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HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ADRIATIC. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, 
 Great New Street, Fetter Lane. 
 
 ( 
 
HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ADRIATIC, 
 
 INCLUDIING 
 
 DALMATIA, CROATIA, AND THE SOUTHERN PROVINCES 
 OF THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 By a. a. PATON, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "SERVIA, THE YOUNGEST MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN FAMILY;" 
 AND "THE MODERN SYRIANS." 
 
 Cathedral of Sebenico. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES: WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, 186 STRAND. 
 
 MDCCCXLTX. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The staple of this work is a familiar description of the 
 countries to the north and east of the Adriatic ; but as 
 in the first volume I touch only incidentally on politics, 
 I think it right at the outset to give the reader a key 
 to the spirit in which the whole has been written. The 
 work was undertaken at the suggestion of the late truly 
 estimable Sir Robert Gordon, her Majesty's Ambassador 
 at the Court of Vienna, in his private and un- official 
 capacity as a promoter of all those departments of litera- 
 ture which familiarise the reader with a knowledge of 
 the trade and resources of foreign parts ; and this in a 
 manner so obliging and advantageous, as no student of 
 political and commercial geography, anxious to add to 
 the range of his previous experiences, would willingly 
 neglect or decline. It was his wish that I should give 
 a general view of the material resources of the Austrian 
 empire ; I therefore began with a visit to the Austrian 
 ports of the Adriatic in the years 1846-7; but the 
 present abnormal state of trade, and the revolutions that 
 
 b 
 
vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 have since occurred, rendering it doubtful how far I 
 should make my work a commercial one, and the pro- 
 gress of events in Croatia (involving considerations of 
 the most momentous importance,) having created a de- 
 mand for information on that country, the desire to fill 
 up this vacuum has caused the second volume of the 
 work to assume a more decidedly political character 
 than was at first contemplated, and has afforded me a 
 convenient and fitting opportunity for laying before the 
 public the results of studies on the interests of Great 
 Britain in the Austrian and Ottoman empires com- 
 menced long anterior to my tour on the Adriatic ; more 
 especially as the grave and important events of the last 
 year have in a most remarkable manner confirmed the 
 soundness of views, the entertainment of which exposed 
 me for a series of years to much obloquy and misap- 
 prehension. 
 
 When I first began these studies in 1838, Great 
 Britain had just concluded a commercial treaty with 
 Austria, and w^as on the very worst terms with Russia 
 relative to the affairs of the East ; and, after a visit to 
 Hungary in the following year, I came to the conclu- 
 sion that the only counterpoise to Russia was a united 
 and powerful Austria ; that a house divided against itself 
 must fall ; and that Austria and Hungary at loggerheads 
 left Russia uncontrolled mistress of the destinies of the 
 lower Danube. I considered the cultivation of the Mag- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 vii 
 
 yar language and literature by the Magyar nation to be 
 a legal and laudable movement, but the attempt of the 
 Ultra -Magyar faction to substitute universally that na- 
 tionality for the ancient and numerically stronger Slaavic 
 nationalities, by their extirpation in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, to be a gross and revolting abuse of power, which 
 must sooner or later recoil on themselves. Magyarism 
 I considered a solid and valid element of Hungarian 
 prosperity ; Ultra - Magyarism a windbag, which must 
 necessarily collapse. For entertaining these opinions I 
 have been alternately called a knave and a visionary ; 
 but I see nothing in recent events to prove the un- 
 soundness of a theory which I have maintained through 
 good report and bad report for the last ten years. 
 
 In these ten years that have elapsed, a great change 
 has taken place in our relations with Russia, and instead 
 of the impending war of 1838, or the exacerbations of the 
 Servian question, there is every prospect of a long con- 
 tinuance of pacific and friendly relations with that power ; 
 and I should be delighted to see them still further secured 
 and strengthened by the act of a European Congress, 
 exactly defining the relations in which Russia stands to 
 the Danubian principalities, in a spirit of fairness and 
 equity, not only towards the Porte and the populations 
 of the principalities, but to all the valid and legitimate 
 pretensions of Russia herself. 
 
 So much for the easterly aspect of the politics of 
 
viii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 the region I visited. Of their westerly aspect, in rela- 
 tion to the Italian vrars and revolutions, I intend to say 
 very little in the course of this v^^ork, notv^ithstanding 
 their important mediate bearing on the cohesion of the 
 eastern parts of the Austrian empire and kingdom of 
 Hungary ; but with the greatest admiration of Italian 
 genius, with the greatest desire for the prosperity of 
 Italy, and with a vivid remembrance of the many and 
 delicious draughts I have quaffed at the fountains of 
 Italian art and literature, I feel bound to record my 
 hope, that the principle of legitimacy will be vindicated, 
 for the sake of the interests of humanity at large. If 
 the moral of my commercial geography be the necessity 
 of free -trade, and the disadvantages of the prohibitive 
 system, the result of a varied experience in political 
 and diplomatic affairs is the conviction of the necessity 
 of obedience to laws and treaties, and the equivalent 
 duty incumbent on those who make treaties for Europe, 
 or laws for its states, to place the principle of legitimacy 
 as far as practicable in unison with national sympathies, 
 so as to lay the foundation of a universal political con- 
 stitution of Europe. I confess that I am as sceptical 
 about human perfectibility as the most unchimerical 
 philosopher that ever lived, and do not believe that the 
 advancement of education will make war less delightful 
 to the most vigorous, cultivated, and comprehensive in- 
 tellects, than it has been from the days of Caesar to 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ix 
 
 those of Frederick or Napoleon ; but a single nation 
 sowing its wild oats as France did from 179^ to 1815, 
 and vexing the world with the vice and vigour of re- 
 newed youth, would have been much more difficult if 
 Europe had had a better diplomarchical constitution. And 
 even since 1815 two great facts cannot fail to strike 
 every one ; first, that we are in the thirty - fourth year 
 of a peace uninterrupted by the wars of the great mili- 
 tary powers with each other ; secondly, that the wars 
 that have taken place in that period have been civil 
 wars, or wars arising from the principle of legitimacy 
 being discordant with national sympathies, such as the 
 revolt of Lombardy ; the invasion of that kingdom by 
 Charles Albert being the only instance of an attempt at 
 the conquest of the territories of a friendly sovereign by 
 an ambitious monarch since the general peace of 1815. 
 
 I regard Lombardy to be the only serious difficulty 
 of Austria ; for every inch of territory west of the Mincio 
 is diffusion and debility for an Austro-Danubian empire ; 
 but I have never been able to comprehend how the cir- 
 cumstance of the liberalism of the King of Sardinia 
 being a few weeks older than that of the Emperor of 
 Austria (in consequence of absolute power having slipped 
 through his fingers a few weeks sooner), could afford 
 him a pretext for trampling under foot the treaties of 
 Vienna and Paris, to which his house alone owes the 
 repossession of Savoy and Piedmont, — mainly and prin- 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 cipally in consequence of the Emperor Francis having 
 thrown his weight into the balance against his own son- 
 in-law Napoleon, — treaties which, if repealed or abo- 
 lished, leave no chartered right between the ambition 
 of an Emperor or President Louis Napoleon, and the 
 inheritance of Savoy and Piedmont. 
 
 Charles Albert, endowed by nature with many at- 
 tractive and engaging qualities, began by adorning his 
 reign with a liberal encouragement of arts, science, and 
 literature ; — I hope that, before he ends it, he will 
 strengthen it by the establishment of constitutional li- 
 berty, through the introduction of its first and most 
 essential element, an invariable and inviolable respect 
 for all laws, until repealed by competent authority ; a 
 principle to which, more than to any thing else. Great 
 Britain, from the Lands End to John O' Groat's house, 
 owes the preservation of her freedom ; and as treaties 
 framed by European Congresses have the same validity 
 among States as acts of parliamentary legislature have 
 in the case of individuals, it is in his power to pay a 
 tribute to the constitutional system by setting such an 
 example in his exalted sphere, and adopting such an 
 attitude, as will leave no doubt of his sincere love of 
 liberty, by his sincere respect for law. 
 
 Great changes have taken place since I left Austria, 
 in her internal affairs ; and in my judgments on the de- 
 funct system, I have attempted to weigh truth and false- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 hood grain by grain, and scruple by scruple; but I have 
 no doubt that I must be considered as a partial writer 
 by the indiscriminate haters of Austria, if I may judge 
 by the light in which the administration of Prince Met- 
 ternich is received by a large proportion of the English 
 press. This remarkable statesman has, during a long 
 career, shewn on innumerable occasions how warm his 
 attachment has been to England and the English, and 
 has never allowed difference of political systems, and 
 views diverging on many important and irritating ques- 
 tions, to interfere with a normal sympathy for the Eng- 
 lish alliance ; I therefore think that his treatment by 
 the press in general has been distinguished by a want 
 of historic fairness, and a surprising ignorance of the 
 mechanism of one of the greatest European monarchies. 
 
 To peruse some of these lucubrations on what they 
 call " the Metternich system," one would suppose that 
 at the accession of this statesman, Austria had been a 
 country enjoying a free constitutional government, and 
 that its liberties had been overthrown one after another 
 by a series of coups d'etat ; which ended with forging on 
 a once free people fetters of the most odious slavery. 
 Never was any reasoning or vituperation less founded on 
 truth. The defunct bureaucratic constitution of Austria 
 was introduced and founded by the Emperor Joseph, the 
 most absolute and despotic monarch that ever sat on the 
 throne of Austria. This prince was deeply tinctured with 
 
xii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 the French theories in vogue in the latter half of the 
 eighteenth century : he was somewhat too much of a 
 royalist to wish to see the last king burnt on a funeral 
 pile, composed of the body of the last priest : but priests, 
 nobles, provincial estates, and municipal incorporations, — 
 whether in their uses as checks to despotic power, or in 
 their abuse as elements of corruption, — he was resolved to 
 render as nugatory as lay in his power ; and, in order to be 
 both popular and despotic, he created bureaucracy as his 
 ready, obedient, and subservient tool. All this happened 
 when Prince Metternich was in child's petticoats : not one 
 single element of the defunct septuagenarian government 
 did Prince Metternich create ; neither its advantages nor 
 its disadvantages, neither its care for the poor and ig- 
 norant, nor its mistrust and espionage of the rich and 
 the intelligent ; and had he dared to alter the system, his 
 place was not worth forty-eight hours' purchase. 
 
 Nowhere was it more true than at Vienna that po- 
 litical systems are like serpents, their heads being moved 
 by their tails. There was a power stronger than Met- 
 ternich, and that was the bureaucracy. When, in 1840, 
 this statesman pursued, conjointly with the other three 
 powers, a policy perfectly congenial to the interests of 
 Austria, he was as nearly as possible pitched headlong 
 from his eminence, because he was supposed to risk a war ; 
 and subsequently, a still more remarkable exercise of this 
 power has been attended with still more fatal effects. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 The cardinal blot, the crowning abuse of the so-called 
 " Metternich system," was the prohibitive duties intro- 
 duced by the Emperor Joseph; a system that inflicted, 
 and still inflicts, an annual loss estimated at from eight to 
 ten millions on the Austrian exchequer. Baron Kiibeck, 
 the right-hand man and protege of Prince Metternich, 
 drew up a reform of the system ; and who was the 
 obstructor ? Was it Prince Metternich ? Unquestion- 
 ably not. It was the narrow-minded Hofkammer ; so that 
 the Emperor Joseph, who created the rural bureaucracy 
 to fight the battle of the poor man against the rich, for- 
 got to create some machine which might enable an en- 
 lightened minister to infuse some of the higher principles 
 of politics and legislation into the Hofkammer ; it was, in 
 short, a sort of Gordian knot of red tape, which has been 
 cut, because it could not be loosed. 
 
 That the policy of Prince Metternich was not free 
 from capital errors is too true ; for no man, be he ever so 
 great or good, can administer an empire for forty years 
 without leaving a wide field open for criticism. Let all 
 those errors be visited on his head, the last of which was 
 the occupation of Cracow, an act which struck at the very 
 foundation of the fabric of the European family; but 
 nothing can be more unjust than to hold him up as the 
 inventor or introducer of a despotism, when, in truth, he 
 left the constitution of Austria much better than he found 
 it. The provincial estates, which were a nullity at the 
 
XIV 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 beginning of his career, had become a power in the state 
 before its close. The form of government did not allow 
 the glorious and inestimable privilege of a free press ; but 
 let any one compare what Austria was in the latter years 
 of the administration of Metternich, with its first years, 
 and the advance is enormous. Not only was the cen- 
 sorship considerably relaxed, but all foreign books and 
 newspapers of a really high and informing character, if 
 written in ever so free a spirit of inquiry, were admitted ; 
 and as for the Socialist novels, Ultra-Radical newspapers, 
 and free - thinking theology, which were rigorously ex- 
 cluded, the deprivation, however inconsistent with English 
 notions of liberty, yet could not be called a stupefying 
 despotism," without an abuse of terms ; and those who 
 wished to see " stupefying despotism" in its perfection 
 must have gone to the Tchech districts of Hungary, where 
 a nation, having an ancient and valuable literature, and 
 endowed with the happiest dispositions for instruction, 
 and numbering two millions five or six hundred thousand 
 souls, or about the population of Scotland, were denied 
 a single newspaper in their mother - tongue ; and yet, 
 according to modern notions, the Ultra-Magyar faction, 
 who thought themselves entitled to extirpate Tchechism 
 from Hungary, are enlightened liberals ! But so much 
 worse is irresponsible corporate tyranny than responsible 
 absolutism, that the shade of Montesquieu might say of 
 the Ultra- Magyar faction, " Leur gouvernement est tou- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XV 
 
 jours odieux. Les peuples conquis y sont dans un etat 
 triste ; ils ne jouissent ni des avantages de la republique, 
 ni de ceux de la monarchie." 
 
 It is much to be regretted that Prince Metternich did 
 not seek the compensations of Austria in Germany rather 
 than in Italy; but neither he, nor any other statesman 
 at the Congress of Vienna, did, or could, foresee the 
 antipathies of races that were to succeed, any more than 
 the statesmen of a Congress now about to assemble could 
 predict what mankind is to be disputing about thirty or 
 forty years hence. 
 
 They wisely legislated for the ills they knew, and not 
 for those they knew not of. But if we take Prince 
 Metternich's career as a whole — the decisive effect with 
 which the war-councils of his youth insured a prompt and 
 long-continued general peace — his own aristocratic birth 
 and connexions, and the remarkable absence of aristocratic 
 jobbing in the tenor of his government — the readiness 
 with which men of merit were promoted from the 
 humblest ranks of society to the highest places in the 
 administration, even the cabinet itself — and the general 
 prosperity, in spite of a protectionist Hofkammer — must 
 when the passions of our age have passed away, procure 
 him a high position in the pages of the philosophic his- 
 torian of the future, who judges him with reference to the 
 institutions amid which he lived, moved, and had his being. 
 
 Although conscious of the evils and abuses in the 
 
xvi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 higher regions of bureaucracy, and the indisposition to 
 reform on the part of a class of men, who, having gained 
 the objects of their ambition, were anxious to let things 
 alone, yet the provinces through which I passed abounded 
 in intelligent and energetic men, anxious for the public 
 welfare, who, in the most obliging manner possible, 
 afforded me much information ; and besides persons in 
 a private station, mentioned in this work, I am much 
 indebted to Baron Schaller, Aulic Councillor, who 
 conducts the civil administration of Dalmatia at Zara, 
 Baron Rasner, Chief of the circle of Ragusa, and their 
 colleagues, for the readiness with which they answered all 
 my queries. But I should make a poor and miserable 
 return for their attentions, if I were to gloss over the 
 neglects or abuses I saw on my way. The experience of 
 peace and war having shewn that there are few of our 
 greater alliances attended with less inconvenience than 
 that of Austria, my desire is to render a real and essential 
 service to the provinces I visited, by suggesting those 
 practical reforms which may awaken the dormant elements 
 of prosperity ; — reforms for which the barren formulas 
 of rights -of- man mongers are wretched and unavailing 
 substitutes. 
 
 Without intending any invidious comparisons, I can- 
 not close without expressing my sense of the loss our 
 diplomacy has sustained by the death of Sir Robert 
 Gordon, who, by his lengthened and varied experience, and 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XVll 
 
 the perfect straightforwardness of his mode of conducting 
 business, reflected as much honour on our diplomatic 
 school as he was successful in maintaining cordial rela- 
 tions and a firmly established influence at the Court to 
 which he was accredited. 
 
CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 First View of Dalmatia ....... 1 
 
 Its Physical Geography ....... 1 
 
 Pass of the Vellebitch 3 
 
 History of Dalmatia ....... 6 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Sebenico . . . . . . . . .11 
 
 Its Cathedral 16 
 
 Venetian Fort . . . . . . . .19 
 
 Falls of Kerka 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Dalmatian Archipelago . . . . . .29 
 
 Winds and Currents ....... 30 
 
 Lesina .......... 32 
 
 Lissa .......... 38 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Island of Curzola ........ 43 
 
 Amazons ......... 47 
 
 Population ......... 49 
 
 Agriculture . .50 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Cattaro . 51 
 
 Strange Adventure . . . . . . . . 55 
 
 Climate . . .60 
 
 Modern History 62 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Montenegro ......... 66 
 
 Montenegrine Town ....... 69 
 
XX ' CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Household Arrangements 71 
 
 The Capital 74 
 
 Albanian Merchant ....... 74 
 
 Montenegrine Senate 78 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Montenegrine History . . . . . . .81 
 
 Dynasty of Princes ....... 82 
 
 Conquest by the Turks ....... 86 
 
 Liberation ......... 87 
 
 The false Peter 88 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Montenegrine Politics ....... 95 
 
 Vengeance of Blood . . . . . . .96 
 
 The present Archbishop . . . . . . .99 
 
 His Writings 100 
 
 Warfare 103 
 
 Want of a Port 105 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Ragusa . 107 
 
 Appearance of Population 110 
 
 The Piazza 112 
 
 The Walls . .116 
 
 Ruined Villas 120 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Early History of Ragusa . . . . . . .122 
 
 Prosperity in the Seventeenth Century . . . .128 
 
 Modern History 136 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Ragusan Manners 141 
 
 Town Houses . . . . . . . . i45 
 
 Marriage Party ........ 147 
 
 Winter Amusements . . . . . . .151 
 
 Summer Excursions . . . . . . .152 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. XXl 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FACE 
 
 Ragusan Literature . . . . . . .157 
 
 Gondola 159 
 
 His Epic Poem . . . . . . . ,160 
 
 Episode in it . . . . . . . . . 162 
 
 CHAPTER Xlll. 
 Environs of Ragusa . . . . . .168 
 
 Marino Ghetaldi ,169 
 
 Richard Coeur de Lion . . . . . . .172 
 
 St. Hilary 175 
 
 Agriculture 178 
 
 Ragusa Vecchia . . . . . . . .180 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Ecclesiastical Establishments in Ragusa . . . .182 
 
 Cathedral 185 
 
 The Reliquary 186 
 
 Education 190 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Ragusan Trade . . . . . . . . 193 
 
 Turkish Bazaar . . . . . . . .194 
 
 Steamers ......... 197 
 
 The Port 198 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Delta of Narenta . 200 
 
 Fort Opus 207 
 
 Improving Magistrate ....... 209 
 
 The Vladimirovich . . . . . , . .211 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 The Frontier of Herzegovina . . . . . .213 
 
 Border Bazaar . . . . . . , .214 
 
 Valley of the Narenta 216 
 
 Drainage . . . ^ . . . . . .217 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 Macarsca ......... 221 
 
Xxii CONTENT? OF VOL. I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Dalmatian Man of Letters . . . . .223 
 
 Parliamentary Grove . . . . . . ,226 
 
 Patriarchal Constitution . . , . . .227 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Palace of Diocletian 232 
 
 Memoir of Diocletian ' . . . . . . . 24 1 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Carnival in Spalato . . . . . . .246 
 
 Casino Balls 247 
 
 People's Balls . . . ... . .248 
 
 Spalato at Sunrise . . . . . . . .253 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 Early History of Spalato . . . . . .258 
 
 Effects of French Revolution . . . . . .260 
 
 Austrian Occupation ....... 265 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 Literature in Spalato . . . . . . .268 
 
 The Garret Club 269 
 
 De Dominis . . • 274 
 
 Cattalinich . .276 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 Lent in Spalato ........ 283 
 
 Charity Sermon . . . . . . .284 
 
 Musical Amateurs ........ 286 
 
 Popish Superstition . .291 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 A Description of the Ruins and Museum of Salona . . 295 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 Commerce and Public Works ...... 306 
 
 Necessity of Free Trade 308 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME I. 
 
 Cattaro Frontispiece, 
 
 Cathedral of Sebenico ...... Vignette Title. 
 
 Map of Route Page 1 
 
 Montenegrine Bazaar in Cattaro 66 
 
 Ragusa 107 
 
 Gondola 158 
 
 Plan of Spalato 233 
 
 Palace of Diocletian 234 
 
 Bay of Spalato 258 
 
THE 
 
 HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 FIRST VIEW OF DALMATIA. 
 
 The Alps and the Apennines of Italy, as well as 
 the Parnassus of Greece, are all parts of one and 
 the same range of mountains. The chain begins 
 in Calabria, and for a space keeps nearer to the 
 Adriatic than to the Neapolitan waters ; but at 
 San Marino crosses over to the Gulf of Genoa, 
 and sweeping round Piedmont, assumes the name 
 of the Alps ; then, running eastwards, passes down 
 the other side of the Adriatic, and so onwards 
 through Albania and Greece, till it terminates in 
 the ^gean at the marbled steep of Cape Sunium. 
 
 The modern and Slaavic name of these Illyrian 
 Alps, that run down the east of the Adriatic — 
 sometimes approaching and sometimes receding 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 from the sea -shore — is the Vellebitch, These 
 mountains form the western limit of Croatia and 
 Bosnia. 
 
 The narrow stripe of territory, three hundred 
 miles in length, intervening between the Velle- 
 bitch and the Adriatic, is Dalmatia, the country 
 of which we propose to treat in the first instance. 
 We may therefore pronounce it to be Cisalpine, 
 its climate and productions resembling those of 
 Italy. The Switzerland of Croatia, which forms 
 the second division of our subject, is Transalpine ; 
 and although inhabited by the same Slaavic race 
 as Dalmatia, its climate and productions are north- 
 ern, and the physical geography of the two coun- 
 tries has nothing in common. 
 
 It was at Carlstadt in Hungary, in the month 
 of November 1846, that I took my place in the 
 weekly diligence that runs from Vienna to Zara, 
 the capital of Dalmatia. As we approached the 
 Adriatic, even the most unobservant traveller must 
 have perceived that we were in the vicinity of a 
 southern region. The peasants wore the classic 
 sandal. In the midst of the faces of Slaavic form, 
 those with the regular features, which are the rule 
 in Italy and the exception to the north of the Alps, 
 grew more frequent. Fresh Zara almonds were 
 presented at a hedge beer-house ; and so strong 
 grew this feeling before crossing the last moun- 
 tain-ridge, that I even fancied that all the birds 
 flew to the southwards. 
 
43 1^9 
 
 OF THE 
 Y R O M 
 
 ISTR! A TO ALB AN I A- 
 
 BY AS-. A.K. JOHNSTOW, 
 Under lao STLpeirinleaicleTice or 
 ARCHIBALD PATON. 
 SCALE OF ENCLiSH MILES 
 
 n lo^ ?o r,p. 4o so 6o 70 
 
 W'&-A JC Joh/i^n J!?ig ravers J^daiT 
 
FIRST VIEW OF DALMATIA. 
 
 3 
 
 At length, just before dawn, on the third morn- 
 ing after leaving Carlstadt, I woke up in the dili- 
 gence, which had stopped to change horses at the 
 post-house on the top of the Yellebitch ; my limbs 
 were benumbed with cold, in spite of greatcoat and 
 lined cloak, and a keen wind saluted me as I 
 stepped out of the carriage in deep snow. The 
 chill, clear, starry heavens enabled me to see that 
 I had gained the summit of a pass bordered with 
 pines and surmounted with pinnacles of rock ; and 
 a square block of stone on my left attracting my 
 attention, I held the lantern to it, and read on one 
 side, " Croatia," and on the reverse, Dalmatia." 
 A thrill of satisfaction passed through me as I 
 felt myself on the threshold of a new and inter- 
 esting field of study ; and the foretaste of novel 
 scenes and strange manners renewed the illusions 
 of youthful travel. Seeing a dull red charcoal- 
 fire gleaming through the window of a hut on 
 my right, in which sat a watch of frontier guards, 
 I entered and warmed myself, the conductor pre- 
 ferring to make the descent by daylight. 
 
