at Bengal, whose names I cannot remember."
The hardships and misfortunes sustained by a lady (Mrs. Brubar) after the Verelst was beat to pieces, are hardly to be paralleled. She was twice thrown off the raft that carried part of the crew on shore, but by an uncommon exertion of fortitude regained it again, and was

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-12 10:24:13 1. Original document seems to contain "f" in cases which should be interpreted as "s" and this update has been reflected in the transcribed document on the left column of the left page 186] but not on the right column which still shows "f" instead of "s". ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-12 13:45:48 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-12 15:15:27