hereby saves the great pay which otherwise they must allow; and yet these
forces are constantly in a readiness when the occasions of the Crown
require their service.

The officers of these militia forces have no pay at all but when they are
in actual service, neither do they expect any pay, being gentlemen of
quality and interest in the country: the chief of whom, who are fit for
it, are made colonels; the next to them lieutenant-colonels, majors,
captains, and inferior officers, according to their rank of the country
gentlemen, known and beloved among their neighbours, with whom their
interest and power, increased by their command, makes them the better
followed and obeyed. When they write out any from the militia to serve in
the armies, these officers and the lords of the boors appoint them; and
if any offend, they are presently written out to send abroad into Russia,
Poland, Germany, and other parts, from whence they do not all return
safe, but are kept in great awe and obedience.

This day here fell a great quantity of snow, and was in one night so hard
frozen that it would bear a cart; the English wondered at it, but not
this country men, the like being here usual at this time of the year and
after.

The Countess of Brahe, wife of the Ricks-Droitset, sent a gentleman to
Whitelocke to acquaint him that there was a parcel of timber, cut and
lying ready within four miles of Gothenburg, which did belong to her
former husband, and was cut for the building of a ship; but by reason of
her husband's death the ship was not built, and she offered the timber to
Whitelocke at a reasonable price. But he, finding that it had been cut
four years, and lay far from the water-side, made an excuse that it would
be necessary to have it viewed, which his hastening away would not now