 As I re-entered the coach, the blue diamond- 
 studded night had disappeared as a dream ; and 
 as the dawn approached, the silver icicles glistened 
 on the dark -green branches of the mountain-pines. 
 As we traversed the summit of the ridge, one snowy 
 peak after another was lighted up with the break 
 of day ; and a turn of the road at length bringing 
 us to that side of the Yellebitch which fronted 
 
4 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 the Adriatic, Dalmatia, in all her peculiarity, lay 
 stretched before me. Here was no tantalising de- 
 scent of long narrow valleys, as in Italy. To the 
 eye, the transition from the world of the North to 
 the world of the South was immediate. Like the 
 traveller who, after the painful gyrations of a high 
 tower, emerges from darkness to the bird's-eye 
 view of a new and curious city, I had the whole 
 space, from the hill-tops to the distant islands, 
 before me at a single glance. A long, deep gash 
 in the land, parallel with the mountain, was the 
 Canal of the Morlacks, a gulf of the sea, like a 
 wide river flowing between its banks. Zara, Ben- 
 covatz, Nona, — plain and mountain, city and sea, 
 — were all before me. The sun rose apace ; the 
 mist cleared away from the distant island capes ; 
 the snow died a lingering death as we sunk to the 
 temperature of the genial Adriatic ; and the wind, 
 combated as a bitter enemy an hour ago, blew a 
 gentle truce, and was invited as a friend. Yester- 
 day morning, on awaking, the carriage- wheels were 
 rattling over a road crisped with hard frost 5 and 
 the pointed spire of a Croatian church rose, clear 
 and distinct, out of the grey and crimson distance. 
 Obrovazzo, a small town, to which we now de- 
 scended, had the campanile of the south of the 
 Alps ; and in the domestic architecture of the 
 town I at once recognised the Venetian character : 
 here the charm was not that of mere novelty, but 
 sweet recognition of the features of an old and 
 
FIRST VIEW OF DALMATIA. 
 
 5 
 
 well -beloved friend, recalling days of enjoyment 
 mingled with instruction. 
 
 But the greatest curiosity was the road by 
 which I had effected my descent. The Yellebitch, 
 instead of sloping down to the coast, breaks off 
 with an abruptness that borders on the precipitous, 
 and must have tasked the energies of the most 
 scientific road-maker. With the experience of the 
 Simplon, the St. Gotha, and the others leading 
 over the Alps, the Yellebitch is the most perfect 
 of all, and, viewed from below the road, appears 
 like a gigantic staircase cut in the face of a rock. 
 One great blank in the landscape to which we 
 descended was a scantiness of vegetation : the air 
 was warm, the colours clear, brilliant, and south- 
 ern ; but the scattered figs and olives, the red 
 earth mingled with rock, and the starved shrub- 
 bery, formed a counterpoise that told me not to 
 forget my native verdure-clad north. 
 
 Obrovazzo is situated on the lips of a yawning 
 land-crack, through which a Rhine or Danube 
 would have space enough to flow ; but the intense 
 green of the motionless waters shews that there is 
 more of salt sea than of fresh water to float those 
 barques that lay along the quay. 
 
 Nothing in Christian Europe is so picturesque 
 as the Dalmatian peasant's dress ; for he wears not 
 the trousers or pantaloons and round hat of Austria 
 or Hungary, but a dress analogous to that of the 
 old Turk. Tall, muscular, and vigorous, with red 
 
6 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 fez on his head, and huge pistols in his belt, we 
 recognise the Slaav of the Adriatic, — the brother 
 of the Servian in blood, in language, and also, to 
 a considerable extent, in religion ; but while the 
 varnish of civilisation in Servia is German and 
 new, here it is much older, and has come from 
 Venice. The graceful dialect w^hich Goldoni has 
 immortalised is as indigenous in the Roman races 
 of Dalmatia as in Venice ; and the High Street of 
 Obrovazzo looks like a dry alley in one of the 
 islands of the Lagoon, or of some of those neigh- 
 bouring villages of terra firma with which the 
 pencil of Canaletti has so charmingly familiar- 
 ised us. 
 
 But, before we proceed further, let us pause to 
 trace the antecedents of this curious social mar- 
 riage that carries the mind alternately from the 
 heights of the Balkan to the mouths of the Brenta. 
 
 A dark mist hangs over the nationality of Dal- 
 matia previous to the Roman conquest by Au- 
 gustus ; but it is probable that the language was 
 Thracian, — that is to say, the parent of that dia- 
 lect which formerly covered a greater part of the 
 countries between the Black and the Adriatic 
 seas ; a dialect which, related to the Greek, Ro- 
 man, and Slaavic languages, had something of 
 them all. 
 
 The pre-Roman period appears to have been 
 one of free republics ; and, from the mountainous 
 nature of the territory and the unruly spirit of the 
 
FIRST VIEW OF DALMATIA. 
 
 7 
 
 people, it was long before Dalmatia was completely 
 subjugated to the Boman power. It was in the 
 sixth year of the Christian era, on the occasion of 
 the levying of recruits to the legions destined for 
 Germany, that the whole coast rose to shake off 
 the yoke of Imperial Rome. The Roman domi- 
 nion," said Bato, the leader of the revolt, is in- 
 supportable to the people of Illyria. To the loss 
 of our fortunes and liberties we must add that of 
 the blood of our children, dearer to our hearts 
 than either. Up, then, Illyrians ! and, remember- 
 ing our ancient freedom, let us prefer an honour- 
 able death to the servitude of Rome." 
 
 The contest was maintained with vigour for 
 many years ; at length Germanicus and Tiberius 
 successfully suppressed the revolt, and a large Ro- 
 man colonisation gave a new character to the east 
 of the Adriatic. 
 
 The introduction of Christianity forms the next 
 great event in the history of Dalmatia ; and the 
 advent of Paul, who had been preceded by Titus, 
 is thus recorded by himself: ** Through mighty 
 signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of 
 God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about 
 unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel 
 of Christ."^ There can be no doubt that Dal- 
 matia was one of the first countries that embraced 
 Christianity ; and in the time of Diocletian a 
 majority were Christians. In no province of the 
 ' Rom. XV. 19. 
 
8 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Roman dominions were the persecutions of that 
 Emperor more severe than in his own ; and in 
 303 all the Christian Bishops of Dalmatia were 
 executed. 
 
 To the vicissitudes of the reigns of Constantino 
 and Julian succeeded the permanent establishment 
 of Christianity ; and in the year 400 we find St. 
 Jerome, an Illyrian by birth, organising the hier- 
 archy over all the highlands and islands of Dal- 
 matia ; and so on to his death in 420. But the 
 political fabric of the empire was tottering to its 
 fall. Dalmatia lying out of the way of the main 
 armies of Attila and the invaders, was at first less 
 exposed than Italy ; but several irruptions of the 
 Slaavs from the Carpathians took place in the fifth 
 and sixth centuries ; and in the beginning of the 
 seventh century, the Avars, an Asiatic race, pour- 
 ing in a mass over Dalmatia, joined the ruthless 
 lust of destruction to the cupidity of wealth. But 
 the Avars were in their turn subdued by the 
 Croats, who have proved permanent settlers ; and 
 with the final destruction of Epidaurus and Salona, 
 the principal Eoman cities, and the subjugation of 
 the whole coast, commences the modern history 
 of Dalmatia, and the final adoption of the Croat 
 language and nationality, although the Latin lan- 
 guage, in a vulgar form, lingered in Ragusa and 
 Zara to the eleventh century. 
 
 A patriarchal Slaavic state was now consti- 
 tuted, governed by Bans and Zhupans. The no- 
 
FIRST VIEW OF DALMATIA. 
 
 9 
 
 minal sovereignty of Constantinople was acknow- 
 ledged ; but in matters of faith Dalmatia remained 
 true to the authority of the West, and received 
 from Rome, and not from Constantinople, her spi- 
 ritual conductors. At length, in 970, Duke Dir- 
 cislaav first received the ensigns of royalty from 
 the Emperor Basil, and Croatia and Dalmatia 
 henceforth became a kingdom. 
 
 On the death of Zwonomir, the last native 
 king, in 1190, the Croats and Dalmatians, unable 
 to agree among themselves on the choice of a suc- 
 cessor, and fearing the rising ambition of Venice, 
 turned for protection rather to the vigorous king- 
 dom of Hungary than to Constantinople — that 
 lean and slippered pantaloon of the great Eoman 
 empire, once so robust in arms and august in 
 magistracy ; and thence Hungary and Croatia 
 became socia regiia. But the Hungarian Govern- 
 ment was of an entirely Asiatic character ; they 
 encamped, but did not colonise ; the tribute was 
 collected, and the country governed ; but except 
 a few remains of feudal castles, and a few charters 
 generously endowing the Church, there is little in 
 Dalmatia to record their existence. 
 
 Quite different was the impress of Venice on 
 Dalmatia. Long and bloody were her contests 
 with Hungary for its possession. It was on the 
 walls of Zara, in 1846, that Marino Faliero earned 
 his laurels by the most daring assault in the annals 
 of the kingdom, and opened for himself the avenue 
 
10 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 to that exercise of the highest powers of the state, 
 and experience of the last vengeance of the law, 
 which leaves a blank in the portrait gallery of the 
 Ducal Palace of Venice, but has furnished an im- 
 mortal picture to the pencil of a Byron. Every 
 where the arts of Venice followed in the trace of 
 her arms. In the public monuments, as well as in 
 the domestic architecture, and even in the strong- 
 holds of the coast, constructed by Sammicheli, we 
 admire the taste and genius of the artist combined 
 with the skill of the engineer. 
 
 Dalmatia remained Venetian to the expiry of 
 that republic in 1797? and, after various vicissi- 
 tudes, is now an integral part of the Austrian 
 Empire. But as the bird's-eye prospect from the 
 summits of the Vellebitch is incompatible with the 
 examination of minute objects, so the review of so 
 wide an expanse of history has excluded individual 
 detail ; but as we advance on our journey our his- 
 torical sketches must expand in proportion to our 
 nearer acquaintance with the scenes we describe. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SEBENICO. 
 
 Zara, the capital of Dalmatia, in which the dili- 
 gence deposited me, is full of varied interest ; but 
 in a climate resembling that of Italy, prudence sug- 
 gests to the traveller locomotion during the fine 
 weather of autumn and spring, and residence in the 
 towns during the inclemency of winter or the heats 
 of summer. I therefore reserved Zara for the com- 
 pletion of my tour, when the fountain-heads of 
 statistical information become most valuable, after 
 a practical acquaintance with the land and the 
 people. 
 
 The first place of any importance, proceeding 
 southwards, is Sebenico ; and after making the 
 necessary arrangements, and getting the requisite 
 information, I hired a carriage conjointly with 
 another person proceeding thither. An excellent 
 Macadamised road carries the traveller to Scar- 
 dona ; but oh, how dreary the landscape ! For 
 many a long mile the footstep of some later Attila 
 seemed to have left its withering impress on these 
 plains. Some districts were stony ; others, like 
 
1^ 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 the Campagna of Rome, were a desert less by na- 
 ture than the ruin or neglect of man. The vil- 
 lages are few and far between. Here and there 
 the shell of a vast feudal castle, or the broken 
 arches of the great Eoman aqueduct, fifty miles 
 in length, that conveyed the waters of the distant 
 Kerka to the ancient Zara (Jadera), shed a melan- 
 choly splendour on the desolate scene. Across 
 these plains the Avars spread like locusts, to ban- 
 quet on the too mature fruits of Roman culture. 
 In times nearer our own, when the mountains and 
 the interior were held by the Turks, and the coasts 
 by Venice, these plains became the debateable land, 
 which, once depopulated, have never since known 
 the hum of industry. Giambattista Giustiniano, 
 visiting this very tract in tells us that the 
 
 territory formerly furnished oil in quantity suffi- 
 cient not only for Zara, but all Dalmatia ; but the 
 olive-trees being cut down in the Turkish war, and 
 the earth dried up, even the necessary oil was im- 
 ported from Apulia, and the inhabited villages 
 reduced in number from 280 to 85, some of which 
 had no more than five or six houses. 
 
 As we approach Scardona, the road descends, 
 and the landscape begins to smile. A brook 
 brawls at our side ; detached huts are annexed to 
 enclosed patches of ground ; olives, at first scarce 
 and scanty, thicken apace, and are succeeded by 
 a noble grove of lofty umbrageous mulberries. A 
 green meadow, and red ploughed land, at length 
 
SEBENICO. 
 
 13 
 
 become mingled with gardens, and then the village 
 itself opens to our view ; and, strange paradox I 
 although about to embark on an inlet of the sea, 
 we feel like mariners arriving in port after a 
 monotonous voyage. 
 
 Scardona, the place in question, is situated on 
 the tortuous salt-water gulf which, locked in by 
 precipitous highlands, meets the fresh water of the 
 river Kerka, and is accessible to small craft. It 
 retains its Roman name, and in the time of the 
 Empire was a populous and flourishing munici- 
 pality, exceeded in importance only by Salona, 
 Narona, Epidaurus, and other cities of the first 
 class on the coast ; but as ships of long course 
 superseded galleys of light draught, the deep port 
 of Sebenico, near the sea, has become, in its own 
 small way, the emporium of this part of Dalmatia. 
 
 A stout boat, with four rowers, conveyed me to 
 Sebenico, the lofty Cathedral, towering above the 
 other houses, being visible long before we landed at 
 the quay, whence my baggage was carried up steep 
 and narrow streets to the Albergo dei Pellegrini, 
 or Inn of the Pilgrims, said to be the best in 
 Sebenico. Having been at Jerusalem, I felt my- 
 self qualified to enter ; but a certificate of having 
 visited the holy places was not demanded — even 
 the pilgrim's staff is dispensed with. The mere 
 scrip, containing a few florins, is the only append- 
 age which the hospitable landlord expects his pil- 
 grims not to leave behind them. The street in 
 
14 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 which the inn is situated is about fifteen feet wide, 
 paved with small causeway stones, somewhat smooth 
 and slippery. The houses, like those of the rest of 
 the town, were tall, so as to be comprised within 
 the old Venetian wall, the present population of 
 the place beintx 5000. My bedroom, on the first 
 floor, was high and airy, and the floor was paved 
 with large square red bricks. A broad bed, unlike 
 those cofiins which pass by that name in Germany, 
 was covered by a clean white flowered counterpane, 
 but the chest of drawers and chairs seemed to have 
 been imported from the Seven Dials of London. 
 The eating-room was a long low dark apartment 
 on the ground floor, with a covered table in the 
 middle. . The dinner-hour was one o'clock ; and 
 after sunset, the waiter no sooner lighted the 
 lamps, than he wished me good evening. The 
 hour of supper (eight or nine o'clock) brought 
 several townspeople, who used the inn as a re- 
 staurant ; and the bill of fare had its own native 
 hue, abounding in fish. Tunny, sturgeon, pala- 
 meda, and many others considered as delicacies 
 in the north, are here abundant. 
 
 My carriage companion was of the company ; 
 a man of tall stature, boldly chiselled features, 
 sunburnt complexion, free noble independent bear- 
 ing, and a strong Venetian accent — a true Dal- 
 matian — a sturdy Servian bagpipe attuned to an 
 Italian aria. Eeport designated him as a worthy 
 man ; he had experienced vicissitudes in trade. 
 
SEBENICO. 
 
 15 
 
 shipping, and farming, and I found him intelligent 
 and communicative. 
 
 " Dalmatia, my good sir," said he, " and Eng- 
 land are antipodes. In England, thirteen men 
 make one pin ; here, one man must do thirteen dif- 
 ferent things. My trade is a bad encyclopedia — a 
 little of every thing, and nothing good. Dalmatia, 
 sir, has the best air and water in the world, but is 
 rather deficient in corn and vegetables. As for 
 politics, we enjoy complete security for our pro- 
 perty ; but there is one thing wanting to our hap- 
 piness, and that is the possession of something 
 worth securing. We will never prosper till we 
 get those countries behind there holding his 
 thumb in the direction of Bosnia. " Dalmatia, 
 sir, is a mere stripe of sea-coast, a face without 
 a head." 
 
 " But," said I, surely you must admit that 
 Austria could never get Bosnia without disturbing 
 all Europe — without breaking in upon the Otto- 
 man Empire, and giving others a bad example." 
 
 " Ah ! there you come with your balance of 
 power, and think nothing of our Christian brethren 
 in that country. Austria has only to give the 
 word, and every Dalmatian is ready to shoulder 
 his musket, and strike down the barriers that 
 separate us." 
 
 I mention this, because it is so current a senti- 
 ment among the mass of the people in Dalmatia, 
 that I have heard almost the same words from 
 
16 
 
 CHAPTER ir. 
 
 twenty others. Another of the company had made 
 several journeys into Bosnia some years ago, when 
 travelling was less secure than now, and one of 
 his anecdotes reminded me of a well-known ad- 
 venture in Gil Bias, 
 
 One of the polite robbers, to avoid unnecessary 
 strife, laid his cloak in the middle of the road on 
 the approach of a traveller, and, according to the 
 custom of the country, awaited a donation, well 
 armed as a stimulus to liberality ; but our Dalma- 
 tian was not to be caught so easily. Pulling up 
 his horse, he laid his hand on a pistol in his 
 holster, and thus addressed him : Unhappy men- 
 dicant, I pity your condition ; you are able to work 
 and be rich, and yet prefer idleness and the pro- 
 spect of being impaled. Charity is a duty incum- 
 bent on Turk and Christian, and I am most happy 
 to give you what you deserve." So, instead of 
 taking a ducat out of his purse, he took a leaden 
 bullet from his pouch, and dropping it on the 
 cloak, remarked, that if applied by the rogue to 
 himself, it would save him being hanged. The 
 robber was so astonished, that his eyes opened, 
 and his jaw dropped ; and the Dalmatian, execut- 
 ing a caracol, lest he should pay him back in the 
 coin he had given, cantered on out of sight. 
 
 Next day was devoted to seeing the town ; and 
 following the street to the piazza, I found myself at 
 the gate of the Cathedral, whose dome had formed 
 so prominent an object during my passage in the 
 
SEBENICO. 
 
 17 
 
 boat. Commenced in 1443, and completed in 1536, 
 the discrepancy of the style of the basement and 
 superstructure — of the close of the middle age and 
 the beginning of the cinque cento — afford room for 
 criticism ; but altogether it is one of the most 
 extraordinary structures I ever saw in any coun- 
 try. The peculiar style of Lombardy predomi- 
 nates. The lower part is overlaid with ornament ; 
 and two detestable statues of Adam and Eve, 
 standing on each side of the great entrance, look 
 like caricatures of the Apollo Belvedere and the 
 Venus de Medicis by George Cruikshank. 
 
 But the interior is truly grand, not so much in 
 mere dimension as in effect. The boldest of arches, 
 springing from the lightest and airiest of Gotho- 
 Saracenic columns, attract by their harmony and 
 surprise by their hardihood ; and the cupola rising 
 high in the air, and enthroned on the keystones 
 of the lofty arch of the transept, has an awful 
 simplicity, congenial to the purposes of a sacred 
 structure. The roof of the nave is a masterpiece 
 of technical ingenuity, being a semi-cylinder com- 
 posed of flat flagstones, some of them twelve feet 
 in length, the edges fitting into each other with 
 knees and angles, the whole forming an unadorned 
 vault, but so unusual in effect that the spectator, 
 on a superficial view, fears that if one gave way 
 the whole might fall in ; but the architect charged 
 with the repairs of the Cathedral, having shewn 
 me the sections of the edifice, assured me that, 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 aerial as the roof might seem, it had a chance 
 of lasting as long as any part of the Cathedral. 
 On referring to the ground plan, I found that, 
 like many of the mosques of Cairo, it was not a 
 parallelogram ; so that the architects must have 
 been, like the early painters of Italy, more skilled 
 than schooled, and knew more of the practice of 
 a workshop than the theories of an academy. 
 Spalatino was the name of the principal archi- 
 tect, and the building cost, from first to last, 
 80,000 gold ducats. 
 
 Opposite the Cathedral are loggie, or porticos, 
 which the traveller sees in all the cities of Dal- 
 matia, and in the time of the Venetians served as 
 places for transacting public business ; but the 
 openings having been walled up and pierced with 
 windows, a graceful edifice has been spoiled to 
 make a Casino ; but I soon forgot an offence to 
 the eye in a copious stock of Journaux des Debats 
 and Augsburg Gazettes, which proved a resource 
 while awaiting the steamer that was to take me 
 to the islands. 
 
 The port of Sebenico is so excellent that a 
 frigate of considerable tonnage can lie almost close 
 to the quay, the entrance to the gulf being by a 
 narrow slit, the command of which appeared so 
 important to the Venetians, that Sammicheli, their 
 great military architect, constructed at the nar- 
 rowest part the Fort of San Nicolo, which is con- 
 sidered his masterpiece in fortification. Close to 
 
SEBENICO. 
 
 19 
 
 the Cathedral is the office of the Praetor or Chief 
 Magistrate of the place, whither I proceeded to 
 get an order to see the fort. A curious case was 
 going on on my arrival ; the Praetor was giving 
 strict orders to a subordinate to embark for some 
 place on the coast, and examine the bottom of a 
 Greek barque which had been stranded. When 
 he was gone, we had some talk about the trade of 
 the place, and the Prsetor informed us that the 
 Trieste underwriters have lost so much money by 
 Greek barratry, that every case of wreck is now 
 subject to a most rigorous examination. " Only 
 last year," added the Praetor, " a Greek captain, 
 to make sure of the secrecy of his crew, caused 
 each to take a turn at the auger which was to 
 sink the ship ; but the underwriters having found 
 out that, before leaving Constantinople, the greater 
 part of the cargo had been sold at half price in 
 the bazaars of that capital, an inquisition took 
 place, the crew were apprehended, and the affair 
 ended in their condemnation." 
 
 I now embarked in a boat, and was rowed for 
 about half an hour in smooth water to the mouth 
 of the gulf of which the Fort of San Nicolo is a 
 sort of padlock. As we approached, I recognised 
 the architecture of the gate to resemble that of 
 Sant' Andrea at the entrance of the Lagoon, and 
 is surmounted by a huge lion, with the insci'ip- 
 tion : Pax tibi Marce Evangelista meusJ^ With- 
 in the gate is the rilievo of a Doric colonnade, 
 
20 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 and in the intercolumniations the arms of Venice, 
 Dalmatia, and Sebenico — Dalmatia havino^ three 
 crowned lions' heads (on an azure field), and 
 Sebenico three bunches of grapes, surmounted by 
 three doves. The date of the construction of the 
 fort was marked 1546, or twenty-five years after 
 the invasion of Dalmatia by Soliman the Mag- 
 nificent. Mere description can give no idea of 
 the strength of the bomb-proof galleries and case- 
 mates with embrasures a flenr (Veau, The vaults 
 are of brick, and so high that a fresh current 
 of air can be maintained in the hottest cannon- 
 ade ; and the officer in command informed me 
 that there are to this day no galleries in the 
 Austrian Empire of the same magnificence and 
 solidity. 
 
 When almost every inch of the main land of 
 Dalmatia was in the power of the Turks, Sebenico, 
 with its secure port and impregnable fortress, had 
 a military importance of which the single company 
 of artillery which now forms its garrison can give 
 no idea. In the earlier part of the l6th century, 
 the terror and renown of the Turkish power was at 
 its grand climacteric. To use a European image, 
 Selim had added the tiara of the Caliphate to the 
 laurels of the victor. In the reign of Soliman, 
 the tide of victory rolled onward ; Dalmatia was 
 invaded ; Hungary annihilated ; and melancholy 
 would have been the appearance of the Grand 
 Turk in the Italy of Titian and Michael Angelo, 
 
SEBENICO. 
 
