T h e building appropriated to the fittings o f the courts is built
o f Rone clofe to the town, and upon the declivity o f a rifing
ground to the fouth-eaft, oppofite to the governor’s palace and
the royal farm o f Thorlholm. This edifice is feventy yards in
length by twenty-feven in breadth, and thirty-three in height,
and confifts o f three ftories. In front it is ornamented with a
clock. It is of the doric order o f architecture, and is altogether
one o f the handiomeft buildings in the kingdom. On the frieze
is obfervable the following infcription : “ Guftavus III. R. Si
« anno. Imperii XII. extruxit Themidique dicavit.” T o the weft-
ward is an open place, a hundred yards broad, and two hundred
and fifty-five in length, called the market-place o f Guftavus, from
which, oppofite to the front o f the- houle, runs an avenue óf four
rows o f trees on each fide, a hundred yards broad, and five hundred
long. Around the market-place are creeled the hollies of
the members o f the tribunal, in a ftyle o f per feel fymmetry. Thè
inhabitants, for the ornament o f the town, have begun to plant
avenues o f trees to the eaft, north and louth o f the railing that in-
clofes the building.
T h e town o f Wafa is in a very improving condition, both as to
the daily extenfion o f its trade, and the increafing number o f its
commodities. As it now ftands, it covers a furface o f fixteen
hundred yards m length, and a thouiand in breadth, and contains
to fo great a diftance ; which feems to prove that tribunals and lawyers multiply
law-fuits, juft as phyficians are faid fometimes to have added to the number of
difeaies.
feventeen
feventeen ftreets, feven o f which run from north to fouth, and
cut the remaining ten at right angles. T he ftreets are all ftraight
and not too narrow: Here is a church which in common belongs
to the town and the pariih o f Muftafaari; alfo a fchool and a lazaretto.
The burying ground is upon a neat plain o f confiderable
elevation, at a quarter o f a mile’s diftance from the town. Befides
the fupreme court, which is eonftituted by the burgomafters and
counfellors, there is likewife a fubordinate court o f juftice, which
is the only one in this government.
The trade of this town with foreign nations is rather confider-
able: their chief articles o f exportation are tar, pitch, rafters,
deals.which they fend to Stockholm,befrdes rye, butter, butchers’
meatchiefly beef, oil o f feals, fkins, ta llow ,& c .: ihips for fale, which
are generally conftrufted o f fir, are alfo built here. W a fa has an
annual market or fair, on the 2 4 th of A u gu ft,b u t it is o f little
eonfequence.
Among the eftabliffiments o f public utility you may reckon a
a medicine repofitory (which in England; would be called a medicine
warehoufe-, or apothecary’s fhop), a medical or botanical
garden, a cloth manufacture, a workhoufe for twilling tobacco,
and a plantation o f feven acres o f that defrayer o f mens morals as
well as health* three tan yards, a manufactory fo r oil from the
feal, two dye-houfes, and a building for the boiling o f pitch.
The old harbour is difficult o f accefs, but there is a. new one
* T h u s wrote-King James I. o f England. W h at abfurd opinion is there that
lia s nob been fanftioned by authors ! fituated
V o l . I. * l