■112 
TRAVELS 
The citizens are divided into three claffes or focieties, viz. of 
merchants, common tradefmen, and Finland burgeffes. They 
are formed into train-bands, or a kind of militia, confiding of 
three companies of foot, each of about fixty or feventy men, which 
are placed under the command of an officer called the town- 
major. The city-guard is a fmall body of men (about thirty-five), 
who perform the common duties ot watchmen, for the fecurity 
and quiet of the inhabitants. The town has three w T ater-en<nnes, 
and, in addition to thefe, the cathedral and academy have fix. 
Here alfo is an hofpital, where upwards of forty perfons can be 
accommodated. The lazaretto is intended for the fick that belong 
to the government of Abo exclufively. The Magdalen hofpital 
is a charitable inftitution upon a fmall fcale ; it has only an annual 
fund of three hundred rix dollars. 
This city carries on a confiderable trade, both foreign and do- 
mcftic. In the year 1761, its export trade employed nineteen 
fhips,* of which fourteen belonged wholly to the inhabitants of 
Abo. Their deftination was to Peterfburg, Frederickfhamn, 
Wiburg, Reval, Riga, and Pernau ; and their cargoes confifted of 
fait, tiles, iron and nails, copper, pitch, tar, pots, and deals, to the 
amount of three thoufand one hundred and twenty-two rix dol¬ 
lars thirty-two ^killings. They likewife exported to Cadiz, 
Genoa, Lifbon, St. Ube’s, Rourdeaux, and Amfterdam, iron, tar, 
* Mr. Peuchet, in his Dictionary of Commerce under the word Abo, fays, 
“ that the fhips with which this town carries on its trade are without decks a 
very unnacountable miftake. 
pitch. 