 21 
 
 then in all the effulgence of the cinque cento. But 
 the maritime genius of Venice, and the military 
 power of Germany, proved the effectual bulwarks 
 of Europe. From 1.521 to the middle of the 17th 
 century, Venice could boast of no secure possession 
 in Dalmatia out of the islands and the walls of 
 Zara, and some other towns of the coast. In 
 August 1647, a century after the construction of 
 Fort San Nicolo, the Pasha of Bosnia, pouring an 
 army of 30,000 men into the lowlands, attempted 
 the capture of Sebenico and its forts ; but it was 
 so well defended by the 6OOO Venetians and 
 German mercenaries of the garrison, that after 
 twenty-six days' cannonade the Pasha was obliged 
 to retire, supplies having been easily thrown in 
 by sea, owing to the power of the Queen of the 
 Adriatic in her own domain ; and with this re- 
 pulse began the gradual deliverance of Dalmatia 
 from Turkish rule. 
 
 If the skill and science of a Sammicheli 
 strengthened and adorned Dalmatia, Venice de- 
 rived no slight advantage from the hardy mariners 
 with which these coasts supplied her, and with 
 which her galleys were manned in Lepanto, and in 
 her other triumphs. The " Riva dei Schiavoni," or 
 Bankside of the Slaavs," marks to this day the 
 quay that was frequented by the barques of Dal- 
 matia and Quarnero. When Henry the Third of 
 France was on his way from Poland to Paris, on 
 the death of Charles the Ninth, the chronicles of 
 
22 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 the day tell us that, in the pageants given in his 
 honour at Venice, he was rowed by " Schiavonir 
 ISTor was it the mere thews and sinews of strong 
 men that the coast produced. Andrea Schiavoni, 
 a native of Sebenico, stands very near the highest 
 rank in the Venetian school, and to this day Sebe- 
 nico is proud of having given him birth. He was 
 bred a house-painter, but caught the inspiration of 
 the golden age of Venice ; and if he had not the 
 tumultuous movement and astounding dramatic 
 force of Tintoretto, or the vast genius of Paul 
 Veronese, which, like that of Kapoleon, was 
 • strongest and clearest in operations of the utmost 
 magnitude and complication, yet he had much of 
 the classic propriety of Titian, and in the soothing 
 gradations of ruddy flesh and crimson robes, his 
 touch shews that mixture of sharpness and smooth- 
 ness which our own Sir Joshua, speaking of a 
 widely different genius, calls the perfection of 
 handling. Barbarigo, Mocenigo, Gradenigo, and 
 many other illustrious Venetian families, are of 
 Slaavic extraction — the igo corresponding with 
 the Slaavic ich ; and even the name of Venice 
 itself is Slaavic, being the City of the Veneti or 
 Wends, the latter the Gothic name for all the 
 Slaavic nations. 
 
 In our own times, Sebenico has given birth to 
 Tommaseo, a philosopher and philologist of a high 
 reputation ; but his career belongs rather to Italy 
 than to Dalmatia. He has latterly begun to turn 
 
SEBENICO. 
 
 more of his attention to his native country. His 
 usual residence is Venice, where he has taken a 
 prominent part in the political revolutions of the 
 year 1848. 
 
 The course of the river Kerka — of which the 
 inlet of the sea at Sebenico may be called the 
 estuary — is short but sublime. Rising in the chain 
 of the Yellebitch, close to the three frontiers of 
 Croatia, Bosnia, and Dalmatia, it is less a river 
 than a series of lakes, connected with each other 
 by a succession of the most graceful cascades, as 
 if it were the giant staircase of a mountain-piling 
 Titan. The last and most beautiful, though not 
 the loftiest, of those cataracts is only two hours 
 from Sebenico, and, with the lake above it, formed 
 a most interesting day's excursion. The landscape 
 through which the road passes is of the most sin- 
 gular description. After ascending a hill, I found 
 myself on a wide -spreading table-land of barren 
 rock, with every where deep cracks in the soil, 
 and reminding me of the descriptions of the sur- 
 face of the moon. The valleys and beds of the 
 rivers were so far below the level of the table- 
 land as to be generally invisible. In ninety-nine 
 landscapes out of a hundred, the accidents of the 
 soil are mountains rising out of plains, like alto 
 or basso rilievo ; here you have intaglio of a 
 level surface on the grandest scale. 
 
 The widest and most irregular furrow was that 
 of the lake above the fall of the Kerka, to which 
 
24 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 I first proceeded, and, dismissing my horse as un- 
 safe in so precipitous a descent, I scrambled down 
 as well as I could by a narrow gulley without a 
 blade of grass, down which a streamlet bubbled 
 between white chalk -rocks, until the blue lake 
 gradually opened out before us ; and on a cape 
 and cornice of a campanile shewing itself above 
 the mountain -side on our right, the gentleman 
 who obligingly accompanied me drew my attention 
 to it as the convent arid island of Vissovatz, or 
 the place of hanging." Leaping down as agilely 
 as the ground would allow, we reached the point 
 where the brook entered the lake ; but here a 
 little wood masked our view ; and passing under 
 the trees, we came out upon a rude jetty of stones 
 projecting into the lake. From a huge rock, split 
 asunder, and forming a sort of gateway, the Kerka 
 entered the lake, in the midst of which rose the 
 little island of Vissovatz, its church and convent, 
 based with verdant turf and surrounded with full- 
 grown trees, with the high slender campanile 
 crowning the whole group of objects that formed 
 the centre of the picture. 
 
 My companion then applied his two hands 
 trumpet-wise to his mouth, and shouting aloud, 
 the signal was answered by the peal of a bell from 
 the convent-tower, and a boat was seen to put off 
 from a little creek under a wide-spreading tree. 
 On its arriving at our jetty, we embarked, were 
 pulled across to the dark shady creek in the 
 
SEBENICO. 
 
 25 
 
 island, and ascending the bank of turf, we came 
 to a terrace in front of the church, the door of 
 which bore the date I69O. Mounting a dark 
 staircase, we were then shewn into the study of 
 the Superior, surrounded with bookcases, the musty 
 vellum covers of which made me curious to know 
 if, in this out-of-the-way part of the world, there 
 might be no Arthurs nor Rosicleers, — no Knights 
 of the Sun, nor Amadis de Gauls and Primalions, 
 — those " public nothings" of Ben Jonson, but the 
 treasures of the bibliomaniac, 
 
 " Abortives of the dark and fabulous cloister." 
 
 They proved, however, to be almost entirely books 
 of monastic discipline and Catholic divinity. 
 
 The Superior, a good-humoured, round-faced 
 man, past middle age, shewed us the place. A 
 church, with bad copies of the Venetian school, 
 and a garden surrounded by the blue waters of the 
 lake, were soon seen through. The Roman name 
 of this bower-grown isle, in its lake of sterile cliffs, 
 was Petralba, or the White Rock ; but, in the 
 lapse of centuries, the deposits of alluvial floods 
 had given the island, in common with the margin 
 of the lake, a thick layer of soil ; and, in the trou- 
 blous times that preceded the expulsion of the 
 Turks from Dalmatia, its isolation promised an 
 illusive security to the inmates of the convent that 
 from time immemorial had resided there ; but an 
 incident that occurred in the seventeenth century 
 
26 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 changed its name to the Illyrian one of Vissovatz, 
 or the Place of Hanging ; and thereby, as the 
 reader may well suppose, hangs a tale. In the 
 hostilities that followed the war of 1644 between 
 the Turks and Venetians, this island was in the 
 midst of the operations ; and a wide-spreading tree 
 was pointed out as the relic of modern martyrology, 
 which caused its change of name. In 1646 the 
 Turks landed here ; and of seven monks then resi- 
 dent, six were hanged, the seventh having escaped 
 by hiding himself in the chimney. Hence Pe- 
 tralba became Vissovatz, or the Place of Hanging ; 
 and the succeeding war of 1684 having freed Lower 
 Dalmatia of the Turks, the greater part of the 
 modern buildings were constructed towards the 
 close of the seventeenth century. 
 
 There is very little ground besides what the 
 convent covers ; and as we stood under the trees, 
 while the sun sparkled on the waters, a monk, with 
 a pale, anxious, and melancholy expression, looked 
 so pensively on the ground, and smiled from time 
 to time to himself so innocently, that I could not 
 help thinking of him : 
 
 " When to myself I act and smile, 
 
 With pleasing thoughts the time beguile. 
 By a brook-side, or wood so green, 
 Unheard, unsought for, or unseen, — 
 A thousand pleasures do me bless, 
 And crown my soul with happiness. 
 
 All my joys besides are folly ; 
 
 None so sweet as melancholy." Burton. 
 
SEBENICO. 
 
 27 
 
 We fell into discourse of the hanging of the 
 priests ; and the monk, leaving off his quaint alter- 
 nations of allegro and penseroso, broke forth into 
 ardent and vehement ejaculations on the sufferings 
 of the Catholic Church, and asked me how many 
 Christians were in England. I answered, twenty- 
 seven millions — two thirds Protestants, and one 
 third Catholics. On which he gave a loud sigh, 
 and said : That is the doing of Henry the Apos- 
 tate — a traitor to the Church — dreadful! — a whole 
 nation fell from grace for his fleshly lusts ! This 
 service was rendered to the devil for a woman ! — 
 And what good news from thence ?" said he ; " we 
 hear that the heretics incline to return to the right 
 road." Feeling no disposition to enter into a 
 Puseyitical conversation, I gave a vague answer ; 
 when, my companion giving him a hint that I was 
 a Protestant, he dropped the conversation, rather 
 taken aback ; but we parted in the best humour. 
 
 We now entered the convent-boat, which took 
 us, by a romantic passage of about an hour's row- 
 ing, to the end of the lake, just above where the 
 Kerka rushes over the precipice. The vicinity of 
 the fall, the column of spray rising in the rays of 
 the afternoon sun, and the roar of the river dash- 
 ing and resounding, made me rather nervous lest 
 the boat should approach too near ; but long prac- 
 tice had enabled the boatmen to know precisely 
 the point at which they must stop and disembark. 
 We now walked along a ledge of the mountain ; 
 
28 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 and just above the column of spray the lake ceased, 
 and became a number of rivulets, flowing between 
 green banks and trees, uniting, for the most part, 
 just before the brow of the precipice, and then, 
 with tremendous roar, bursting over the rocks, not 
 in one unbroken sheet over a sheer precipice, but 
 dashing from shelf to shelf down forty or fifty feet. 
 Many mills are built immediately below the falls, 
 but few were working. The unusual mass of water 
 had caused apprehensions to be entertained during 
 the previous night that the whole of the buildings 
 might be swept away ; the rains of some days before 
 having been followed by some late heat, which had 
 melted much of the snows of the Vellebitch. 
 
 Below the falls the water is sufficiently deep 
 for large coast-boats from Zara, which were loading 
 with flour at the mills. Here we were hailed by 
 the men of a boat we had hired to meet us, and 
 embarking in it, we followed the course of the river 
 down a lane of high rocks, in which a road was 
 attempted to be cut at the base of the clifl^s, but 
 stopped short of Scardona half way, the rocks in 
 some places overhanging the Kerka. After about 
 a mile the avenue opened, and we found ourselves 
 once more in the wide inlet or estuary on which 
 Scardona and Sebenico are situated. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE DALMATIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
 
 Dalmatia being a narrow stripe of territory be- 
 tween Bosnia and the Adriatic, the traveller must 
 in some places retrace his steps, if he visit the 
 country solely by land. A steamer goes twice a 
 month from Trieste to Ragusa and Cattaro, touch- 
 ing at several of the principal points and islands ; 
 but, as it returns by the same points and the same 
 islands, he that would know the country must go 
 to Ragusa by sea and return by land, or vice versa. 
 The Dalmatian archipelago forms an interest- 
 ing and important part of the study of the tourist ; 
 and extending all the way from Arbe, near Istria, 
 to Ragusa, intervenes almost every where between 
 the mainland and the open Adriatic. From the 
 insecure navigation and the numerous land-locked 
 anchorages, from the productive fisheries and the 
 milder climate, and, lastly, from the reciprocal 
 wants of the Highlander and Islander, has arisen 
 that turn for maritime employment and maritime 
 enterprise which makes the Dalmatian perhaps 
 the best sailor in the Mediterranean, uniting the 
 
30 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 practical seamanship of the Greek with the science 
 of Italy and the north. 
 
 At six o'clock on a rainy morning I descended 
 the narrow steep street of Sebenico to the quay 
 where the steamer was about to start. A crowd 
 of common people, in their wide trousers and red 
 caps, looked on, mingled with citizens in the Eu- 
 ropean costume ; for the fortnightly visits of the 
 steamer are the grand landmarks of existence on 
 these secluded shores. As the bell rang, we 
 quitted the basin of Sebenico ; and passing under 
 the embrasures of Fort San Nicolo, saw around us 
 a small cluster of islands, close to which is a coral 
 fishery, which produces fourteen or fifteen hundred 
 pounds a year, the necklaces made of which are 
 annually sold at the fair of Sinigaglia. Our course 
 lay southwards, and I once more found myself in 
 the open Adriatic. Clouds drifting from the 
 south, and occasional rain, darkened the prospect ; 
 the current being also against us, and the steamer 
 not a very powerful one, we advanced slowly to the 
 Punto della Planea, a headland between Sebenico 
 and Spalato. 
 
 The operation of the currents and winds of 
 the Adriatic is so uniform as to admit of descrip- 
 tion in a few words. The currents usually set in 
 from the eastern mouth of the sea, and running 
 from Corfu along the coast of Albania and Dal- 
 matia, sweep round from Trieste to Venice, and 
 then run down past Ancona and Manfredonia to 
 
THE DALMATIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
 
 31 
 
 the Mediterranean again. It is this tendency 
 which has encumbered the port of Venice with 
 the large alluvial deposits of the rivers of Friuli, 
 and has rendered that of Kavenna high and dry 
 inland. A curious instance of the waywardness of 
 the Adriatic occurred some years ago. A dyer, 
 from Chioggia, near Venice, named Girolamo Fon- 
 tanella, having settled at Zara, died of an indi- 
 gestion of fish, and was buried in the cemetery 
 there, which overhangs the sea. In the year 1827, 
 a great storm having arisen, a part of the ceme- 
 tery was swept away ; and, strange to say, the 
 coffin of Girolamo was carried round to Chioggia, 
 picked up by the Chioggians, and the earth that 
 gave him birth gave him final burial. 
 
 In summer the prevalent wind on the coast of 
 Dalmatia is the mistral, or north-west wind, which 
 moderates the excessive heat of that season ; and 
 the Roman constructing his marine villa was not 
 more anxious to catch the zephyr than the Dal- 
 matian to obtain a good exposure to the north- 
 west breezes of the Adriatic : 
 
 " 0' a' the airts the wind can blaw, 
 I dearly lo'e the west." 
 
 In winter the mistral gives place to a cycle, 
 which begins with a few days of scirocco, bring- 
 ing warmth, clouds, and rain, succeeded by three 
 days of bora, or north wind, marked by clear 
 sunshine, and accompanied by chilly, bracing air, 
 from the peaks of the Vellebitch. When this 
 
3^ 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 bora, or north wind, has blown itself out, it is 
 succeeded by some days of calm, delightful wea- 
 ther, like an English September, to be again 
 succeeded by the clouds and rain of the south. 
 The enervating African scirocco is also occasion- 
 ally felt in spring, but, of course, not to near the 
 same extent as in Sicily and Greece. 
 
 We anchored during the night at Spalato, 
 where I passed some pleasant months before leav- 
 ing Dalmatia ; and next day, at noon, we arrived 
 at Lesina, a narrow island, forty miles long, which 
 derived its importance from having been the prin- 
 cipal station of the Venetian fleet during the palmy 
 days of the Kepublic. Pleasing and prepossessing 
 is the name of Lesina to the ear, and not less 
 pleasing is her aspect to the eye. The town, with 
 2000 inhabitants, is at the bottom of a little bay, 
 entirely surrounded with mountains, which rise so 
 abruptly as only to leave a narrow space for the 
 town and quay. As the steamer dropped anchor, 
 I felt myself once more in the south. A few days 
 ago, on the passes of the Vellebitch, a greatcoat 
 was welcome ; here the air was mild, the steep 
 hills all around were covered with aloes, and the 
 boats that swarmed up the ship- side carried men 
 who sold white purses made of the fine cordage of 
 the aloe-fibre. The slender palm-branches hung 
 over the garden-walls that skirted the bay, and 
 the carob-trees rising among the rocks carried my 
 mind to the nobler slopes of Lebanon. 
 
THE DALMATIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
 
 33 
 
 Nor were the sensations raised by art on land- 
 ing in Lesina less novel and agreeable than those 
 of external nature. A denizen of the soil of fac- 
 tories and railways, where utility is too often di- 
 vorced from elegance, I was delighted to find in a 
 mere arsenal and depot of marine stores a public 
 piazza, such as would do honour to an European 
 capital. In a nook of the hills is this square, 
 composed of Venetian Gothic houses ; and as 
 dreams mingle distant times and places, the sight 
 of Lesina called up to my fancy some captain of 
 a galley asleep on the wide waters, whose me- 
 mory, enfranchised from the control of his judg- 
 ment, might mingle in one picture the rocky isles 
 of the Levant with the home of his fathers in 
 the Lagoon of Venice. 
 
 Prominent among all the edifices of Lesina, 
 and facing the sea, is the Loggia, or place of 
 municipal council, by Sammicheli ; worthy of the 
 age of Palladio and Sansovino. These loggie are 
 simple porticos of extended front, with columns 
 intervening between the openings, so as to look, 
 on a smaller scale, like a concatenation of tri- 
 umphal arches. Being without doors and win- 
 dows, the inmates were protected from the sum- 
 mer's sun, but not from the winter's cold. In 
 this loggia of Dalmatia a peasant may see the 
 permanent causes of the organic inferiority of the 
 north to the south in architecture. Comfort is 
 unattainable without subdivision, and subdivision 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 \ 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 is the bane of noble architecture : the lightness 
 and elegance of this master-performance was ob- 
 tained at a sacrifice of comfort to the municipal 
 assembly of Lesina during several months of the 
 year. 
 
 The sight of a remarkable public building 
 necessarily suggests inquiry into the objects for 
 which it was constructed ; and as the stately ma- 
 jesty of Roman architecture, after its declension 
 into the grotesque irregularities of the Lower 
 Empire, was revived by the great Venetian archi- 
 tects, the recomposition, on pre-existing principles, 
 of the social edifice, after the prostration of the 
 empire of the West, is a topic of the highest 
 interest to the student of Dalmatia. While the 
 highlands, after the great irruptions of the fifth 
 and seventh centuries, became Slaavic, the coast- 
 towns and the islands — retaining a corruption 
 of the Latin language up to the tenth and begin- 
 ning of the eleventh century — rose, like the Ita- 
 lian republics, from the mean vices of polished 
 slavery to the bloody turbulence of rude liberty. 
 The factions of a Florence, a Ferrara, a Padua, 
 a Verona, and a Mantua, in contradistinction to 
 the cumbrous feudal " empire of the Romans," as 
 it was called, were reflected in the municipalities 
 of a Lesina, as compared with the semibarbarous 
 sovereignty over the main land by the kings of 
 Croatia. 
 
 Trau and Sebenico were the favourite resi- 
 
THE DALMATIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
 
 35 
 
 dences of those Terpimirs and Crcscimirs to whom 
 the modern Croats look back as their national 
 sovereigns. Their military force was formidable ; 
 and, according to the Byzantine writers, amounted 
 to 60,000 horse, 100,000 infantry, and 4700 ma- 
 rine troops, embarked in 180 galleys. A nominal 
 tribute of 200 gold Byzants per annum was an- 
 nually paid to the Greek emperor ; but in the 
 eleventh century a crown, sceptre, cup, and sword, 
 were received from the renowned Gregory YII. 
 The Pope was acknowledged as the dispenser of 
 kingdoms, and the sum hitherto paid to Constan- 
 tinople was henceforward remitted to the Court 
 of Rome. The royal household corresponded in 
 barbaric magnificence to the military resources, 
 and was headed by the Postelnik, or great cham- 
 berlain ; the Volar, or master of the cow-stall, 
 being the only dignity not found in modern Eu- 
 ropean households. The greater provinces were 
 governed by Bans — a title that survives to this 
 day in the Ban of Croatia, the Lieutenant of the 
 Emperor of Austria, as king of the socia regna 
 of Hungary and Croatia ; and the smaller districts 
 by Zhupans, a title which remained to distinguish 
 the heads of certain confraternities of terra jirma 
 down to the government of Dalmatia by Napo- 
 leon. 
 
 The forms of the tribunals were simple ; the 
 procedure being verbal, and right of appeal al- 
 lowed — which was claimed by the discontented 
 
36 
 
 CHAPTER IIT. 
 
 litigant throwing his hat down on the ground — 
 the Curia of the King and Dukes forming the 
 last instance ; but the general framework of society 
 was feudal and monarchical. 
 
 In the islands, not only the language but the 
 forms of the municipal government of the Komans 
 are recognisable, although on paper they were held 
 in fief by various Croat nobles. While in Gaul, 
 and in other parts of the quondam empire, between 
 the fifth and the twelfth centuries the Curial insti- 
 tutions become fainter and fainter, and succumb 
 to feudal neighbours, in the islands of Dalmatia 
 they remain in full vigour ; and in perusing the 
 records of the municipality of Lesina (collected by 
 a Russian lawyer, whom, as he states in his pre- 
 face, pulmonary disease had drawn to Venice), I 
 am reminded of the words of Guizot : " Thus at 
 the fall of the Roman empire we find again the 
 same fact that was observable at its commence- 
 ment, the predominance of the feudal form and 
 spirit. The Roman world returned to its first 
 condition ; towns had formed it ; it was dissolved, 
 but the towns remained.^' 
 
 When the Venetians extended themselves in 
 the Adriatic, and subjugated the quasi independent 
 municipalities of the coast, they found institutions 
 analogous to their own, both legitimate descendants 
 of the Roman system; and the local immunities, 
 privileges, and peculiarities, remained for the most 
 part intact. A Venetian senator, with the title 
 
THE DALMATIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
 
 37 
 
 of Conte, assisted by a Captain, Camerlengo. and 
 Chancellor, took the place of the elective Rector ; 
 but the loggia still resounded with the delibera- 
 tions of the patrician members of the so-called 
 community. 
 
 Cattalinich informs us that this general coun- 
 cil of the nobles included all the order arrived 
 at the age of sixteen ; but a marriage with a 
 plebeian deprived the offspring of vote and deli- 
 beration, unless the wealth of the party, or some 
 other consideration, procured a new inscription in 
 their ranks, which was in the power of the no- 
 bles by a plurality of votes. Up to the fall of 
 the Republic, these patricians claimed a voice in 
 the decision of civil and criminal cases ; but poli- 
 tical liberty, at first a reality, became in pro- 
 gress of time the shadow of a shade. 
 
 In mere externals, gravity and decorum marked 
 their public assemblies ; the Conte, or Count, 
 appeared in state robes, and the nobles in their 
 habits of ceremony, of which the sword was an 
 essential part ; and in festivals, imagination can 
 scarce conceive a nobler subject for a picture of 
 the Venetian school, which preferred splendid 
 still -life to the commotions of passion,* than 
 the loggia of Lesina ; its free open porticos bask- 
 ing in the noon-day sun ; pale senators, or scar- 
 
 * I speak generally. Into how many unpretending pieces 
 has Giorgione poured the ehxir of an almost Raffaellesque ex- 
 pression ! 
 
38 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 furrowed brows, bronzed on a Cyprus or a Candia 
 shore ; the sumptuous robes and bright cuirasses 
 all gleaming in the limpid shadows of its further 
 recesses. 
 
