° 
as2] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1790 
per at laft, that his majefty’s con- 
feflor fhould break to him the me- 
lancholy event, which probably 
accelerated his death by fome 
hours. 
His majefty, the day after the 
death of the archduchefs, fent to 
the countefs de Chancos an order 
for 100,000 florins, as a mark of 
gratitude for the attention which fhe 
had fhewn to this beloved princefs. 
‘The countefs had been at the head 
of her royal highnefs’s houfehold. 
About the fame time, finding 
death drawing near, his majeity 
fent for cardinal Migazi, archbifhop 
of Vienna. When he arrived, « My 
Jord,” faid the Emperor, my 
life is drawing faft to an end: it is 
fit that I fhould die in Chiiftian 
peace with all men. IfI have of- 
fended you, J intreat your forgive- 
nefs; and through you the forgive- 
nefs of all mankind.”’ “ Sire,”’ faid 
his eminence, with tears in his eyes, 
«« the offences you have committed 
againft man, your death will expi- 
ate. For thofe accountable to God, 
God is merciful.” From ten o’clock at 
night on the roth, till half after five 
on the zoth, his majefty continued 
in the agonies of death, and at that 
hour expired, in the 4gth year of 
his age, and in the 26th year of his 
reign as empercr of the Romans, 
and the rothas king of Hungary 
and Bohemia. He fucceeded to the 
imperial crown, on the demife of 
his father Francis, the 18th of Au- 
guit, 1765; and to the hereditary 
dominions of the houfe of Auftria, 
on the death of his mother Maria 
Therefa, Nov. 29, 1780. He was 
twice married: firit, to a princefs 
of Parma, and, again, to a princefs 
of Bavaria; but, having left no 
iffue, the hereditary honours of his 
houfe devolve on his brother, Peter. 
Leopold Jofeph, grand duke of 
‘Tufcany. 
Two days before his death, he 
wrote with his own hand a farewell 
letter to the emprefs of Ruflia, who, 
it is faid, lies dangeroufly ill. He 
wrote likewife to prince Potemkin ; 
as it is fuppofed recommending 
peace. 
/ 
Account of the miraculous Efcape of 
Captain Bligh, of the Bounty 
Sloop. 
HIS thip failed from England 
F in the autumn of 1787, on a 
voyage to the Society Iflands, for 
bread-fruit-trees, intended for our 
Weltt-India fettlements; in which 
climate, it was the opinion of Sir Jo- 
feph Banks, they might be fuccefs- 
fully cultivated, and prove a fucce- 
daneum for other provifions in times 
of {carcity. 
The Bounty had made good the 
object of her voyage, fo far as to 
have received on board a great num- 
ber of thefe trees in various ftages 
of growth; and there was every 
pro{pect of there being capable of 
prefervation. 
The fhip, thus Jaden, quitted Ota- . 
heite, on the 4th of April, 1789, and 
continued her courfe in a wefterly 
direCtion, touching at one more 
ifland, and then meditating her pro- 
grefs through the Pacific Ocean, 
towards the Moluccas. { 
The fhip loft fight of the Friendly 
iflands on the 27th of that month, 
and every thing like good order was 
fuppofed to prevail on board; even 
the mid-watch was relieved without - 
the leaft apparent diforder: but, at 
day-break on the 28th, the cabin of 
Captain Bligh, who commanded the 
Bounty, was forcibly entered by the 
officer 