 Casting our eyes to the south, we see a little 
 island, which, during the last war, was the scene 
 of many important transactions of the navy of 
 Great Britain. When the Eepublic of Venice 
 fell in 1797) Dalmatia, detesting the religious and 
 political principles of France, opened all her gates 
 to Austria; but after the battle of Austerlitz, 
 being ceded to Napoleon by the stipulations of 
 the treaty of Presburg, Lissa, the island in ques- 
 tion, with a fine harbour, became one of the 
 principal stations of the cruisers of England — a 
 depot of manufactures, which, in spite of the 
 Berlin and Milan decrees, forced their w^ay 
 through Bosnia to the heart of Germany — an 
 entrenched camp which galled the sight of the 
 legions victorious on land. The population of 
 Lissa rose between the vears 1808 and 1811 from 
 four to twelve thousand, and a miserable island 
 of Dalmatia was rapidly adopting the dress, the 
 language, and the convivial manners of an Eng- 
 lish port. The islanders, previously poor fisher- 
 men, were now rolling in sudden wealth ; and a 
 swarm of boats brought provisions from the in- 
 numerable sounds and creeks of the main land, 
 and carried back the cloths of Manchester and 
 Leeds, and the metals of Shefiield and Birming- 
 
THE DALMATIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
 
 39 
 
 ham. To capture such a seat of hostile enter- 
 prise became, therefore, a favourite project of the 
 naval authorities of Venice and Ancona, now in- 
 tegral parts of the French Empire. An expedi- 
 tion was fitted out in the latter port, and the 
 time being chosen when no English force was in 
 Lissa, Commodore Dubourdieu suddenly left An- 
 cona with the Italian squadron, and on the 22d 
 October, 1810, presented himself with five frigates 
 and two corvettes off Lissa, all hoisting English 
 colours, and having a battalion of infantry on 
 board. Owing to this deception, the port was 
 entered peaceably, and the troops landed. No 
 resistance was offered by the privateers, or attempt 
 made at escape by the merchant- ships. In six 
 or seven hours, sixty-four vessels were burned, 
 most of them being loaded ; several valuable ships 
 with cargos were made prize of ; and the same 
 night all the troops re-embarked, and Commodore 
 Dubourdieu was in full sail for Ancona again. 
 And what had caused his haste ? On that very 
 afternoon a boat with three fishermen had entered 
 the harbour, bringing him the ijitelligence that 
 Captain Hoste, the British commander, was look- 
 ing out for him, and might be immediately ex- 
 pected. 
 
 But Lissa was too important a point not to 
 be worthy of permanent possession to France ; 
 and in the spring a new expedition was prepared 
 to annihilate the British squadron and effectually 
 
40 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 occupy Lissa. This French force consisted of 
 four frigates of 44 guns, two corvettes of 32 guns, 
 and three sloops, with 7^0 infantry on board. 
 That of Captain Hoste, off Lesina, consisted of 
 the Amphion, 32 ; the Active, 38 ; the Cerberus, 
 32 ; and Yolage, of 22 ; or 880 Britons to 2500 
 French and Italians. What's in a name ? Won- 
 ders. With such appalling odds against him, 
 the gallant Hoste felt that something was neces- 
 sary to produce a moral effect in so critical a 
 moment ; and the telegraphic word, Remember 
 Nelson !" thrilled through every heart, while pro- 
 longed cheers echoed from deck to deck of the 
 little squadron. 
 
 Close to the eastern shore of Lissa, the Am- 
 phion, Captain Hoste, with the Active, Yolage, 
 and Cerberus in close order, awaited the enemy, 
 who bore down from the north-east. Dubourdieu, 
 in the Favorite, led the van ; and marking the 
 Amphion, which lay next the shore, for his own, 
 he prepared to board her, while his other frigates 
 and small craft might make easy work of the 
 Active, the Vol^ge, and the Cerberus. A crowd 
 of seamen and marines thronged the forecastle of 
 the French vessel (Favorite). Dubourdieu him- 
 self stood forward to direct and encourage his 
 men; and so close was the Favorite to the Am- 
 phion, that eager expectation could be read on 
 the countenances of the men. The grappling 
 tackle was ready, the cutlass was drawn, and the 
 
THE DALMATIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
 
 41 
 
 pike was prepared ; but just when a few yards 
 separated the two ships, off went a five -and-a- 
 half- inch howitzer with J 50 musket- balls from 
 the quarter-deck of the Amphion ; and as if Death 
 in his own person had swept his scythe from gun- 
 wale to gunwale, Dubourdieu and his boarders 
 were prostrate in an instant. Foiled in the at- 
 tempt, the Captain of the French frigate, who 
 now took the command, attempted to pass round 
 between the Amphion and the shore, and thus 
 place Hoste between two fires ; but so nicely and 
 narrowly had the Amphion chosen her position, 
 that the Favorite got ashore in the attempt, 
 and was thus in a great measure hof's de combat. 
 This important incident gave such a turn to the 
 struggle as the French never recovered ; but the 
 odds being still against the English, the contest 
 was prolonged for several hours. The British 
 squadron now stood on the larboard tack ; when 
 the Cerberus, in wearing, got her rudder choked 
 by a shot, which caused a delay ; but the action 
 continued. Captain Hoste, in the Amphion, be- 
 ing now galled by the fire of the Flore, 44, and 
 the Bellona, 32, closed with the former, and in a 
 few minutes the Flore struck ; but having received 
 by mistake some shots of the Bellona, which were 
 intended for and went past the Amphion after 
 she had struck, an officer took her ensign, and, 
 holding it over the taffrel, threw it into the sea. 
 Hoste now crossed to the Bellona, and compelled 
 
42 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 her also to strike at noon, just three hours after 
 the action began ; but no sooner was this accom- 
 plished, than the Flore, belying her surrender, 
 was seen crowding sail to escape, pursuit by the 
 Amphion being by this time impossible, her fore- 
 mast threatening to fall, and her sails and rigging 
 rendered unserviceable from the cross-fires she 
 had sustained. The rest of the Gallo -Venetian 
 squadron, upon this, attempted to escape ; but the 
 British Active, pursuing the Venetian Corona, com- 
 pelled her also to strike, in a running fight, at 
 half-past two in the afternoon ; thus terminating 
 one of the most gallant actions on record. Three 
 44-gun frigates, including the escaped Flore, and 
 a 32-gun corvette having struck to the British 
 squadron. 
 
 Lissa thenceforth became to the end of the 
 war an English possession. Colonel Robertson 
 was civil and military governor. Twelve natives 
 formed a legislative and judicial council. A small 
 fort was constructed, and the towers to this day 
 bear the names of Wellington, Bentinck, and 
 Robertson. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CURZOLA. 
 
 Five hours from Lesina is Curzola, the most 
 beautiful of all the islands of Dalmatia ; ap- 
 proached by a natural canal formed by the island 
 on one side and the peninsula of Sabioncello on 
 the other, a sort of Bosphorus on a grander and 
 ruder scale, with steep mountains on both sides, 
 every creek and headland covered with waving 
 woods and verdant shrubbery. As we approach 
 the town of Curzola, each zone is marked by its 
 appropriate colour : the warm brown of cultivation 
 basks at the water's edge ; the wooded region rises 
 above ; and a waving line of grey bare rocks crests 
 the whole. 
 
 Turning the last headland, we saw the town 
 of Curzola before us in the form of a triangle or 
 pyramid, edged by some of those huge old round 
 towers which the modern art of war has rendered 
 obsolete, the campanile of the ex-cathedral form- 
 ing the appropriate apex. At the landing-place, 
 and just outside the walls, is the loggia, an edi- 
 fice very inferior to that of Lesina as seen from 
 
44 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 without ; but the prospect seen through its co- 
 lumns by those within, gave the Curzolans a 
 council -chamber painted by Nature herself in her 
 happiest mood. The massive towers and walls 
 were built in 1420 ^ but the gate was, as the 
 inscription tells us, erected in 1643 by a scion 
 of the house of Grimani, he being then Prove- 
 ditor-general at Zara. 
 
 Grimani ! thought I to myself, as I recollected 
 the palace of that name from the Grand Canal, 
 and I again stept back to look at it ; but the 
 profuse ornaments of the sei cento with which it 
 was covered, shewed that the age of Balthasar 
 Longhena had followed that of Sammicheli— a 
 decline from what preceded, but still high above 
 what followed in other parts of Europe. 
 
 The town of Curzola is regularly built ; a 
 street runs up to the Piazza, and down on the 
 other side, all the other streets being at right 
 angles. On one side of the Piazza, in the ele- 
 vated centre of the town, is the Palace of the 
 Venetian Governors ; and on the other is the ex- 
 Cathedral, with mediocre pictures, and a Turkish 
 cannon-ball embedded in the wall since an attack 
 on the town in 1571. Curzola was formerly the 
 seat of a Bishop 5 but Dalmatia, which, under the 
 Venetians, had thirteen episcopal sees, has now 
 only six. 
 
 Close by is the palace of a certain Signer 
 Arnieri, the principal landed proprietor of Curzola, 
 
 0 
 
CURZOLA. 
 
 45 
 
 to which I was taken by a gentleman of the town 
 to whom I was recommended. The palace itself, 
 of Venetian Gothic, is sadly dilapidated ; but such 
 an edifice as a Contarini or a Gradenigo might 
 have dwelt in. A superb bronze knocker, repre- 
 senting a Hercules swinging two lions by their 
 tails, adorned the door ; and entering the court- 
 yard, the marble draw-well, on which was cut 
 three pears, the arms of the family, and the 
 minutely fretted windows of the crumbling halls, 
 reminded me that Curzola had for years supplied 
 the timber for the wooden walls of Venice, and 
 had been another favourite station of her fleets. 
 Signor Arnieri, a polite gentleman, with white 
 neckcloth and broad-brimmed hat, did the honours 
 with the courtesy of the old school. 
 
 " These three pears you see on the wall," said 
 he, " are the arms of my family. Perussich was 
 our name, when, in the earlier part of the fifteenth 
 century, my ancestors built this palace ; so that, 
 you see, I am a Dalmatian. All the family, 
 fathers, sons, and brothers, used to serve in the 
 fleets of the Republic ; but the hero of our race 
 was Arniero Perussich, whose statue you see there, 
 who fought, bled, and died at the siege of Candia, 
 whose memory was honoured by the Republic, and 
 whose surviving family was liberally pensioned ; 
 so his name became the name of our race. We 
 became Arnieri, and ceased to be Perussich." 
 
 I spoke of the knocker, as remarkable for its 
 
46 
 
 CHAPTER TV. 
 
 size as for its beauty ; and observed, that it would 
 be rather hazardous to put so tempting a piece of 
 virtii on a London door ; so, going to the door 
 again, he, with a smile of enjoyment, lifted the 
 head of one of the lions, and letting it whack 
 against the door, so as to make the court ring 
 again, he resumed : I have been offered its 
 weight in silver ; but we have no fears of thieves 
 in Curzola : if I lock it up in my cabinet, I cease 
 to enjoy the use of it. If you are curious on 
 such matters," added he, " come here and, lead- 
 ing me through a dark passage to his library, he 
 shewed me an antique inkstand and sand-box, in 
 the form of hounds scratching their ears, and 
 various other articles said to be real antiques. 
 
 Thanking the old gentleman for his attentions, 
 we retraced our steps, and saw in the wall of the 
 house opposite a relic of middle-age manners — a 
 large iron ring, which, being grasped by a cri- 
 minal, gave him immunity from arrest. 
 
 The sobborgo, or suburb of Curzola without 
 the walls, is kept alive by ship-building ; and being 
 situated on the neck of land that connects the 
 town with the island, it has wharfs to both bays. 
 The boats of Curzola are still renowned on the 
 Adriatic ; and all those of the Company of the 
 Austrian Lloyds are built here. Timber and la- 
 bour are both cheap, and vegetation is rapid ; 
 for no sooner is a wood thinned than it grows 
 again with great rapidity. 
 
CURZOLA. 
 
 47 
 
 Here I saw some of the Amazons of the oppo- 
 site peninsula of Sabioncello selling produce, — tall, 
 strong women, with masculine features, and a high 
 head-dress of straw, with a brown flounce. 
 
 All the husbands are absent at sea, and the 
 women do most of the rustic work — plough, har- 
 row, and thrash ; and their villages are composed 
 almost solely of women, old men, and boys. The 
 women have consequently most robust bodies, and 
 a resolute virile temperament : so that Dr. Menis, 
 the learned proto-medicus of Zara, believes that 
 the fable of the Amazons must have arisen from 
 a community living under similar conditions ; de- 
 fence of their goods and chattels being occasionally 
 necessary during the absence of their husbands. 
 
 This maritime turn is of no new date ; for 
 Curzola was a Phoenician colony, and objects have 
 been repeatedly found with the strange claw-cha- 
 racter of this wonderful people. The rest of the 
 history of the island is also maritime. In the 
 tenth century it belonged to the famous pirates' 
 nest of the neighbouring Narenta, and in 997 
 came under Venetian protection ; and its Veneto- 
 municipal statute is said to be the oldest in Dal- 
 matia. In this neighbourhood, Genoa, 1268, mea- 
 sured her strength successfully with Venice, and 
 taught her great rival such a lesson of humiliation 
 as she never received either before or since ; but 
 the victory of Chioggia again made Venice the 
 mistress of the Mediterranean. In the Turkish 
 
48 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 wars the Curzolans bore their part gallantly. 
 When the town was besieged in 1571 by Uluch 
 Ali, viceroy of Algiers, even women and children 
 took part in the defence ; and having compelled 
 him to retire, the word fedelissima, or most faith- 
 ful, was, by decree of the Senate, applied to Cur- 
 zola in all documents. 
 
 Passing the suburb, I found myself in the 
 countrv ; and never did I see such luxuriant and 
 variegated shrubbery. The fragrant myrtle per- 
 fumed the air ; and the contrast in the colours of 
 the vegetation, the beauty of the flowers, and the 
 novelty of the fruits, made Curzola look like one 
 great conservatory, with its blossoms uncovered to 
 perpetual spring. The improbabilities of romance 
 were realised ; and I seemed to tread one of those 
 isles unseen by human eye, where some fair benig- 
 nant spirit dwelt in a secluded world of bloom and 
 verdure. Half-an-hour off", on a high conical emi- 
 nence, is the ruined convent of Saint Anthony, 
 approached by a straight flight of steps the best 
 part of a quarter of a mile in steep ascent, bor- 
 dered on each side by a lofty avenue of cypresses : 
 planted one hundred and eighty years ago, they 
 are now in their full growth and majesty. I stood 
 entranced at the foot of the steps, and enjoyed, at 
 the extreme top of the thick verdure-fenced vista, 
 a ruined arch, picturesquely delineated against the 
 blue sky. When I completed the ascent, and 
 looked backwards, my admiration increased on 
 
CURZOLA. 
 
 49 
 
 seeing the azure creek, the yellow bulwarks of 
 Curzola, and the towering ridges of the opposite 
 mountains, enframed by this noble avenue, every 
 tree of which rose to the height of the highest 
 ship -masts. Higher up, on a point of rock, no 
 longer in the line of avenue, but commanding a 
 general view, the whole region of indented creeks 
 and rugged coasts, town and suburbs, with swell- 
 ing dome and tower-knit battlements, and the un- 
 ruffled waters, asleep amidst the slopes of the canal, 
 — formed a prospect so lovely, that Curzola might 
 be called the Emerald Isle of the Adriatic. 
 
 Next day I took a ramble into the country, 
 and found the population of the island exhibit, 
 in their dresses, houses, and demeanour, a great 
 superiority to what I had seen between Zara and 
 Sebenico. In a former work I compared the cha- 
 racter of the Servian to that of the Scottish High- 
 lander ; but the comparison, however striking as 
 regards the mainland, becomes a contrast when 
 we treat of the insular population. Unlike the 
 Hebrides of Great Britain, which, by their remote- 
 ness from the metropolis, are the last to receive 
 the lights of civilisation, the islands of Dalmatia 
 owe much of their culture to the nearer vicinity 
 of Venice, and the more extensive use of the Ita- 
 lian language, with its humanising results on all 
 classes of the population ; but, above all, to their 
 sea-girt security, which retained the coasts and 
 islands as an integral part of the European family. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 If we pursue the results of these diverging 
 political fortunes to the actual condition of the 
 two great divisions of Dalmatia, we find that, of 
 the 400,000 inhabitants of the kingdom, 80,000, 
 or one -fifth, live on the islands ; but while the 
 population of the terra firma is 104 per square 
 mile, that of the islands is 123. The difference 
 of the climate also causes a great contrast in the 
 productions. On the terra firma, 13 per cent of 
 the whole soil is cultivated with grain ; and of 
 the islands, only 3 per cent. But in the case 
 of vines and olives, the advantage is on the side 
 of the milder climate ; and while only 5 per cent 
 of the terra firma is subject to this culture, the 
 vines and olives cover 18 per cent of the area of 
 the islands. The total uncultivated land of the 
 terra firma is 82 per cent ; that of the islands, 79. 
 With a generally poorer soil, the advantage in 
 favour of the islands is incontrovertible : the cul- 
 tivation of the terra firma being capable of both 
 extension and improvement ; that of the islands, 
 of improvement, but not of extension. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 CATTARO. 
 
 Ragusa and Spalato were the points to which I 
 had procured introductions, and which, from their 
 intellectual and agreeable society, and the easy 
 access they afford to all books, historical or other- 
 wise, on these provinces, were the most desirable 
 head-quarters for the approaching winter. Monte- 
 negro forms no part of Dalmatia^ but is an in- 
 dependent Republic, of the fiercest mountaineers, 
 who have always succeeded in defying the power 
 of the Porte from the impregnable position of their 
 country, overlooking the Bocca di Cattaro and 
 the Lake of Scutari. Although geographically 
 belonging to Albania, as well as Cattaro, their 
 language, nationality, and religion, are, with a 
 different recent history, the same as those of Ser- 
 via ; and, although aware of the evil of under- 
 taking too much, on the principle qui trop emhrasse 
 mat etreinty I could not resist the temptation of 
 being so near a subject cognate to that which had 
 elicited a volume from my pen. 
 
 But my prospects on leaving Curzola were not 
 
5^ 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 very cheering : the harvest of 1846 in Monte- 
 negro had been a frightful failure ; the people 
 were dying of starvation ; the Vladika, or Arch- 
 bishop, whose authority was usually paramount in 
 the maintenance of order, was absent in Vienna, 
 to get funds to buy corn ; and, in spite of the 
 exertions of his deputy, bands of a hundred and 
 fifty armed men were nightly making incursions 
 into the Austrian territory, and sacking the villas 
 of retired wealthy Bocchese ship-masters. Every 
 steamer carried detachments of riflemen, to scour 
 the frontier ; and I was strongly advised to let 
 Montenegro alone until more tranquil times ; but 
 as I might never be so near it again, and personal 
 experience of the Ottoman empire having shewn 
 me that the danger of visiting disturbed districts 
 turned out almost always illusory, I resolved to 
 start. 
 
 It was on a bright sunlit afternoon, in the first 
 days of December, that the steamer entered the 
 Bocca, every inch of the deck being covered with 
 riflemen. At the sight of this gulf, so celebrated 
 for its natural beauty, the wish of many a long 
 revolving year was fulfilled. Casotti, in his own 
 quiet way, on arrival at Cattaro, breaks out with 
 enthusiasm : How imposing a spectacle is the 
 cascade of the Kerka! how sublime an edifice is 
 the temple of Sebenico !" and then, after a long 
 list, he adds, " but most delicious of all is the 
 canal of Cattaro !" And well might he give it the 
 
CATTARO. 
 
 5S 
 
 preference over every other scene of natural beauty 
 in this province. The Bocca di Cattaro has all 
 the appearance of an Italian lake embosomed in 
 Alps, with the difference that the lake is composed 
 of salt water instead of fresh, and is on a level and 
 communicating with the sea, so as to form not 
 only a secure harbour of an extent to contain all 
 the navies of Europe, and a depth to admit of 
 three-deckers lying close to its shores, but pos- 
 sessing a beauty worthy to be compared to that 
 of Lebanon rising from the waters of Djouni, or 
 Naples herself, with all her enchantments. From 
 Castel Nuovo at the entrance, to Cattaro at the 
 extremity, the whole of the gulf is lined with vil- 
 lages and isolated villas arising out of the water's 
 edge. Eich vine, citron, and olive-grounds slope 
 rapidly upwards to a considerable distance ; and 
 above the line of vegetation, tremendous bare rocks 
 tower suddenly and precipitously up to an Alpine 
 height, till they are crowned on the landward side 
 by the peaks of Montenegro. 
 
 In a climate that looks across the Adriatic to 
 the temperate coasts of Apulia, the fall of the year 
 had laid her impress lightly on the brows of the 
 surrounding mountains : a yellow tone on the 
 hanging woods began to mingle with the deep- 
 green olives ; the Bocca was no longer in the hey- 
 day of verdure, but, like a well-preserved beauty, in 
 all the pleasantness of early autumn, while the 
 crimson of an unclouded sunset invested her barest 
 
54 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 summits with its subdued splendour. Half way 
 to Cattaro (for the passage is long and winding) 
 the lake grows narrow, to little more than the 
 space between the iron gates on the Danube ; and 
 we cleave the rended precipices again to enter 
 another wide inland basin. As the steamer swiftly 
 advanced up the smooth, land-girt waters, every 
 soul was on deck to catch a new turn in the magic 
 panorama. Ever and anon a shot, fired from a 
 point of land or fishing-hamlet, signalised a party 
 of sharpshooters on piquet ; and some sad air of 
 Bellini, played by the band, floated across the 
 waters in sweet responses to the distant challenge. 
 
 It was night when we dropt anchor ofi* Cattaro, 
 the forms of the mountains being faintly visible, 
 but enough to shew me that I was at the bottom 
 of a kettle or caldron. Lights twinkled in the 
 windows of the town, and the glare of torches at 
 the quay was reflected in the water by long streaks 
 of trembling yellow ; a hubbub of boats was at 
 our larboard ; and the deck crowded, with boats 
 disembarking, made a scene of rather dismal no- 
 velty. On landing, the customs' officers searched 
 my baggage minutely, as I had come from the 
 islands ; the facility which their coasts afibrd to 
 the smuggler being a pretext for an unavailing 
 rigour at the ports of the mainland, a topic to 
 which we will recur in the course of our survey 
 of the mistaken policy which presides at the 
 financial legislation of Dalmatia. 
 
CATTARO. 
 
 55 
 
 Conducted to the only hotel of the town, I 
 found it to be miserable ; for Cattaro is the 
 ultima Thule of the Austrian empire. The few 
 travellers that ascend to Montenegro are insuf- 
 ficient to maintain a comfortable inn, and I was 
 fortunate in getting a room, for the crowding of 
 troops had made quarters very scarce. Next 
 morning after breakfast, a man of jobs and com- 
 missions presented himself in the last stage of 
 shabby genteel, and making me a profound bow, 
 asked me if I was an Englishman, and I admitted 
 that I was. 
 
 ^* This town," said he, bowing again pro- 
 foundly, is a place of very great taste for the 
 arts, sir ; of first-rate taste ; and if you want a 
 large room, sir, I think I can get you one." 
 
 " A large room !" said I, somewhat surprised ; 
 " if you suppose I am either a singer or a picture- 
 dealer, you are under a mistake." 
 
 " A singer or a picture-dealer," continued he, 
 plausibly ; " that is horridly low ; I see there is 
 some mistake, for I was informed that you were 
 a fire-eater." 
 
 The hallucination seemed so whimsical, that 
 I could not avoid humouring it. What would 
 you say," said I, " to an advertisement of this 
 sort : The British Wizard and Fire-Eater, desir- 
 ous of having the honour of appearing before 
 the public of Cattaro, has abandoned his engage- 
 ments at Paris and London, &c. &c. ?" 
 
56 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ** Magnifico !" said he ; " and if you need a 
 check-taker, I am your most obedient humble 
 servant." 
 
 " Now tell me," said I, who told you I was 
 a fire-eater ?" 
 
 " I knew it at once, sir," said he, with a 
 knowing wink, " when that servant informed me 
 that you could drink boiling water, and make 
 water boil without fire." 
 
 In a state of mystification, which the reader 
 can more easily suppose than I can describe, the 
 servant of the hotel being called in, I asked her 
 what water I had boiled without a fire ; and she 
 immediately pointed out an innocent bottle of 
 Seidlitz powders which stood on the chest of 
 drawers, on which I repeated the wonderful ex- 
 periment of adding cold water to a little powder. 
 As it fizzed up in the glass, the servant called 
 out, delighted beyond measure, in a hodge-podge 
 of Illyrian and Italian, " Gospodine Pomeloi, holle 
 senza fuoco /" "Oh Lord, it boils without fire ! 
 it boils without fire !" But the commissioner, 
 studying for a moment, brightened up with the 
 ardour of discovery, and pronouncing it to be 
 " una medicina,'* looked at the poor waitress with 
 such contempt that she went confounded out of 
 the room. 
 
 Finding that the only necromancy I contem- 
 plated was a trip to Montenegro, the commis- 
 sioner, begging my pardon, and not to be foiled 
 
CATTARO. 
 
 57 
 
 of a job, at once promoted me from plain Mister 
 to Excellency, and then ran on with all the volu- 
 bility of his tribe : " Ah, sir, you belong to the 
 first nation of the world ; a free nation, sir. You 
 must see Albania, too ; just like England, for all 
 the world. A man does what he chooses — no- 
 thing like freedom. And if a man gives you any 
 insolence, just whistle a bullet through his giz- 
 zard; nobody says anything — just like England. 
 I recollect my Lord Boot Brute — yes, I think 
 that was his name ; perhaps your Excellency may 
 know him ?" 
 
 Brickbat ?" inquired 1. 
 
 Giusto, precisely, my Lord Brickbat ; I am 
 sure he was a milordo ; for his watch-chain was 
 of solid gold, and his waistcoat of Cashmere shawl. 
 When the people wondered why he went to ser- 
 vice in the Duomo, he said that God cared no 
 more about orthodox and schismatic than the 
 Pasha of Scutari cared whether a Christian took 
 off his hat or a Turk took oflp his shoes to him. 
 A most distinguished man was my Lord Brickbat ; 
 and people said. These English are originals, but 
 their Christianity comes from the wrong side of 
 the blanket. A wonderful nation ! Now, when a 
 Dalmatian has no money, he stays at home ; when 
 an Englishman wants to save money, he goes 
 abroad. I know your Excellency is not one of 
 that sort ; but economy is not a bad thing ; and 
 let me advise you to be on your guard against 
 
58 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 all those plausible impostors and cheats that are 
 on the out - look for travellers, and prey upon 
 their credulity. You will pay double for every 
 thing in Montenegro, if you have not some 
 honest man who knows the country. Now I, for 
 instance, know Montenegro well, and to serve an 
 Englishman would do any thing for him from sun- 
 rise to sunset, and from sunset to sunrise again." 
 I will see," said I. 
 
 " Well, notwithstanding my good wishes, your 
 Excellency is impatient. I am sure the loan of 
 a florin or two would not inconvenience you ? 
 You doubt again ; well, then, a zwanziger, to 
 make my market." 
 
 When the zwanziger was given, there came 
 a supplementary request for due gotti, two drops 
 of rosolio to wet his whistle. A quarter of an 
 hour scarcely had elapsed before he came back, 
 smelling of the liquor, and announcing, with irra- 
 diate countenance, that he had explained to the 
 police my intention to proceed to Montenegro, 
 and spontaneously asked for permission, &c., which 
 called forth on my part a specimen of that national 
 freedom of speech which he admired rather in 
 the abstract than in the application, and which 
 kept his officiousness within bounds during the 
 rest of my stay. 
 
 " What sort of a place is Cattaro?" was a 
 question which I had one day addressed to the 
 captain of the steamer after dinner. " There is 
 
CATTARO. 
 
 59 
 
 Cattaro," said he to me, pointing to the grounds 
 at the bottom of his coffee-cup. " The sun sets 
 behind the mountains at mid-day," continued he, 
 with facetious exaggeration ; " and the mountain 
 above threatens to fall over and cover the town." 
 I had left the hotel but a very short way, when 
 I found the place to be almost what the captain 
 had told me. At the extremity of the basin of 
 Cattaro is situated the town, regularly fortified. 
 A quay fronts the basin, and a plantation of pop- 
 lars, rising with the masts of the vessels, under 
 which the Bocchese, in their almost Turkish cos- 
 tume, prosecuted their business, produced a no- 
 velty of effect which one seldom sees on the beaten 
 tracks of the tourist ; and looking down the basin 
 which 1 had traversed yesterday evening, a cluster 
 of villas with their red roofs are seen shining 
 among the thickly planted gardens that cover the 
 promontory stretching into the water. If we pass 
 from the front to the back of the town, the rocks 
 rise up perpendicularly behind the last street ; so 
 that the traveller, standing in the piazza in front 
 of the church, is obliged to strain his neck in 
 looking up to the battlements of the fort that 
 surmounts the place. 
 
 In the interior of the town I was agreeably dis- 
 appointed in finding it to be a very difi*erent place 
 from what I had anticipated. So close to Monte- 
 negro, where a row of Turkish skulls, on spikes, 
 formed until lately a conspicuous ornament of the 
 
60 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 capital of the most insubordinate population of the 
 Ottoman empire, I had a notion of its being a 
 miserable place ; but here was still in every street 
 and edifice the same Italian stamp : a solid, well- 
 built Cathedral, of hewn stone, better than ninety- 
 nine out of a hundred churches in England ; se- 
 veral public piazzas ; and a fine picturesque old 
 tower as a guard-house, with the usual Venetian 
 lion, which will last a thousand years, unless some 
 earthquake should shake down that uneasy-looking 
 lump of mountain, and bray the town, lion and all, 
 to infinitesimal atoms. 
 
 The dress of the coast-towns of Dalmatia is 
 entirely European ; that of Cattaro, as I have 
 already stated, has more of the Oriental than of 
 the European, black Hessian boots being added 
 to a Turkish costume, with a very small fez. 
 
 In summer, the high mountains, excluding the 
 north-west breeze, render Cattaro a place of stifling 
 heat ; and in winter, the clouds, breaking against 
 the mountains, make it very rainy. The days 
 preceding my departure for Montenegro were 
 marked by a perfect storm of rain ; for not only 
 did the water pour from above, but in various 
 places streams of clear water gushed up from below 
 through the crevices of the pavement — a symptom 
 of the overhanging rocks being pervious to springs. 
 The Bocchese, instead of carrying umbrellas, go 
 about with black woollen-hooded cloaks, which are 
 as thick as a blanket, and hard and heavy like 
 
CATTARO. 
 
 61 
 
 felt. I ventured out with an umbrella ; and, wrapt 
 up in a cloak, proceeded out at the gate, in order 
 to see a stream gushing from the mountain. A 
 rare spectacle was it to see the spring come out 
 from the earth at the foot of a precipice, a ready- 
 formed river, twenty feet wide, and filtered as clear 
 as crystal. The last geological revolution of Dal- 
 matia has left the Yellebitch a very loose and 
 incoherent mass of limestone, for in several other 
 places we have the same phenomenon. The river 
 that waters the plain of Licca, in Croatia, loses 
 itself in an immense hollow, and mingles its waters 
 with the Adriatic, after traversing a mountain- 
 chain 4000 feet high. Nothing could be more 
 dismal than the rocks all around, the peak of every 
 mountain enveloped in mist ; and along with the 
 damp we had a close, warm atmosphere, with the 
 thermometer ranging between 70"" and 80"", and 
 thus for several days : but with a north wind came 
 complete clearness and perspicuity of the atmo- 
 sphere ; and the sunshine on a Gothic balcony 
 and fretted balustrade, with an orange-tree on the 
 opposite side of the street, its golden fruit pro- 
 truding over the wall, made as charming a piece 
 of colour as a painter of local nature could desire. 
 
 Cattaro, called Dekatera by Constantino Por- 
 phyrogenitus, was successively under the protec- 
 tion of the Greek emperors and Servian and Hun- 
 garian monarchies, but became Venetian in 1420, 
 preserving its municipal privileges, and being go- 
 
62 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 verned by a Venetian, with the title of Estraor- 
 dinario, under the Proveditor - general of Zara. 
 From this time up to the fall of the Eepublic, it 
 was under the banner of St. Mark. Austrian 
 from 1797 to I8O6, the decisive victory of Auster- 
 litz, and the peace of Presburg, handed it over 
 to the French empire. But Pussia could view 
 with no complacency the port of Montenegro, 
 in which she exercised so large an influence, and 
 which was so important a space in the chess-board 
 of European Turkey, occupied by France, then 
 the ally of the Porte. The fleets of Kussia, aided 
 by a fierce undisciplined band of Montenegrines, 
 offered a vigorous but ineffectual resistance to the 
 French occupation. They advanced as far as Ra- 
 gusa, and burned its suburbs ; but Marshal Mar- 
 mont, at the head of 9000 well -disciplined troops, 
 gave battle to the combined force of the Monte- 
 negrines and a small body of Russians ; and 
 having gained a decided victory on the 1st of 
 October, I8O6, at the Sutorina, on the Bocca di 
 Cattaro, the submission of the rest of the province 
 quickly followed, and Russia, at the treaty of 
 Tilsit, recognised the French possession of this 
 part of the Adriatic. 
 
 Cattaro and its district has been since the last 
 Austrian occupation one of the four circles of Dal- 
 matia, the smallest in extent and population, but 
 the most difficult to manage of all the four, from 
 the neighbourhood of Montenegro ; and was on 
 
CATTARO. 
 
 63 
 
 that account sought after by the present occupant, 
 a Bohemian of great talent and energy, who was 
 previously at Spalato, as a means of meritorious 
 advancement. The population of the town is 
 4000, and there is a great deal of capital in the 
 place ; for the Bocchese are excellent sailors, and 
 although there is nothing behind Cattaro but the 
 rocks of Montenegro, this hardy and industrious 
 people possess upwards of one hundred and fifty 
 vessels of long course. The products and profits 
 of the Antilles and Brazils have built these neat 
 villas, and laid out those gardens, that make the 
 Bocca look like an Italian lake ; and it was the 
 well-filled plate-chests and the strong boxes that 
 tempted the hunger and rapine of the nightly 
 bands ; for the Bocchese, like the Turk, must see 
 his property in the solid — a ship, a house, or the 
 clinking cash — and would not trust the paper of 
 the Bank of England. 
 
 There was a great deal of unpleasant agitation 
 in Cattaro during my stay, in consequence of the 
 nightly incursions of these desperados. Twice 
 during the three or four days of my stay at Cat- 
 taro they attempted to rob houses on the Bocca ; 
 but the alarm being suddenly given to the detach- 
 ments of Rifles, they drew off^, though not without 
 an exchange of shots. These marauders were not 
 Montenegrines, but a mixed band of Herzego- 
 vinians from Grahovo, who shared their plunder 
 with the Aga there ; for on these three frontiers 
 
64 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 order is kept with difficulty, passage from one to 
 the other being easy, and the authority of the 
 Porte in Herzegovina quite nominal. The Go- 
 vernment of Montenegro, in the absence of the 
 yiadika, co-operated with the Austrian Govern- 
 ment of Cattaro to repress the depredations ; but 
 when hunger has a share in stimulating outrage, 
 Governments can do very little in a wild moun- 
 tainous country like this. 
 
 Cattaro, being strongly fortified, could resist any 
 force the Montenegrines could bring against it, 
 if hostilities should ever unfortunately break out 
 between these mountaineers and the Austrian Go- 
 vernment ; but the situation of the garrison being 
 at the foot of the mountain would become very 
 unpleasant, and confine them to the town and 
 Castle. This did occur in 1809 during the French 
 occupation. Some Montenegrines were drinking 
 in the town, and two Italian soldiers, probably 
 also in liquor, entering the wine-shop, one of them, 
 either in sarcasm or familiarity, took hold of 
 one of the Montenegrines by the moustache, which 
 they regard as almost sacrilege. The Montene- 
 grine drew his pistol, and discharged it in the face 
 of the soldier ; but the ball missing him, and other 
 comrades coming to the assistance of the soldier, 
 they wounded the Montenegrines with sabres. But 
 the quarrel did not end there. On the succeeding 
 days the heights above Cattaro were covered with 
 Montenegrines, all armed, who infested the ap- 
 
CATTARO. 
 
 65 
 
 proaches, and broke up the roads the French had 
 formed ; so that the people of Cattaro, knowing 
 the exciteable race they had to deal with, scarce 
 dared to venture out of the town ; but the officers 
 continued to dine at a sort of rustic casino a 
 short way from the gate, the front door of which 
 opened on the road, and the back door on a small 
 garden. The Montenegrines, determined to glut 
 their vengeance, made up a party of nine or ten 
 men, the half of whom presented themselves at 
 the road, while the other half, escalading the gar- 
 den-wall, entered by the back door ; and, as the 
 officers sat at dinner, fired their muskets at them, 
 and fled. Five officers and a surgeon fell on the 
 occasion; and this produced such an efi^ect on the 
 French Commandant, that he immediately sought 
 a conference with the Archbishop, and the aflkir 
 ended in a convention, greatly to the satisfaction 
 of the citizens of Cattaro, who, during all the 
 affair, durst not stir beyond the gates of the town.^ 
 
 1 Vialla de Sommiferes. 
 
 F 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 MONTENEGRO. 
 
 Learning that a Dalmatian Dugald Dalgetty, in 
 the employ of the Yladika, was in Cattaro, I was 
 advised to take advantage of his return to Cetigne, 
 as I should not only gain in security, hut have the 
 advantage of referring for information as I went 
 along to a person well acquainted with the locali- 
 ties. In ordinary times there is not a shadow of 
 danger between Cattaro and Cetigne, and the 
 Montenegrine is as harmless as a wolf in mid- 
 summer ; but pinch him sorely with hunger, and 
 any thing is welcome to his fangs ; so that I 
 thought it on all accounts safer to go in com- 
 pany. 
 
 My rendezvous was at the hour of eight, at the 
 Montenegrine Bazaar, outside the gate of Cat- 
 taro. Here a rude roof, supported on pilasters of 
 rubble-work, and an avenue of trees, just at the 
 foot of one of those tremendous precipices around 
 Cattaro, was the place where the Montenegrines 
 gave their eels from the Lake of Scutari, their 
 skins, and their other products, for the salt, the 
 
MONTENEGRO. 
 
 67 
 
 oil, and the few coarse manufactures and colonials 
 which they need. The shaggy brown mare of the 
 trooper was caparisoned in the Turkish way, with 
 a high cantled cloth saddle, and a silver chain 
 forming part of the bridle. Instead of the long 
 Oriental robes of yesterday, in which I was intro- 
 duced to him, he wore a short crimson jacket, 
 lined with sable, a silver-hilted sword being hung 
 from his shoulder ; while our attendants carried 
 long Albanian rifles, their small butts covered with 
 mother -o'- pearl, and the men with coarse frieze 
 dresses, tattered sandals, weatherbeaten faces, and 
 long uncombed locks falling over their necks. 
 
 We now began the ascent of the celebrated 
 ladder of Cattaro, to which the ladder of Tyre is 
 a joke, being the most remarkable road I ever 
 ascended. The Yellebitch is a curious road for 
 carriages ; but to ascend a face of rock 4000 feet 
 high, and very little out of the perpendicular, 
 was certainly a trial to the nerves. There could 
 not be less than fifty zigzags, one over the other, 
 and, seen from above, the road looks like a coil 
 of ropes. As we passed one tower of the fortress 
 after another, the whole region of Cattaro was 
 seen as from a balloon ; the ships were visible 
 only by their decks ; and I do not overstrain 
 description when I say that, arrived at the top, 
 although we were very little out of the perpen- 
 dicular above Cattaro, the human figures on the 
 bright yellow gravelled quay were such faint black 
 
68 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 specs that the naked eye could scarce perceive 
 them ; so that the independence of Montenegro 
 ceases to be a riddle to whomsoever ascends this 
 road. When standing on the quay of Cattaro, 
 how high and gloom-engendering seem those moun- 
 tains on the other side of the gulf, as seen from 
 below. I now look down upon their crests, and 
 dilate sight and sense by casting my eyes beyond 
 them upon the wide blue sheet of the Adriatic, 
 the height of the line where sky meets sea shew- 
 ing how loftily I am placed. 
 
 My hired nag was none of the best, and I 
 complained of not being able to keep up with the 
 officer; but the dirty savage with the long locks 
 who walked by my side told me, in a brutal sar- 
 castic sort of way, that " as I had paid the zwan- 
 zigers, I had only to hew them out of the horse 
 again and suiting the action to the word, with 
 an inharmonious wheezing laugh, he gave the nag 
 such a jog with his rifle, that I cast a nervous 
 glance over the parapet to the roofs of Cattaro. 
 Happily there was not so much mettle in the 
 butt of my horse as in the barrel of the rifle ; so 
 I resolved to be on good terms with the poor 
 hack, and not to hew my zwanzigers out of him 
 again. 
 
 Arrived safely at the top of the ladder, I was 
 no longer in Austria, but in Montenegro ; and, 
 crossing a short plateau destitute of a blade of 
 grass and surmounting another ridge, found my- 
 
MONTENEGRO. 
 
 69 
 
 self looking down on a sort of punch-bowl, the 
 bottom of which was a perfectly level circular 
 plain of rich carefully cultivated land, an oasis in 
 this wilderness of rocks. A rude khan is in the 
 middle of the plain, and a keg of newly moulded 
 and shining bullets w^as the only symptom visible 
 of entertainment for man and horse ; but on 
 alighting, the landlord produced some bread, 
 cheese, and wine, and we passed on to Niegush. 
 Here the dogs came out upon us in such force, 
 and with such a ferocious demeanor, that, for- 
 getting my resolution not to hew the zwanzigers 
 out of my horse, I laid on the lash ; but Kosinante 
 knowing no doubt from experience that their 
 bark was worse than their bite, took a sounder 
 and more judicious view of the subject, and treated 
 my whip with the same imperturbability as he had 
 done the jog of the Montenegrine gun. 
 
 Niegush is called the only town in Monte- 
 negro ; but in the worst parts of Turkey I never 
 saw any thing to equal the poverty and misery of 
 both habitations and inhabitants. It is impos- 
 sible to conceive a greater contrast than between 
 a Servian and Montenegrine village. Here all 
 the inhabitants had clothes of frieze, resembling 
 closely those of Bulgaria, but instead of the woolly 
 caps, many of them wore black skull-caps, and 
 wide trousers and tights from the knee to the 
 ankle ; those who lounged about having a strookah, 
 which is like the Turkish cloak, but of a dirty 
 
70 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 white colour, and the pile inwards so long, coarse, 
 and shaggy, as to be like the fleece of a sheep. 
 The necks and breasts of the men were bare, and 
 all wore miserable sandals. Each male wore arms, 
 the waist-belt, like that of an Albanian, shewing 
 a bundle of pistols and dirks, which brought to 
 mind the old heraldic motto, " Aye ready so 
 predominant, indeed, is the idea of the soldier over 
 that of the citizen, that even when a child is bap- 
 tised, pistols are put to the infant's mouth to kiss, 
 and then laid in the cradle beside him ; and one of 
 the favourite toasts drunk on the occasion is, " Mav 
 he never die in his bed." The dress of the women 
 was of dirty white cloth ; and in cut, its family 
 likeness to the old costume of Servia is recog- 
 nisable ; but the details are coarser, and shew a 
 poorer and more barbarous people. 
 
 While the officer transacted some business, I 
 made an exploratory tour through the village, 
 which is the seat of the clan Petrovich, from 
 which the Vladika descends, and the family man- 
 sion of whom is a house built in the European 
 style, only to form a greater contrast to the 
 miserable Montenegrine cabins around it. The 
 village is not in the centre of the plain, but built 
 on the slope of the hill, so that not an inch of cul- 
 tivable soil is covered. Like the Druse villages, 
 it is easily defensible, one roof rising above the 
 other, and the bare rock is the best part of the 
 pavement. 
 
MONTENEGRO. 
 
 71 
 
 A man with the front part of his head shaved, 
 and wearing a small black skull-cap, came out of 
 one of the houses and invited me to enter. Chim- 
 neys not being in fashion in Montenegro, the 
 door proved a cheap and nasty substitute ; and 
 notwithstanding my curiosity to see a Montene- 
 grine hut, the smoke and darkness visible, and the 
 fleas contingent, made me pause a moment ; but 
 in I went. A pufl* of smoke rolling out at that 
 moment fastened on my eyelids, and I advanced 
 groping, winking, and coughing, to the great 
 laughter of the urchins inside, w^hich was no 
 sooner heard by a cow on the other side of the 
 watling that divided the bipeds from the quadru- 
 peds, than she began to low. A dog, very like a 
 little bear, now awoke from the hearthstone, and 
 began to bark in a way that savoured very little 
 of the honest joy of hospitality. At length I per- 
 ceived a little square stone, on which I sat down ; 
 my enthusiasm for the patriarchal manners of the 
 Montenegrines being as much damped as the 
 handkerchief which I from time to time applied 
 to my eyes. 
 
 At length, when a cold blast of air drove the 
 smoke out of the door at which the cattle entered, 
 I looked about me, and saw that the cottage was 
 large, and divided into three distinct compart- 
 ments ; one for my own species, the next for cat- 
 tle, and one for sheep beyond it ; the separation 
 being formed of a rude crate or basket-work, with 
 
72 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 square apertures, so that a bucket or any thing 
 else might be handed from the one to the other. 
 Like the Noah's Ark or Nativity of the older 
 Flemish painters, a sunbeam darted through a hole 
 on smoked rafters and an old chest, and the cattle 
 were seen in the dim depths of the recess. 
 
 Going out of the hut, I saw women with heavy 
 burdens of salt fish from the lake of Scutari, 
 bound for Cattaro ; and one poor, industrious crea- 
 ture, besides carrying a heavy burden, was spin- 
 ning with her distaff as she went along — a sad 
 sign of extreme poverty and painful industry, such 
 as I never saw in any other country. A pang of 
 melancholy went through me as I cast a lingering 
 look at her ; but it was momentary ; I remem- 
 bered that a scarce harvest was a feather in coun- 
 terpoise to that independence which Montenegro 
 had so nobly maintained. In Bosnia, the Chris- 
 tian is a slave, and the Moslem the offspring of a 
 renegade. The Montenegrine, barbarian though 
 he be, is a freeman ; banish or imprison him far 
 from home, and although neither hunger nor cold 
 pinch him, he pines and dies : 
 
 " Land of my sires, what mortal hand 
 Can ere untie this fihal band. 
 That knits me to thy rugged strand ?" 
 
 We now remounted, and began the ascent of 
 the last crest of the chain ; every scrap of earth 
 preserved in the hill-side being carefully cleared 
 
MONTENEGRO. 
 
 73 
 
 of stones and fenced round. Higher up was a 
 wood, having, like the inhabitants, all the signs 
 of the niggardly penury of nature ; soon every 
 trace of vegetation ceased, the road was a faint 
 track in the rocks, and an eagle, screaming from 
 cliff to cliff, was the only object that invaded the 
 monotony of our way ; but on gaining the spot 
 where the waters parted, the prospect that spread 
 out before us seemed boundless. The lake of 
 Scutari, the farther extremity of which was forty 
 miles distant, was easy of observation from so com- 
 manding an elevation ; the rich lands on its nearer 
 borders, with their microscopic divisions, were like 
 the tissues of tartan as given by a Daguerreotype ; 
 and immediately at my feet was Cetigne, its little 
 verdant plain surrounded with a rampart of rocks ; 
 — the whole mountain a cloud-capped tower of 
 Nature's sturdiest building. 
 
 My strength and spirits seemed to rise with 
 the purity of the air, which was very sensible after 
 breathing the atmosphere of Cattaro, close in con- 
 sequence of its confined situation. M. Yialla de 
 Sommieres, who lived six years as French Resi- 
 dent in this neighbourhood, in a memoir on Monte- 
 negro, makes a statement so extraordinary concern- 
 ing the effects of the climate on the longevity of the 
 inhabitants, as to throw somewhat of discredit on 
 his account. He mentions that at Schieclich he 
 met with a man who had lived to see the sixth 
 generation of his family : the old man himself 
 
74 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 being II7 years of age; his son, 100; his grand- 
 son, nearly 82 ; his great grandson had attained 
 his 60th year ; the son of the latter was 43 ; his 
 son, 21 ; and his grandchild, 2 years of age. Very 
 wonderful, if true ! 
 
 At sunset we arrived at Cetigne, the capital, 
 which is not a town, but merely a fortified convent, 
 on the slope of a hill, surrounded by scattered 
 houses ; and under which, in the plain, is the 
 large new Government -house, which is styled in 
 Cattaro the Palazzo del Vladika, or Archiepisco- 
 pal Palace. The inn is newly built, and better 
 than I expected ; for up-stairs I found a clean 
 room, furnished in the European manner, with a 
 good bed for the convenience of travellers coming 
 from Cattaro ; the lower floor being a sort of khan 
 for the people of the country. 
 
 While dinner was getting ready, I entered into 
 conversation with the people down-stairs, consisting 
 of a Christian merchant from Scutari, and several 
 powder -manufacturers, emigrated from Albania, 
 and carrying on their trade here. The merchant 
 of Scutari was a very sedate, respectable -looking 
 man ; and the company, including the landlord, 
 were joking him on his supposed wealth, the mer- 
 chant protesting, like Isaac of York, that it was 
 quite untrue, and a most calumnious imputation 
 on him. He appealed to me as to whether he 
 looked like a man of wealth ; and I declared that 
 his aspect was so respectable, that if I was a hay- 
 
MONTENEGRO, 
 
 75 
 
 dook (robber), I would assassinate him instantly. 
 The merchant gaped at me with astonishment ; 
 and, raising his eyelids, looked at me from head 
 to foot, as if I might be a haydook disguised as 
 an Englishman ; but the others laughed aloud, 
 and he changed the subject to Mohammed Ali's 
 recent visit to Constantinople, on which one of 
 the powder-manufacturers began to wonder at Mo- 
 hammed Ali being so well received after his long 
 wars with the Porte ; but the Scutari man said, 
 *'This is not surprising at all; look to the splendid 
 presents that he brought ; and remember the pro- 
 verb, ' A golden key for an iron door.'" " That 
 may be in Scutari," said the powder-manufacturers, 
 " but not in our country of the Myrdites ; with 
 you, gold breaks through iron ; with us, iron com- 
 manded gold until very lately and they asked 
 me as to which was the best state of things : but 
 between rapine and corruption I had a delicate 
 choice ; and, to get out of the dilemma, declared 
 my belief that the Scutari merchant must be a 
 very wealthy man, on which he again got uneasy ; 
 but as I was then called to dinner the conversation 
 dropped. 
 
 The keen mountain air and the sharp exercise 
 enabled me to sleep soundly ; and next morning 
 the officer in whose company I had come, shewed 
 me the lions of Cetigne, regretting that the 
 greatest one, the Vladika himself, was not visible 
 in his den, being then in Vienna. We went first 
 
76 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 to the old Convent, which resembles a castle of 
 the seventeenth century, surmounted by a round 
 antique -looking watch-tower, with a number of 
 poles, on which, until very lately, the trunkless 
 heads of Turks used to stand in grim array ; but 
 the civilising tendencies of the present Yladika 
 have suggested the cessation of so useless an act 
 of barbarism. 
 
 We now entered the convent ; and on the 
 second floor found the Archimandrite in his room. 
 He is the second of the Yladika in spiritual 
 matters, but his dress had few symptoms of the 
 ecclesiastic ; and I repeatedly met priests in Monte- 
 negro whom I could not have recognised if their 
 condition had not been made known to me, as they 
 wore the usual dress and arms of civilians. They 
 reminded me of Friar Tuck, who wore his canoni- 
 cals at service, and sported a long bow and short 
 doublet when out a -field. The Archimandrite, a 
 man of pleasing modest manners, opening a chest, 
 displayed to us the surplices and pontificalia of 
 satin embroidered with gold, which are invariably 
 received from Russia as a coronation-present after 
 the accession of each Emperor. 
 
 Nothing could be plainer or humbler than the 
 furniture of the room, the principal object of which 
 was a small library. The dialect of Montenegro 
 dififers slightly from that of Servia, and has a 
 small sprinkling of Italian words, in some respect 
 analogous to that which juxtaposition has intro- 
 
MONTENEGRO. 
 
 77 
 
 duced of German into the dialects of the Save, the 
 Drave, and the Danube ; but the written language 
 of Belgrade, and the profane books printed by the 
 prince's typographer, are considered as the stan- 
 dards by the few who can read. The books of 
 Divine service are all of old Slaavic, printed in 
 and imported from Russia. On the same floor is 
 the schoolroom, with thirty-two urchins in drab 
 clothes and close - clipped heads, who are taught 
 reading, writing, ciphering, geography, and his- 
 tory, by a native of the Illyrian part of Hungary. 
 
 The Archimandrite then conducted us to the 
 church, which has a mummy, in a gaudy dress, 
 with crimson velvet shoes, laid out on a bier, and 
 forming the mortal remains of the Yladika Peter, 
 the predecessor and uncle of the present Arch- 
 bishop, the veneration for whose memory greatly 
 contributed to the power of the present incumbent. 
 For fifty-three years, that is to say, from 1777 to 
 1830, he ruled by the mild sway of pious precept 
 and virtuous example ; and dying in the last-men- 
 tioned year, his nephew, the present Vladika, 
 when only eighteen years of age, became spiritual 
 head of the mountain. Seven years after death 
 his body was found incorrupt ; and a canon of the 
 synod of Moscow declared him to be a saint. 
 
 All the other parts of the establishment are 
 of the most primitive kind ; a circular space for 
 thrashing corn, of the exact circumference of the 
 great bell of Moscow ; beehives of hollowed trunks 
 
78 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 of trees, and every thing betokening such a state 
 of manners as might have existed in our own 
 country in feudal times. An old wooden door on 
 the ground-floor met our view, being the stable 
 of the yiadika, containing a milk - white Arab, 
 presented to him by the Pasha of Bosnia ; a new 
 iron door beside it was that of the powder-maga- 
 zine, an imprudent position, for if the convent took 
 fire from above, an explosion, such as would level 
 the whole edifice, would be the infallible result. 
 
 A hundred yards ofi^ is the new Government 
 House, built by the present Vladika ; and going 
 thither, we found a billiard -room, to combine plea- 
 sure and business, in which the Senate was then 
 sitting. The brother of the Yiadika was seated 
 at the upper end of the room on a black leather 
 easy chair, smoking a pipe. A large portrait of 
 Peter the Great, in oil ; a smaller one of Kara 
 George ; and prints of Byron and Napoleon, hung 
 from the walls. There was no bar, as in the 
 Houses of Lords and Commons ; but a billiard- 
 table, on which the Yiadika is said to be a first- 
 rate performer, separated the upper from the lower 
 end of the apartment. A Senate, of course, ought 
 not to be without the ushers of the black and white 
 rod ; I accordingly saw, in a corner, a bundle of 
 these insignia, but on observing their ends marked 
 with chalk, I concluded that they belonged to the 
 billiard establishment. An appeal case was going 
 on, and a gigantic broad-shouldered man, with 
 
MONTENEGRO. 
 
 79 
 
 his belt full of pistols, was pleading his cause with 
 great animation. It appeared that he was a priest ; 
 that his parishioners owed him each ten okas of 
 grain per annum, but this year could not pay him ; 
 and the President decided that he should remit as 
 much as possible on the score of the bad times, but 
 that he should keep an account, and be repaid at 
 a more prosperous season. The senators sat all 
 round the room, each man being armed, and the 
 discussions often extremely vociferous. There are 
 no written laws in Montenegro, and there is no 
 venality as in the Turkish courts of justice ; but 
 they lean somewhat to the side of the most warlike 
 litigant, so that it may be said that club-law has 
 not yet ceased. 
 
 When the case was decided, I was shewn the 
 bedroom of the Vladika, the furniture of which 
 consisted of an Italian bed, a black leather sofa, 
 a toilette-table, an enormous iron strong box ; and 
 above was its necessary concomitant, a long row of 
 pegs for sabres and loaded pistols, one of which, 
 with a crimson velvet scabbard, having been that 
 of Kara George. Suspended from a ribbon near 
 the bed was the medal which the Vladika gives 
 to those who distinguish themselves in their con- 
 flicts with the Turks, on which are stamped the an- 
 cient arms of Montenegro, a double Eagle and Lion, 
 with the inscription, Viera swoboda za hrahrost^^ 
 — Civil and religious liberty (is the reward) of 
 valour. On our return to the billiard-room, tea 
 
80 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 was served in the Russian manner, with rum 
 instead of milk, along with pipes of Turkish 
 tobacco ; after which we took our leave. 
 
 A heavy fall of snow during the night having 
 put a stop to all prospect of farther travel in 
 Montenegro, the succeeding days were devoted 
 to conversation on the state and prospects of the 
 territory, and a reperusal of some historical no- 
 tices I had collected on the mountain.^ 
 
 ^ The best account of Montenegro is that of Wuk Stephano- 
 witch, who furnished Professor Ranke with the materials for his 
 History of the Servian Revolution. 
 
CHAPTEK VII. 
 
 MONTENEGRINE HISTORY. ' 
 
 Identified with Servia in blood, language, and 
 religion, Montenegro was an important fief of that 
 ill-fated empire, the feudal constitution of which I 
 have already described in my work on that coun- 
 try, and the rude magnificence of which reflected 
 neither the refinement nor the corruption of the 
 Lower empire. To this day the heroes of Servia 
 are those of Montenegro. Speak to them of the 
 valour of Dushan the Powerful, and their breasts 
 glow with national pride and martial ardour ; 
 speak to them of the woes and virtues of Lazar, 
 the last of their kings, and their eyes suffuse with 
 tears. 
 
 Balsa, Prince of Montenegro, was the son-in- 
 law of Lazar, who, by the loss of the battle of 
 Kossovo in 1385, and his own life at the same 
 time, enabled the Turks to become the masters 
 of Servia. His grandson Stephen was the friend 
 and ally of Scanderbeg ; but on the death of this 
 hero the debased nobles of Albania, in order to 
 preserve their lands, acknowledged Turkish su- 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 premacy, and embraced Islamism. Bosnia pre- 
 sented the same spectacle ; Montenegro alone, in 
 the latter half of the fifteenth century, rose, like 
 Ararat, amid the overwhelming floods of Islamism. 
 Ivan Czernojevich, the great grandson of Balsa, 
 leaving the environs of the Lake of Scutari, where 
 his paternal castle was situated, fixed himself in 
 those inaccessible fastnesses. Surrounding him- 
 self with his faithful followers, every man swore 
 on the Testament to die rather than yield, and 
 dishonour worse than a thousand deaths was the 
 reward of the man who retreated : dressed in a 
 female garb, he was thrust, with ignominy, from 
 the ranks of his own sex. 
 
 But this hero's character was not without its 
 blots ; and the charge which critics might bring 
 against the author of Marmion for making his hero 
 guilty of forgery, is shewn, on closer acquaintance 
 with history, to be quite consistent with the chi- 
 valry of the middle ages, however uncongenial to 
 the morals or manners of a modern gentleman. 
 One of the most beautiful metrical legends of 
 Montenegro describes his conduct in the marriage 
 of his son with a fair Venetian thus : 
 
 " The Dark John writes to the Doge of the 
 great Venice : * Lord of the waters, thou hast 
 the sweetest of roses, and I the fairest of lilies. 
 Let the rose and the lily be joined in the garland 
 of Hymen.' The renown of the Dark John has 
 filled the great Venice, and the Doge exults at 
 
MONTENEGRINE HISTORY. 
 
 83 
 
 the prospect of the alliance of his daughter with 
 the house of Montenegro. John brings the rich 
 gifts to the City of the Sea ; he sits in the seat 
 of honour, and says, ' If there be any of all the 
 invited guests a fairer youth than my son, let the 
 affianced be sundered/ The Doge gives him a 
 golden apple, ^ and the Dark John departs re- 
 joicing. 
 
 " But a few months revolve, and the hideous 
 small -pox covers the fair face of Stephen; his 
 youthful beauty flies, like the flowers of spring in 
 a storm of hail : when the guests assemble to de- 
 part for the marriage in Venice, all are fairer than 
 the unhappy Stephen. The mother reproaches the 
 Dark John with his ambition of an alliance with 
 the Latins, and the marriage-project is abandoned 
 by him in his anger. 
 
 The seasons went and came ; Stephen thinks 
 no more of his bride ; when, lo ! a ship crosses the 
 waters, and thus writes the Doge to the Dark 
 John : ' When a meadow is enclosed it is scythed, 
 or surrendered to others, that its herbage become 
 not the prey of the summer's heat or the winter's 
 snow. The affianced bride must be married or 
 abandoned.' 
 
 " The Dark John assembles the flower of his 
 youth, each clad in the richest garments ; and he 
 exclaims, in the pride of his nation, * The Latins 
 
 ^ In old Slaavic manners the symbol and accompaniment of 
 betrothal. 
 
84 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 work wonders in metals, and weave fine stuffs, but 
 they have not the haughty brow and martial gait 
 of the free men of the Black Mountain/ He then 
 makes known his straits to the assembly ; and the 
 fair Obrenovo Djuro, Prince of Antivari, is chosen 
 to counterfeit Stephen, who, resisting at first, at 
 length consents, on condition of receiving and 
 keeping the marriage - gifts ; so they all depart 
 amid the salvoes of the two great cannon, Kervio 
 and Selenko, that have not the like of them 
 in Turkey, or in the seven kingdoms of the 
 Franks. 
 
 " The dance is heard for a week in the palace 
 of the Doge. The Prince of Antivari receives 
 from him the kiss and the golden apple of mar- 
 riage ; but fairest of all the gifts was a shirt of 
 tissue of gold, as fine as the silk of the Indies, 
 with a serpent embroidered on it, whose eye was 
 a diamond of such brightness as to illumine with 
 its light the darkness of the nuptial chamber ; the 
 three years' working of which had dried up the 
 eyes of the embroiderers. 
 
 " Who shall paint the horror of the fair Ve- 
 netian on arriving at the Black Mountain, and 
 finding herself the victim of a fraud ? ' Thy face,' 
 said she to her spouse, ' will be as black in the 
 day of judgment as it is now red with shame and 
 confusion.' But the Prince of Antivari having 
 refused to surrender the golden shirt, a bloody 
 combat ensued, in which he yielded his last breath. 
 
MONTENEGRINE HISTORY. 
 
 85 
 
 and Stephen carried his bride to his home on the 
 Lake of Scutari." 
 
 In the legends the bridegroom is, according to 
 some, entitled Stephen ; in others, George ; and 
 in others, Maximus ; but the various versions agree 
 in the main facts, therefore we must conclude that 
 the story is true. One is apt to smile at the 
 heroics about superiority to the Latins, and to 
 think that, in the record of a piece of imposture 
 worthy of Lazarillo de Tormez or Ali Misry el 
 Zeibuck, instead of * haughty brow' we ought to read 
 bronze -visaged effrontery ; but as these worthy 
 people lived to be contemporaries of the age which 
 recognised Pope Alexander YI. as Vicegerent of 
 God upon earth, we must conclude that Greeks 
 and Latins had neither of them much superiority 
 to boast. 
 
 Montenegro stood firm for a while ; but the 
 dynasty of Czernojevich ultimately succumbed. 
 The two grandsons, pressed on the one side by 
 Venetian, on the other by Turkish, influences, 
 exchanged the manly independence of their grand- 
 father for the ambiguities of expediency. One 
 brother, embracing Islamism, served in the armies 
 of the Sultan to the shores of the Tigris ; and the 
 other, professing Christianity, governed Monte- 
 negro ; and, tired of resistance to so overwhelming 
 a power as that of Turkey, spent his last days at 
 Venice, in tranquil retirement, in the beginning 
 of the sixteenth century ; and from that time spi- 
 
86 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ritual and temporal power were united in the 
 Archbishop. 
 
 When Soli man the Magnificent girt on the 
 sword of empire all Europe quaked again. In 
 1523 Cetigne was burned, and all the strongholds 
 stormed by the Turks, under the Pasha of Scutari. 
 The events of the reign of Soliman are remark- 
 able ; but if we look to the resolute character of 
 the Montenegrine, and the almost inaccessible 
 nature of these rocky fastnesses, there is, perhaps, 
 no circumstance in the reign of this wonderful 
 man that is more indicative of the pitch of mili- 
 tary power to which his nation had arrived in the 
 sixteenth century, than the conquest of the small, 
 but far from insignificant. Archbishopric of Monte- 
 negro. 
 
 A period of dark doubt and despair now fol- 
 lowed in the Mountain ; and as Islamism con- 
 solidated itself in the neighbouring kingdoms of 
 Bosnia and Albania, numbers were converted in 
 the Mountain itself. I have often wondered how 
 a nobility that pretended to chivalry could so easily 
 turn Turk ; but the marriage of the son of Black 
 John shews that these chevaliers had not much 
 honour to lose. In the fifteenth century both 
 the Latin and Greek uniforms of Christianity 
 were evidently worn out ; and the very same rot- 
 tenness that made Slaavic Bosnia embrace Islam- 
 ism without much murmuring, caused John Huss 
 and Jerome of Prague (both Slaavs) to begin 
 
MONTENEGRINE HISTORY. 
 
 87 
 
 the complete religious refitting and reforming of 
 Europe — one half accepting Protestantism, the 
 other half retaining the old Eoman uniform. 
 Now as the consolidation of the Turkish power 
 in Europe arose from the possession of Bosnia, 
 that great bastion of mountains which juts so close 
 on Germany, we may say that, altogether, the 
 Slaavs, as destroyers of Rome (under Genseric), 
 reformers of Rome, and renegades of Rome, have 
 played a most conspicuous part in the history of 
 the world. 
 
 In the seventeenth century the conquest of 
 Dalmatia by Venice, of Hungary by the Impe- 
 rialists, and the train of events which preceded 
 the treaty of Carlowitz, in 1696, gave general cour- 
 age to the Christians : in that year Daniel Petro- 
 vich, of Niegush, became Archbishop ; and from 
 that time the spiritual power was hereditary in his 
 family, with an adequate political influence little 
 short of temporal supremacy. Going under a gua- 
 rantee of the Pasha of Scutari to consecrate a 
 church, the Yladika was seized, in violation of his 
 plighted word, and only redeemed from prison by 
 a large sum, painfully collected by the faithful 
 people of Montenegro. 
 
 He appears to have been of a character not 
 only energetic and ambitious, but astute, and re- 
 gardless of blood ; and resolving to make a clean 
 sweep of Islamism, he selected a long dark Christ- 
 mas night, the snow lying on the ground, when, by 
 
88 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 his orders and arrangements, a general massacre 
 of the Moslems of Montenegro took place, and im- 
 mediate baptism became the only means of escape. 
 The Turks have since repeatedly penetrated to 
 Montenegro, but have never maintained their 
 ground ; for here, as the French remarked in 
 Spain, a small army is beaten, a large one dies 
 of hunger. 
 
 Before the Turkish conquest of Montenegro, 
 the vicinity of the Italian municipalities of the 
 Adriatic, the communication with the sea, then 
 open by way of Antivari, but above all, the contact 
 with Venice, appeared to have kept Montenegro 
 within the European family ; but when all these 
 countries were overrun by the Turks, their con- 
 dition underwent an organic change, and, circum- 
 scribed to their rocks, a ruder barbarism was 
 unavoidable in a people hourly menaced with ex- 
 termination. Always strangers to commerce, they 
 had retrograded from agriculture and feudalism 
 to the more primitive state of the warrior-shepherd 
 and the republican member of a savage horde ; and 
 if we must condemn that fatal Christmas night, in 
 which death or baptism was offered to the Moslems 
 of Montenegro, let us at least admire that con- 
 stant love of independence, and that firm adherence 
 to their own faith, which form so noble a contrast 
 to the ignominious renegation of Christianity by 
 the degenerate nobles of Bosnia and Albania. 
 
 Europe in the eighteenth century seemed not 
 
MONTENEGRINE HISTORY. 
 
 89 
 
 to know that such a spot as Montenegro existed ; 
 and Montenegro was equally ignorant of the 
 world beyond the Lake of Scutari and the hills 
 of Herzegovina. The reader may recollect a story 
 in Gibbon's Decline of a priest who presented 
 himself in Flanders as the Emperor Baldwin es- 
 caped from Constantinople, and, for some time, 
 found his tale generally believed. The history 
 of Montenegro in the last century presents a 
 curious parallel to this circumstance. About the 
 year 17^)0, a young soldier, of the name of Stephen 
 Mali, belonging to the Banal Grenze, a portion of 
 the Austrian military frontier, began to excite the 
 attention of his officers by his laziness, his low 
 cunning, and his inclination for falsehood. The 
 severe military duty of watching the cordon was 
 very painful, and he was suspected of being both 
 a spy and a smuggler ; and being likely to come in 
 for some punishment, he took advantage of a dark 
 night, and deserted. Whether he went through 
 Bosnia or through Dalmatia, then in the power of 
 Venice, I have not been able to learn ; but some 
 years afterwards we find him in the district of the 
 Pastrovich, between Cattaro and Antivari, as a 
 servant to a man who was a sort of doctor. From 
 him he learned something of the methods of curing 
 by simples, and did a little in that way for himself ; 
 but his practice was to administer bread-pills, with 
 nothing in them. The plausibility of Stephen in- 
 fused into his master a high idea of him ; and 
 
90 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Stephen being a remarkably quick reader of cha- 
 racter, saw his master's simplicity and credulity, 
 and, tired of being in th^ humble and subordinate 
 character of a servant, was resolved to make one 
 spring from the bottom to the top of the social 
 ladder ; so he told his master that he was no more 
 Stephen Mali than the man in the moon, and no 
 less a personage than Peter III. of Russia, travel- 
 ling in disguise ; that he wished to see the world 
 a little longer, and then, having profited by the 
 experience of strange cities and countries, and 
 varieties of customs, he would return to his own 
 dominions, and leaving behind him the chafi^, and 
 carrying with him the corn, the seed might spring 
 up in time to come to the strengthening of the 
 state, and the honour of his own name. 
 
 The romantic history of Peter the Great living 
 at Saardam as a shipwright being not more won- 
 derful than true, was a constant theme of admira- 
 tion among those simple people, and they thought 
 that for a sovereign to travel in strict incognito 
 was not only proper but customary; so his master 
 went down upon his knees, kissed his hand, and 
 begged his pardon for having a few days before 
 been furiously out of temper with him and cursed 
 him. Stephen, with the most natural air of cle- 
 mency in the world, told him to think no more of 
 the matter, for he had too many faults of that sort 
 hanging heavy on his own conscience, having once 
 given his own Grand Chamberlain a cufF on the 
 
MONTENEGIllNE HISTORY. 
 
 91 
 
 ear for a cobweb which he discovered in his bed- 
 room. 
 
 Not long afterwards a marriage took place in 
 the Mountain, and Stephen and his master were of 
 the party, at which there was a great deal of eat- 
 ing, drinking, and merriment, and, according to 
 the custom of the country, none of that distance 
 between master and man which exists in the west 
 of Europe ; and in the midst of the feast, when • 
 Stephen was about to raise a cup to his lips and 
 drink, his master rose, and, with the greatest re- 
 spect, took off his cap : this caused great surprise 
 among the guests ; and when the thing came to be 
 explained, some believed, and some disbelieved ; 
 but the report spread all round the country that 
 Peter III. was travelling incognito. 
 
 The Archbishop Sabas being then (I767) very 
 old and infirm, and his coadjutor and successor, 
 who managed the affairs, being absent on a journey, 
 Peter now fixed himself in Montenegro, and was 
 looked «p to as the Czar, and his authority in civil 
 affairs became more than paramount to that of the 
 Vladika. The Turkish authorities, on certain in- 
 telligence from Constantinople, pronounced him to 
 be an impostor ; but this very circumstance, and 
 the hatred they bore the Turks, riveted the belief 
 that he must be the man himself. But that which 
 more than all the rest consolidated his power, was, 
 that the Montenegrines, seeing the ferment in the 
 minds of the Christian Rayahs in Herzegovina 
 
92 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 and Albania, thought that some great event was 
 to happen, which should liberate them from the 
 Turkish yoke. The Venetian Count or Estra- 
 ordinario in Cattaro was equally astonished at 
 the extent to which the story got credence ; and 
 every thing said against the pretended emperor 
 was set down to political hatred and jealousy. At 
 last the court of Russia, to undeceive the people, 
 sent Prince Dolgorouki to Montenegro, properly 
 accredited to the Archbishop, who assembled all 
 the people, and declared him to be an impostor. 
 Stephen was therefore placed under arrest, and 
 taken to the upper floor of the convent. The door 
 being left open, he sat in a corner, while his old 
 admirers still thronged in and conversed with him ; 
 the Archbishop and Dolgorouki, on the ground- 
 floor, thinking the whole business about to be con- 
 cluded. But Stephen's resources were not at an 
 end. Calling one of the most influential men, to 
 speak a few words with him in private, he said, 
 " There is the key of my box ; go to the «eonvent 
 of Sermnitza, open it, and take the money in it. 
 Leave Montenegro immediately, and go to Russia ; 
 and after telling my faithful people how I have 
 been betrayed by my own subject, bring back the 
 principal men of the empire to deliver me from 
 Dolgorouki, who you see, traitor though he be, 
 lodges me over his head, and does not dare to put 
 me below him." This man, to give his wife a rea- 
 son for his absence, told her the story, enjoining 
 
MONTENEGRINE HISTORY. 
 
 93 
 
 the utmost secrecy ; but she told the matter, in 
 confidence, to some female friend. It was be- 
 lieved more firmly than ever ; Dolgorouki left the 
 Mountain branded as an impostor, and Stephen, 
 once more a great man, assured every body that 
 the Pasch alios of Scutari and Ipek were the right- 
 eous appendages of Montenegro. 
 
 The Turks now seriously amazed at the atti- 
 tude of Montenegro, and at the illusions of their 
 own Kayahs, the whole forces of the Pashas of 
 Scutari, Bosnia, and Roumelia were put in motion 
 to coerce Montenegro ; but in the autumn, just 
 as the Turks were about to penetrate to Cetigne, 
 in consequence of the ammunition of the Monte- 
 negrines having failed them, a flash of lightning 
 blew all the Turkish powder-reserves into the air, 
 and, the bad weather of autumn coming on, the 
 campaign ended without efffect. But Stephen 
 always fought shy, and in the wars shewed more 
 cunning than physical courage, which gradually 
 undermined his influence ; and his Greek servant 
 being bribed by the Pasha of Scutari, took advan- 
 tage of his being confined to his room from having 
 accidentally burned his eyes with gunpowder, and 
 cut his throat, probably whilst he slept. The Greek 
 then, saying to the people outside that they were 
 not to disturb him till called, as he had put some- 
 thing to his eyes that would require his being let 
 alone, made the best of his way in the direction of 
 the Lake of Scutari ; but some time elapsing with- 
 
94 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 out Stephen being seen, suspicion was excited among 
 the suite, and, opening the door, they found him 
 weltering in his own blood. 
 
 The rule of Stephen lasted between three and 
 four years, and ought to find a place in every book 
 of popular delusions and impostures. It is evident 
 that, with good education, a good position, and 
 above all, with common honesty, Stephen would 
 have been a historical character. His knowledge 
 of human nature in its strength and weakness must 
 have been prodigious ; and, like Hakem, the mad 
 caliph of Cairo, he kept so strict an observance of 
 the laws of meum and iuiim^ that a sum of money 
 placed on the public road would remain there un- 
 touched and unstolen. 
 
CHAPTER YIIl. 
 
 MONTENEGRINE POLITICS. 
 
 The blessings of civilisation are still strange to 
 Montenegro ; but a great diminution of the pre- 
 vious barbarism is due to the exertions of the pre- 
 sent and the last Yladika, his uncle, both very 
 remarkable men, and both possessed of talents and 
 virtues which, exercised on a more splendid or 
 extensive field, would have procured them a renown 
 commensurate with that of the most eminent princes 
 of Europe. 
 
 The late Yladika entered on his functions in 
 1777j and died in 1830. He was of a thin habit of 
 body, with intellectual features, and great natural 
 sagacity. His political and religious influence was, 
 during that period, almost unbounded ; but he lived 
 in times when very little could be done for the im- 
 provement of the people. The barbarism of the 
 exterminating wars which were perpetually carried 
 on with the Turks, — and which even shewed itself 
 in the most painful manner by the useless confla- 
 gration of the suburbs of Ragusa when that repub- 
 lic, opening its gates to the troops of Napoleon, 
 
96 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 was invaded by the joint forces of Russia and Mon- 
 tenegro, — was a great obstacle to his designs, which 
 comprised the improvement of agriculture, and the 
 abolition of hereditary feuds (called Kerverina) 
 between native Montenegrines. He had himself 
 a great taste for agriculture and gardening, and 
 made many experiments at Cetigne ; but from the 
 barren nature of the soil of Montenegro generally, 
 it is much to be doubted if any advantage has 
 resulted from them. In the extirpation of that 
 hereditary revenge which desolated the Mountain 
 he was much more successful ; and the partial 
 abolition of this barbarous custom laid the found- 
 ation of the greater order which now exists in 
 Montenegro. To be able duly to appreciate the 
 value of this reform, we must cast our eyes to the 
 state in which things existed during the earlier 
 part of his Vladikaship. 
 
 The laws of Stephan Dushan, the Servian 
 emperor (the Justinian of the southern Slaavs), 
 being founded on the Old rather than the New 
 Testament, it is not surprising that in a country 
 such as Montenegro the doctrine of an eye for an 
 eye, and a tooth for a tooth, should have resisted 
 the efforts of previous Yladikas to extirpate it. 
 Like the feuds of the Highlands of Scotland, such 
 enmities have been known to last for generations 
 between one family and another, one village and 
 another, and even between branches of the same 
 family. The law of Montenegro was literally the 
 
MONTENEGRINE POLITICS. 
 
 97 
 
 lex talionis, the law of retaliation ; the bloody vest- 
 ments of the murdered father have been shewn to 
 the children arrived at puberty, by the mother 
 herself, to inspirit them to revenge ; and as every 
 vice propagates itself, other revenges follow. If 
 the first culprit were punished, the evil would be 
 less ; but all the other members of his family or 
 tribe are equally obnoxious to the aggrieved party. 
 In many cases, the circumstance of being an in- 
 nocent member of such an obnoxious family has 
 cost a man his life ; and in Albania feuds of whole 
 villages, with the burning of crops, and the mas- 
 sacre of tens or hundreds, has arisen from a single 
 murder. 
 
 To remedy the evil, courts of compensation 
 were called, and the blood redeemed with money ; 
 but this was a very solemn afikir, and a hundred 
 and thirty-two ducats, four Austrian zwanzigers, 
 and a Turkish parah, or about sixty pounds ster- 
 ling, was the ransom for a death, and about half 
 that sum for an eye and a limb. The ceremonies 
 of reconciliation were very curious. The judge 
 was always a stranger, generally a priest, and the 
 expenses of the court being settled beforehand, the 
 judge took all the arms from the parties, and never 
 returned them until all claims were settled. In 
 the case of feuds of families, the murderer pre- 
 sented himself on his knees, with the pistol or 
 other arm hung round his neck, and begged par- 
 don in the name of God and St. John. If the 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 avenging party raised him and embraced him, he 
 was pardoned ; and sometimes the avenging rela- 
 tions stood godfather for the child of the offender. 
 At each treaty of peace the Turkish parah was cut 
 in two, and tied to the. written treaty ; and an en- 
 tertainment, at the expense of the oflPender, closed 
 the feud. Even in the Austrian territory amusing 
 arrears of insult or injury were brought up for 
 settlement ; and, in spite of Austrian laws, these 
 courts of reconciliation were held, until lately, in 
 the circle of Cattaro, quite independently of Aus- 
 trian local authority. In the territory of the Pas- 
 trovich, a savage tribe in Austrian Albania, one 
 village demanded of another fifty ducats for an 
 insult that one of their women had received from 
 some Venetian soldiers, in the time of that Republic, 
 through the supineness or pusillanimity of the vil- 
 lage in question, and an old man of seventy being 
 referred to, related that he had heard the matter 
 stated in his youth ; but how the dispute was settled 
 does not appear. 
 
 The late Yladika Peter died in October 1830, 
 having assembled all the chiefs round his deathbed, 
 and adjured them to live in harmony with each 
 other, which they promised in the most solemn 
 manner ; and his nephew, the present Vladika, 
 then a youth of eighteen years of age, succeeded to 
 his functions and authority, having, with a rapidity 
 exceeding that of the days of the Medici, passed 
 through the grades between layman and archbishop 
 
MONTENEGRINE POLITICS. 
 
 99 
 
 in the course of a few months : so that nepotism in 
 the family of Petrovich has now received the sanc- 
 tion of use and wont for a full century and a half. 
 An influential lay family in the Mountain, a prin- 
 cipal member of which claimed the title of civil 
 governor, as an equipoise to the influence of the 
 Petrovich family, was, soon after the accession 
 of the present Vladika, compelled to depose its 
 pretensions, and he is in every respect autocrat 
 of the Mountain. 
 
 The Vladika is now about thirty-five years of 
 age, and of gigantic stature, probably six feet three 
 or four inches high ; for although I did not see 
 him in Montenegro, I had an opportunity of a 
 short conversation with him subsequently at Spa- 
 lato, when on his return to Montenegro from 
 Vienna. He speaks, besides his own language, 
 French, Italian, and German ; has a great thirst 
 for knowledge, and a great taste for literature ; 
 and, although thrown into political affuirs at a 
 very early age, has acquitted himself with great 
 energy and ability. In 1831, soon after his acces- 
 sion, he created a senate, which was thenceforth not 
 only a council of deliberation, but a court of jus- 
 tice ; and organised a small revenue, which, with 
 nine thousand ducats annually received from Rus- 
 sia, not only covers the annual expense, but en- 
 ables him, it is said, to save a considerable sum 
 against a rainy day. During the distress of 1846 
 he sent several ship-loads of grain, and each family 
 
100 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 received such a supply as, in many instances, pre- 
 served them from starvation. 
 
 In no respect have the humane exertions of the 
 Yladika heen more laudable than in his persever- 
 ing exertions to follow out the views of his uncle 
 relative to the Kerverina, or the vengeance for blood- 
 shed ; and he has seized every remarkable occasion 
 for enforcing upon the people his dying wishes. 
 When the body of the deceased prelate was found 
 intact (no doubt after having been embalmed), he 
 issued to them the following pastoral address : 
 
 "PIOUS POPULATION. 
 
 On the 18th of this month, being St. Luke's 
 day, we have opened the tomb of your and our late 
 Archbishop, and have found his body in a blessed 
 sleep, and in a state of incorrupt preservation. We 
 therefore announce to you this auspicious event, 
 that you may return thanks to Almighty God for 
 it. When alive, he was our defender, and ready 
 to lay down his life for us. Let us hope that, after 
 death, this saint and servant of God will intercede 
 for us his children. Pious Christians, do you re- 
 member his last words, recommending you to live 
 in concord and harmony ? These holy words made 
 a deep impression on you before his sanctification 
 was made manifest ; but now that you see with your 
 own eyes that he is holy and intact, rest assured 
 that the enemy of concord and harmony will find 
 St. Peter (Petrovich) a formidable foe both in this 
 
MONTENEGRINE POLITICS. 
 
 101 
 
 world and the next ; but if any one feel a secret 
 disquietude, in consequence of vindictive feelings, 
 let him seek a reconciliation with the object of his 
 hatred, and he will thus render himself pleasing to 
 God and St. Peter.^ 
 
 "Desiring you all good, I remain, 
 
 " The Bishop of Montenegro and Brdo. 
 
 St. Lukes Day, in Cetigne, 1834." 
 
 But the most singular of all the productions of 
 the yiadika is a tragedy called The Serpent of the 
 Mountain, which he has written on the subject of 
 the massacre and expulsion of the Turks by the 
 first Yiadika Daniel, at the close of the seventeenth 
 century, of which I give a short soliloquy literally 
 translated. 
 
 ** Archbishop Daniel speaks with himself. 
 
 " Satan and seven furies ! there goes the Turk, 
 with torches in each hand, and serpents for his 
 hair ; the Koran inspires him, and the accursed 
 race devastates the whole earth. But for the 
 Franks, he would have possessed all the shores 
 of the Arab Sea. A dream of hell crowned the 
 Ottoman. O Europe, these are sad guests ! 
 Byzantium is no more. She was the inheritance 
 of the young Theodora. The star of black ven- 
 
 ^ The opinions which every Protestant must entertain on the 
 subject of certain matters in this address are so obvious, as to 
 render comment on my part quite unnecessary. 
 
102 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 geance was on the ascendant ; Paleologus called 
 in the Turk to bury Greece and Servia in one 
 tomb ; Gertuco and Brankovich share his guilt. 
 As a flock of birds eat grains, Amurath swallowed 
 Servia, Bajazet Bosnia, Mohammed the Greek 
 Empire, and the two Solomans (sic) Africa and 
 Cyprus ; each took his grains : the great globe 
 itself would be too small for those that are insa- 
 tiable."' 
 
 A literal translation such as this, like a coat 
 worn inside out, may raise a smile ; but I was told 
 by those who have perused the original manuscript, 
 that it abounds in robust language, and in abun- 
 dance of metaphor, that sometimes rises to genius ; 
 though occasionally disfigured with such conceits as 
 were in vogue among our own Elkanah Settles in 
 the seventeenth century. 
 
 At a very early age the Vladika shewed the 
 readiness of his wit in practical affairs. In 1832 
 the lineal descendant and representative of the 
 house of Czernojevich, the Christian princes of 
 Montenegro, was Boushatli Mustapha, hereditary 
 Pasha of Scutari, then in rebellion against the 
 Porte. When he was subdued by the forces of 
 the Sultan, and sent to Constantinople a prisoner, 
 the grand vizier Mehemet Keshid Pasha sum- 
 moned the Vladika to submission, offering to give 
 him, in due form, the Berat, or diploma of the 
 
 ^ For a selection of translations I am indebted to the Abbate 
 Franchesclii of Zara^, one of the best Slaavists in Dalmatia. 
 
MONTENEGRINE POLITICS. 
 
 103 
 
 Sultan. The Vladika, then a youth of twenty, 
 answered laconically, " That so long as Montenegro 
 was independent, a Berat constituting him ruler 
 was useless ; and that if Montenegro were con- 
 quered and subdued, the Berat was a mockery." 
 Eight thousand men, partly regulars, and partly 
 Albanians, were sent to make the Vladika eat in 
 his words ; but the victorious troops that had 
 wrested the pashalic of Scutari from the Mos- 
 lem descendant of Ivan Czernojevich found the 
 subjugation of the fief of his ancestors a hope- 
 less task, and, being easily beaten, abandoned the 
 project. 
 
 But a petty warfare is almost constantly going 
 on on the borders of the Lake of Scutari, and the 
 forays of the mountaineers resemble those of a Rob 
 Roy. Forty or fifty of them surprise cattle, sheep, 
 and fowls ; and Moslem Albanians defending them- 
 selves, the Montenegrine often pays the forfeit 
 of his life. It never strikes the Montenegrine 
 that this is immoral, the taking of the blood of 
 a Moslem being in his eyes not only lawful but 
 laudable ; and a mother will often reproach her 
 laggard son, by contrasting his remaining at home 
 with their father, who killed such and such a num- 
 ber of Turks. The result of this is, that all the 
 debateable land is cultivated by men armed to the 
 teeth ; and, by tacit consent, these savages, who 
 in general spare neither life nor possession, seldom 
 burn standing crops, and respect female chastity. 
 
104 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 But robberies or theft within the Montenegrine 
 territory are rare. When an execution does take 
 place, it has all the singularity of the rest of their 
 manners. Kepresentatives of all the forty tribes 
 assemble with loaded guns, and the criminal, with 
 his hands bound behind him, has a short space to 
 run, when all fire upon him, and he is generally 
 despatched ; but instances have been known of his 
 getting off with a wound. 
 
 The great obstacle to order is the vicinity of 
 several frontiers. The Albanian Christian can 
 take refuge in Montenegro, the Albanian Moslem 
 can take refuge in Herzegovina, which is only 
 nominally under the Porte. The Dalmatian flies 
 into Herzegovina or Montenegro ; and even the 
 Montenegrine, in consequence of the vicinity of 
 Herzegovina and Albania, knows that the govern- 
 ment dare not be very severe with him. A curious 
 conjuncture happened during my stay in those 
 parts. The districts of Piperi and Kooch, which 
 are the most easterly and farthest from the Adri- 
 atic, had, in consequence of the failure of the har- 
 vest of 1846, which was not more than a third of 
 the usual quantity, sent their elders to the Pasha 
 of Scutari, and professed their acknowledgment of 
 the superiority of the Porte. On arrival at Scu- 
 tari, the deputies were invested with red cloaks, 
 and last, not least, received a donative ; but when 
 I talked of the matter with these Cetignotes, they 
 laughed, and said, " Wait till the first good 
 
MONTENEGRINE POLITICS. 
 
 105 
 
 harvest, and you will see that we have not lost, 
 and the Porte has not gained, a single goat's 
 browsing." 
 
 With regard to the southern side of the Moun- 
 tain, which slopes down to Austrian Albania, the 
 Montenegrines desire a port on the Adriatic 
 above all things, as it is so very near; but it is 
 not so easy to intersect a narrow stripe of Austrian 
 territory as to defend the Mountain. Contrary to 
 the better judgment of the Yladika (who is a po- 
 litic man with all his energy, and knows that he 
 cannot simultaneously bid defiance to Austria and 
 the Porte), the mountaineers on the western side 
 attacked the Austrian posts in 1839; and, after 
 several smart skirmishes, the idea of a Monte- 
 negrine port on the Adriatic was at once negatived 
 by an act of delimitation under the mediation of 
 Russia. 
 
 In conclusion, Montenegro has the elements 
 of a rude independence, but not of prosperity, or 
 rapidly progressive civilisation ; wdth a population 
 of little more than one hundred and ten thousand 
 souls, her part must ever remain a subordinate one 
 in the history of the Adriatic. The undisciplined 
 courage, adequate to the defence of their rocks, is 
 incapable of withstanding any regular force beyond 
 the limits of the Mountain ; and the deeds sung by 
 their bards are mere episodes in a barbarous war- 
 fare. Without either fertile plains or^ access to 
 the sea, the humanising influences of commerce 
 
106 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 and agriculture must remain dormant and inope- 
 rative ; but thanks to the two Vladikas, that, with 
 with so slender means, they have accomplished so 
 much, and created some order in a moral chaos. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 RAGUSA. 
 
 9 
 
 The Lake of Scutari and its environs afford ma- 
 terials for an interesting month ; but foreseeing 
 that Eagusa, Spalato, and other parts of the Adri- 
 atic, demanded lengthened and laborious studies, 
 which I wished to complete before the heats of 
 next summer, I judged it safer not to attempt too 
 much, and departed by the next fortnightly steamer 
 from Cattaro to Eagusa. 
 
 Eagusa is situated on the southern side of a 
 small isthmus, but the port is only for the galleys 
 of the middle ages. Half a mile off, on the north- 
 ern side of the isthmus, is the Gulf of Gravosa, 
 which is the port of the vessels of long course. 
 Like Cattaro,, it is a land-locked anchorage, where 
 a fleet of three-deckers are safe from the accidents 
 of the sea. Cattaro is sublime, but Gravosa is 
 beautiful. No towering mountains in the distance, 
 but a steep accidented shore ; along which is scat- 
 tered a profusion of Italian villas, and that peculiar 
 tone of landscape and vegetation which is seen in 
 Gaeta and Castelamare, but which no minuteness 
 
108 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 of description can convey to the fireside traveller. 
 The sun had not yet risen above the mountains, 
 but every object was, from the sharpness of the 
 air, delineated with a most unusual clearness. A 
 keen, cold bora blew from the land, which, from 
 time to time, made a shudder to creep through 
 my frame despite my cloak. The dark blue crystal 
 waters, the red-tiled villas all round, the green 
 ^cypresses and olives shaking and bending with the 
 breeze, and the bare embrowned hills above all, 
 seemed to exhale that rarified atmosphere which 
 one sees above the expiring ashes of charcoal. 
 
 I landed, and getting porters to convey my lug- 
 gage, for no carriage was to be seen, followed them 
 up the narrow valley at the end of the bay by an 
 excellent road, until I arrived at the top of the 
 hill, from which the walls of the venerable Ragusa 
 were clearly visible — but what lofty and solid ma- 
 sonry, having in some places sixty and seventy feet 
 of sheer upright construction ! — and the angle next 
 the land, and overlooked by the hill above, forti- 
 fied by an enormous round tower, a most pic- 
 turesque relic of the interval between the rude 
 middle ages and the modern art of fortification. 
 After entering a ponderous gate, I found myself 
 in the high street of Ragusa, called by themselves 
 Stradone, the like of which is not to be seen in 
 all Dalmatia for width and excellence of its con- 
 struction. Not far from the gate is the hotel 
 Alia Corona, where I got a good room, and was 
 
RAGUSA. 
 
 109 
 
 treated with great civility ; but in all other re- 
 spects it was deficient in the comforts and conve- 
 niences of even a tolerable hotel. Being the only- 
 one in the town, I removed to private lodgings 
 in the house of a respectable widow lady, whose 
 father had, some forty years before, been consul of 
 the Republic of Ragusa at Smyrna. 
 
 After a day devoted to delivering letters and 
 paying visits, I began to look about me. Ragusa 
 is situated upon a narrow space that intervenes 
 between a high chain of hills and the sea ; and 
 standing on the outer side of the city, next the 
 sea, its domes and campaniles, seen against the 
 mountain side, have a most picturesque effect ; 
 but this position causes it to be intolerably hot 
 in midsummer. The space on which the city is 
 built being so small, the houses are lofty, and 
 the streets in general narrow, but clean and well- 
 paved ; and in no city of so small a size have I 
 seen so many elegant edifices congregated together ; 
 so that I felt myself in a charming Italian capital 
 of the second class. Even the Illyrian language, 
 of which, I confess, I know comparatively little, is 
 so soft and musical that the illusion is kept up ; 
 and the only word I quarrel with is the name of 
 the town itself, Dubrovnik, which even the glory 
 cast round it by the native muses cannot reconcile 
 to my ears. All the houses are of solid stone, and 
 of the shops in the streets the only one that struck 
 me was that of an apothecary in the Stradone, 
 
no 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 which was ranged all around with a splendid set 
 of Faenza gallipots of the Cinque Cento, painted 
 in a curious manner, and formerly belonging to 
 the laboratory of the Eector of the Eepublic. The 
 sight of these flowers of art blushing unseen in 
 such an out-of-the-way corner of the world would, 
 if known, set all Wardour Street by the ears. 
 
 The appearance of the population is a complete 
 contrast to that of Cattaro. Several erect old 
 aristocratic-looking figures moving about shew that 
 this city has been long a seat of culture ; and 
 the toilets of the fair part of the creation, with a 
 complete absence of finery, shewed a taste and ele- 
 gance that was unmistakeable, — albeit understood, 
 using the modes of Europe. But in the market- 
 place, at the foot of a high flight of stairs leading 
 up to a Jesuits' church, was a crowd of the pea- 
 santry in the neighbourhood. A tall ruddy-faced 
 man, from Brenno, with red bonnet, loose brown 
 jacket, and wide breeches, with game hung over 
 his shoulder, talks to a dame who holds in her 
 hand a large green cabbage, — a subject for a mo- 
 dern Mieries : he is full of natural ease and po- 
 liteness, and is a complete contrast to the rude 
 Morlack boor whom we saw at Obrovazzo, on our 
 first entrance into Dalmatia. 
 
 In most other towns one gets readily to the 
 open quay ; not so in the wall -girt Bagusa. A 
 single archway opens to the port, where I found 
 only a few vessels of moderate tonnage, in conse- 
 
RAGUSA. 
 
 Ill 
 
 quence of its diminutive size. A fine large traba- 
 colo had just landed a cargo of Newfoundland cod 
 and stock -fish from Trieste for the approaching 
 Greek fasts, and was about to take back the famed 
 oil of Ragusa and the delicious anchovies of the 
 coast for the gourmands of the north. At the 
 entrance of the port, in a niche of the rampart, is 
 the statue of St. Blasius, or San Biagio, as he is 
 called in Italian, the patron saint of Ragusa. Tra- 
 dition says, that, on several occasions, he caught 
 balls sent against the town in the palms of his 
 hands, and sent them back to the enemy. Tem- 
 pests too have been repelled by the same legerde- 
 main. After such feats it will not surprise the 
 reader that Appendini, the chronicler of Ragusa, 
 says, " Nothing can be more reasonable and just 
 than the devotion of the Ragusans to this saint, 
 for his patronage has proved most prompt and 
 efficacious in a thousand private and public cala- 
 mities." 
 
 The Piazza behind the port is, beyond all com- 
 parison, the most attractive part of the town. Ra- 
 gusa is the place where the marriage of Slaavic 
 vigour and Italian elegance has been consummated. 
 The language, the nationality, and the manners of 
 the mass of the people, are Illyrian, but Illyrian 
 conjugated with Italy's happiest moods and tenses 
 of embellishment. Servia and her woods call up 
 little of the past, and the Servian awaits a great 
 futurity. Ragusa, in the seventeenth century, from 
 
112 
 
 CtlAPTER IX. 
 
 her taste, her learning, her science, her wealth, 
 her commerce, and the long roll of illustrious men 
 she produced in every walk of life, earned the title 
 of the Slaavic Athens. Wealth, commerce, science, 
 and population, have melted away, but the outward 
 city still remains to nourish the patriotism of the 
 Eagusan. 
 
 As the Venetian, standing on the Piazzetta of 
 his capital, reads the history of the great Kepublic 
 in the monuments around him, so the concentra- 
 tion of edifices of various styles forming the Piazza 
 of Kagusa records, on an humbler scale of archi- 
 tecture, the glorious antecedents of this meritori- 
 ous Republic. The Dogana, or Custom-house, an 
 extensive pile of Gothic architecture without, and 
 like an Oriental Khan within, carries the mind to 
 the period when the factories of the Republic of 
 Ragusa, with separate and independent jurisdic- 
 tions, were spread over all Turkey in Europe ; 
 when Constantinople was as yet unconquered by 
 Mohammed II. ; when Ragusa, the weak but de- 
 termined opponent of Venice, was in high favour 
 at the court of Adrianople, and boasted those ca- 
 pitulations with the Porte, which were the germs 
 of modern consular jurisdiction. 
 
 There too is the palace of the Rector of the 
 ex-republic, one of those fine edifices on the eve 
 of the Cinque Cento ; those massive Roman arches, 
 those curious middle-aged sculptures, that spirit 
 of Gothic detail haunting the revival of the forms 
 
RAG USA. 
 
 113 
 
 of antiquity, render it a most picturesque and 
 original edifice ; and denote the transition of taste, 
 when the beauties of antique art were perceived 
 and admired, but approached without confidence 
 or experience.^ Here sat the Rector in grave 
 council, or animated debate, received ambassadors, 
 represented the state, and devised those wise mea- 
 sures which preserved this little commonwealth un- 
 scathed by the misfortunes of the surrounding pro- 
 vinces, from the dark ages up to the first years of 
 the present century. 
 
 Under the colonnade of the palace is the great 
 gate of cast bronze, its rivets and knockers the ne 
 plus ultra of florid elaboration ; and beyond the 
 deep shadows of the vaulted entrance is seen the 
 courtyard, with a flood of light falling on a green 
 bronze bust of a figure with a peaked Charles I. 
 beard, in the dress of the earlier part of the seven- 
 teenth century, with the pedestal inscribed : 
 
 MICHAELI PRAZATTO, 
 BENE MERITO CIVI, 
 
 1638. 
 
 He was one of the merchant princes of Eagusa, 
 who left 200,000 gold zechins for charitable uses 
 invested in the bank of San Giorgio in Genoa ; but 
 on looking closer we perceived the skull slightly 
 
 1 This edifice was founded after the conflagration of the old 
 Senate-house in 1435, and completed about the year 1452. 
 
 1 
 
114 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 concave, and another face of the pedestal contain- 
 ing the inscription : 
 
 CONLAPSA MAXIMO TERRAEMOTU 
 
 1667. 
 
 — a forcible memento of the fierce earthquake of 
 that year, which buried all but the strongest edi- 
 fices, and consigned nearly half of the population 
 of the city to destruction. 
 
 Beside the palace is one of those architectural 
 incidents which abound in Italy, but are rarely 
 seen in the imitative countries of the north of 
 Europe, where the greater efibrts of southern art 
 are alone copied. The guard-house presents a lofty 
 portal, flanked with columns, and in the centre of 
 the pediment is the colossal head of Orlando, in 
 casque and plume, frowning over all the Piazza. 
 Above is the Torre del Orologio, or belfry, crowned 
 with an open cupola ; and by a mechanical device 
 two bronze figures, the size of life, armed cap a pie, 
 strike the bell with maces at the evolution of each 
 hour. Such coignes of fancy shew that art in 
 Eagusa came from within, as well as from without. 
 
 Inferior in architectural interest is the cathe- 
 dral built after the earthquake, in what the 
 northerns call the style of Louis Quatorze, which, 
 like the political and military genius of the mon- 
 arch, was grandiose when employed with the 
 magnitude of regal resources, but viewed in the 
 abstract, and applied on a small scale, rose little 
 
RAGUSA. 
 
 115 
 
 higher than respectable mediocrity. But the his- 
 tory of the original foundation of the edifice had 
 to me an unexpected interest in its connexion with 
 the fate and fortunes of the lion-hearted Richard 
 of England. On the island of Chroma, opposite 
 the town, Eichard was shipwrecked on his return 
 from the Holy Land. A church was begun from 
 the funds which he endowed, out of gratitude for 
 his deliverance, which, augmented in time, with- 
 stood the elements for five centuries, but suc- 
 cumbed in that dread hour when mountains were 
 shaken to their foundations. 
 
 General Reich e, then commanding in Ragusa, 
 having had the kindness to ask his Platz Lieu- 
 tenant to shew me round the walls and military 
 establishments, I went next morning to his office, 
 and found an intelligent middle-aged man writing 
 at a desk in a well -warmed room. Germans 
 from the north of the Alps keep themselves too 
 well heated for an English taste ; but, on the other 
 hand, nowhere did I ever suffer so much from 
 cold as in these two first days in Ragusa. No 
 room in the hotel had a fireplace 5 but according 
 to the custom of the town, I dressed myself in the 
 Ragusa manner, shivering with cold ; for although 
 the thermometer was below zero, the only source 
 of heat was a miserable earthenware pot of char- 
 coal, which warmed only my hands. In this office 
 the heat was up to seventy-five Fahrenheit at least. 
 For a moderate climate such as that of Ragusa, 
 
116 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 our open English fires would be preferable to this 
 intense German heat. 
 
 Accompanied by a sergeant carrying a great 
 bunch of keys, we now began our journey in cold 
 clear sunshine, and about a hundred yards off, the 
 man opening a door in the wall, we entered and 
 went up a high flight of steps, and then another 
 flight, and then another, and at length stood on 
 the parapet. The walls of Eagusa have no resem- 
 blance to a modern fortification, with bastions and 
 fosses making a mathematical figure ; but are those 
 of a rock -built city, being of enormous height, 
 thickness, and solidity, rising irregularly, from the 
 irregularities of the locality, interspersed with great 
 towers, and looking just like one of those cities one 
 sees in the prints of old Bibles. Looking over 
 the rampart, I saw the sea playing against the base 
 of the rock ; looking outwards, I saw the clear 
 expanse of the Adriatic in the intensest of blue, 
 the bare bold promontories of the coast to the 
 south and the north jutting into the sea, and the 
 intervening recesses filled with vegetation. If I 
 turned from the sea to the town at my feet, I saw 
 an irregular surface of reddish -tiled and yellow- 
 walled houses, with green Venetian blinds, from 
 out of which rose a couple of blue lead cupolas, 
 and the edifices of the Piazza. The lieutenant 
 was for walking on, but I stopped a moment ; the 
 music of the murmuring waters, the painting of 
 the line of coast, and the architecture of the town. 
 
RAGUSA. 
 
 117 
 
 formed such a union, that if a thousand troubles 
 had infested my brain, so fair a prospect must have 
 beaten them off. 
 
 We now continued the tour of the walls, the 
 sea far below us on our left, and the streets of the 
 town also far below us on our right ; but soon we 
 came to a large building on an elevation within 
 the walls, no longer below us, but on the same 
 level : this was the barracks, containing 1200 Hun- 
 garians, the garrison of the town ; so we entered to 
 see the establishment. A thin cake of ice was on 
 a little pool in the courtyard, which, from the 
 high building, the sun could not reach, and the 
 sergeant said that it was the first that had been 
 seen for twelve years, which speaks for the mild- 
 ness of the climate. Ascending a wide white- 
 washed staircase, we came to the barrack-room, a 
 long gallery, furnished on each side with beds, 
 above each of which was a shelf containing the 
 knapsack, the hat, and the odds and ends of the 
 soldier, and in the middle was a long black board 
 for teaching reading and writing. It was the din- 
 ner-hour, and I had, just before entering, seen 
 across the roofs of the houses the two mechanical 
 figures in bronze strike their hammers twelve times 
 on the bell of the Torre del Orologio, announcing 
 the hour of mid-day. Each man had a basin of 
 soup, a plate of boiled beef and vegetables, and 
 his loaf of bread ; and on tasting the soup, I pro- 
 nounced it sufficiently strong and nourishing. The 
 
118 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 pay of the Austrian soldier is only twopence per 
 day ; so that he can indulge in no disorders, but 
 almost all he needs is found him. How much 
 better it would be with the British soldier, if he 
 had less money for drink, and the difference made 
 up in healthy comforts ! 
 
 When we went down stairs we found ourselves 
 on the rampart again, and, ascending an outside 
 flight of steps, I saw some red jackets hanging out 
 to be aired on the wall, and some uncouth dark- 
 looking men in undress standing about. The uni- 
 form of the Hungarian regiment being white, with 
 sky-blue light trousers, I asked what these red 
 ones could be, and was informed that they belonged 
 to the men I saw, who were the gypsy musicians 
 of the regiment; so I entered into conversation with 
 the sergeant about them, and he told me in answer 
 to a question, that if they had any religion of their 
 own, they must keep it a secret, for they are 
 entered as Catholics, and attend Mass with the 
 other soldiers. Their talent and aptitude for music 
 is unquestionable ; and before I left Ragusa I spent 
 a most agreeable hour at the lodgings of the officer 
 who takes charge of the music here, — for the regu- 
 lar band of the regiment, consisting of forty per- 
 formers, was at Zara, and this was only a subordi- 
 nate division, — but although they played several 
 opera airs, it was evident that their favourite style 
 was the waltz. 
 
 Continuing our walk, we now went down, inside 
 
RAGUSA. 
 
 119 
 
 a long flight of steps, to the level of the town, and 
 entered the canteen, in which were two soldiers 
 drinking heer. A tall Moll Flagon looking woman 
 was standing at the counter, with bottles, glasses, 
 keys, and stores of pipe -clay, which shewed that 
 that article came out of the twopence a day. The 
 woman looked alarmed at seeing an officer and a 
 stranger enter with the two sergeants with keys 
 (for the other one carried the keys of the prison), 
 and the two poor men drinking their beer were 
 equally flurried, and, rising up, stood mechanically 
 in a row, as if about to be marched off^ handcuffed ; 
 but it was soon seen that our motive was curiosity. 
 From the canteen we went to the barrack-prison, 
 which was a dark apartment, and as we entered 
 found the prisoners plucking sparrows for dinner, 
 with all the feathers scattered on the floor. They 
 were fourteen in number, and stood up in a row, 
 some fettered, and some not ; as the garrison 
 was altogether 1400 strong, the prisoners formed 
 one per cent ; the usual offences being petty thefts 
 from their comrades, and insolence to their supe- 
 riors. The rest of our promenade offered no cir- 
 cumstance worthy of a notice. 
 
 The environs of Kagusa are interesting ; and a 
 few nights after the promenade which I have de- 
 scribed, while the moon was shining with unwonted 
 brightness, three Ragusans entered my room, — Don 
 Marco K., Signor R., and Signor B. 
 
 " We have our renowned Kagusan moonlight," 
 
120 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 said the first of these gentlemen, ** which you will 
 find neither in Venice, in Rome, nor in Milan ; 
 and we propose to take you a turn up the hill to 
 shew you the town under a new aspect." These 
 worthy gentlemen having heard so much of the 
 fogs of England, thought to procure me a moon- 
 light view such as I never had seen before, so I 
 thankfully accepted; but, in good truth, I believe 
 there is nothing in the world comparable to the 
 mosque of Moyoed in Cairo, when seen by the light 
 of the full moon. 
 
 As we went out at the northern gate we found 
 ourselves in the alley of trees, gently ascending to 
 a rising ground that juts out from the line of moun- 
 tains behind the town, and, after a short way, we 
 turned to the right, up a narrow lane, enclosed by 
 high garden-walls, and then, ascending some broken 
 steps, found ourselves on the brow of the mount, 
 from which we overlooked the town and environs, 
 — a strange picturesque confusion of towers, cu- 
 polas, and housetops, rising in their pale green 
 high lights and impenetrable shadows. A wall 
 had partly concealed the view in the other direc- 
 tion, and, to my surprise, on proceeding a little * 
 farther along the pathway, I saw before me such 
 a noble villa as one might behold in the environs 
 of Rome. Above the basement were the large 
 Palladian windows of the Gran Piano, and a great 
 alcove was paved with slabs of marble ; but the 
 interior was a complete ruin : hemlock and night- 
 
RAGUSA. 
 
 121 
 
 shade grew where nobles and senators had feasted, 
 the spacious tesselated terraces overlooked a garden 
 choked with weeds, around which pillars of a By- 
 zantine style of architecture supported the rotten 
 trellis of a shady walk ; confusion and desola- 
 tion were all around. Farther on, another villa 
 told the same tale of taste and elegance that had 
 passed away : arbours, terraces, kiosks, marble 
 pavements, sculptures, all wreck and ruin. At 
 first I thought I was in the midst of the havoc 
 of the great earthquake ; but as every wall was 
 standing, and every cornice without even a gutta 
 awanting, I found that this was the Pille, the town 
 of ruins, — the mountain slope, on which every great 
 family of Ragusa had a summer villa, — which was 
 destroyed by the Montenegrines in 1806, and 
 shewed, on a small scale, in what way the great 
 Roman empire must have fared at the hands of 
 Hun, Goth, and Vandal. 
 
 While these gentlemen conversed of various 
 landmarks in the history of Ragusa previous to 
 this catastrophe, I listened with silent interest to 
 every word that fell;^ — the solemn hour, and the 
 desolate scene, the silver beams of the moon, and 
 the charming current of discourse, suffused a pleas- 
 ing melancholy over the mind never to be forgotten ; 
 and, more than all that I had seen, stimulated me 
 to inquire into the past history of this interesting 
 Republic. The following rough sketch is the result 
 of an eager perusal of the native historians. 
 
CHAPTEE X. 
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF RAGUSA. 
 
 The exact year of the foundation of Ragusa is 
 obscure, but it is probably between the years 639 
 and 656, the first of these being marked by a par- 
 tial destruction of the neighbouring Epidaurus by 
 the Avars, and the second by the total ruin of this 
 city by the Croats. Thus we begin with an analogy 
 to Venice. Roman fugitives seek refuge in a rock 
 separated from the mainland by a narrow passage.^ 
 The men of Padua fly from the Tartar Attila ; and 
 the men of Epidaurus, two hundred years later, 
 fly from the Avars and the Croats. Croat, a dia- 
 lect of the Slaavic language, became the language 
 of the new colony in the course of time ; but as no 
 man in Britain can tell in what proportion his 
 blood belongs to the races that have successively 
 conquered or been conquered, so no man in Ragusa 
 can remount to a Roman or a Carpathian origin.^ 
 
 1 In Ragusa the space between the island and the mainland 
 must have been a very narrow one, for it was entirely filled up, 
 and is now built upon. 
 
 2 Sarmatian, Syrmian, Serbian, Servian, are all different 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF RAGUSA. 
 
 123 
 
 The Croats, conquering the Romans, are in turn 
 subdued by Christianity, and these barbarians oc- 
 cupying all the interior of the country, the ani- 
 mosity between them and the Romans abated after 
 their pacific settlement, and Ragusa became one of 
 innumerable municipalities into which the shattered 
 fragments of the empire reconstituted themselves 
 on the coast ; while freedom, and the security of an 
 insular rock, create commerce. So far the parallel 
 holds with Venice ; but while a large part of the 
 level terra Jirma of Roman Italy was in time sub- 
 jugated to the men of the Lagoon, the precipitous 
 steeps and fierce bravery of the inhabitants cir- 
 cumscribed the territory of Ragusa to a few leagues 
 of the coast. 
 
 The chosen protectors of the city were Saints 
 Sergius and Bacchus ; but a curious incident in 
 the fortunes of the city caused them to change it 
 to Saint Blasius, or San Biagio. 
 
 The Venetians, in 791, frequented these seas 
 for the purpose of rooting out the pirates of the 
 neighbouring Narenta, who infested the Adriatic, 
 and coveting the security and convenience of the 
 position of Ragusa, sought to subjugate it to their 
 authority ; but its strength being beyond their force, 
 
 forms of the same word, of which the root seems to be Serb 
 or Serp. Croat, or Chrobat, is derived from Crapat, the name 
 of the mountainous region between the present Hungary and 
 Poland, which still, bears the name of Carpathian in the western 
 dialects of Europe. 
 
124 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 they attempted its possession by stratagem. A 
 numerous fleet of galleys was seen from the towers 
 of Eagusa coming from the north, the alarm passed 
 from battlement to battlement, and the town was in 
 a state of readiness : but while a part of the fleet 
 anchored in Gravosa, to the north of the island on 
 which Ragusa was built, the other drew up under 
 the island of La Chroma to the south ; and the 
 Venetian commander, landing with his officers in 
 a pacific manner, gave out that he was bound for 
 the seas of the Levant, and only wanted water and 
 provisions. Suspicion was allayed, the Venetians 
 went and came between the north gate leading to 
 Gravosa, and the south gate opening on the small 
 port ; but a priest named Stoico, having by some 
 means overheard, or got intelligence of, the design 
 of the Venetians to assault the town in the dead 
 of the following night, gave information to the 
 Government ; and no sooner were the gates closed 
 at sunset, than every Kagusan was at his post, and 
 the attack awaited with breathless expectation. 
 The first hour of the night passed without alarm ; 
 but after midnight the warder on the tower above 
 the Postierna perceived the galleys at the island 
 getting under weigh, and suddenly bearing up to 
 the southern port. Scarcely was the alarm passed, 
 and preparation made to receive them, when a large 
 body of the men of the other fleet in Gravosa sud- 
 denly landed, and silently ascending the steep hill 
 to the north of Ragusa, expected to scale the walls 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF RAGUSA. 
 
 125 
 
 and enter the city ; but what was their surprise, on 
 reaching the brow of the hill, to find themselves 
 vigorously assaulted by a large body of Eagusans, 
 and driven down the hill to the boats with great 
 slaughter. The diversion to the north having com- 
 pletely failed, the Eagusans re-entered the city, 
 and found that the Venetians, dismayed at seeing 
 all the southern wall lined with armed men, who 
 poured a torrent of stones and heavy beams on the 
 assailants, had, struck with a panic, retired to their 
 galleys. Indescribable was the joy of the Eagusans, 
 as dawn crimsoned the peaks of Yellebitch, to see 
 the discomfited galleys bearing out to the Adri- 
 atic. 
 
 The priest, to draw the veil of mystery over the 
 dubious means by which he had got intelligence of 
 the design, declared that it had been revealed to 
 him by St. Blasius ; and, warm emotions of gra- 
 titude mingling with the superstition of the age, 
 Blasius was declared the protector and advocate of 
 the city. 
 
 Eagusa still nominally belonged to the Greek 
 empire ; for although the court of Constantinople 
 was too feeble to rule them directly, yet the great 
 anxiety to escape from the domination of Venice 
 kept up amicable relations with Constantinople. 
 In the year 1001 we find a treaty of peace and 
 friendship made between Venice and Eagusa, by 
 which the Venetians were annually to give the 
 Eagusans fourteen yards of scarlet cloth, and an 
 
126 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 armed galley, in token of perpetual amity, and the 
 Kagusans to return the compliment with two white 
 horses, three barrels of Ribola wine, and an armed 
 galley. 
 
 From this treaty the prosperity of Kagusa may 
 be dated ; and while Venice rose to the commerce 
 of the Eastern world, Ragusa became the em- 
 porium of the Slaavic countries to the north and 
 the south of the Balkan. A citizen of the name 
 of Gozze now founded the Patrician order of the 
 city as at present constituted. Talent and popu- 
 larity distinguished his youth ; authority exercised 
 his manhood ; jealousy, the ingratitude of those 
 whom he fostered, and exclusion from power, em- 
 bittered his age ; hence the laconic and affecting 
 heraldic motto which is seen on the arms of his 
 descendants to this very day, Constituit, rexif, luget; 
 " he founded, he ruled, and he grieves." The terri- 
 tory of Ragusa had been hitherto confined to their 
 rock ; but Stephen, king of Dalmatia in 1050, 
 going to the church of St. Stephen's within the 
 town, to fulfil a vow made during a grievous sick- 
 ness, was received with great honour, and made a 
 donation to the Ragusans of twenty-two miles of 
 coast, including the delicious valleys of Breno and 
 Ombla. 
 
 But those idyllian landscapes conferred no mili- 
 tary or political power ; and we find in the subse- 
 quent part of the history of Ragusa that it was by 
 a skilful diplomacy and politic alliances that they 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF RAGUSA. 
 
 1^7 
 
 sought to redress the balance of territorial disad- 
 vantage, and avert the domination of Venice, which, 
 without military occupation, persisted in asserting 
 a right of sovereignty, — a claim preferred by the 
 Venetian, and repelled by the Ragusan historians 
 for the last three centuries. So early as 1370 we 
 find the Kagusans seeking the alliance of the 
 Turks, now advanced from the slopes of the 
 Altai to the Sea of Marmora. Their ambassadors 
 were graciously received at Broussa; for five hun- 
 dred zechins a year Orchan promised them every 
 commercial privilege and protection; and this early 
 recurrence to the Grand Turk laid the foundation 
 of those relations which subsequently preserved 
 Ragusa from the fate of Servia and Albania, and 
 equally assured her against dependence on Venice, 
 when fire, sword, and the Koran, were carried over 
 all the lands of Illvria. 
 
 But she had many moments of dark doubt and 
 uncertainty. Mohammed II., after the conquest 
 of Constantinople, the kingdom of Bosnia, and the 
 neighbouring provinces, turned towards the Adri- 
 atic, and, unmindful of the ancient treaties between 
 his ancestors and Ragusa, demanded possession of 
 all the territory except the mere city. Terror 
 and apprehension spread through all ranks ; but 
 the Council prudently got out of the dilemma, 
 by stating that they were resolved to place the 
 territory at his disposition, and at the same time 
 to consign the city to the King of Hungary. An 
 
128 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 answer sagaciously calculated to the point of pos- 
 sibility, diverted the conqueror of Constantinople 
 from his design ; and the fear of a Hungarian thorn 
 in the side of his newly acquired kingdom, relieved 
 Ragusa, which henceforth became the asylum of 
 all the disinherited nobles and princes of the sur- 
 rounding provinces who refused to embrace Islam- 
 ism. But with the multitude it was not the dex- 
 terity of the Council, or the politic moderation of 
 Mohammed II., that had saved the city, but the 
 quiet interposition of St. Blasius, who, standing 
 before the horse of the Turk, caused it three times 
 to stumble, and, warned by the omen, the con- 
 queror desisted from his invasion. 
 
 The wars which the Venetians in the next two 
 centuries carried on with the Turks greatly in- 
 creased the trade of the neutral Eagusa ; and in the 
 middle of the seventeenth century she had reached 
 the apex of her wealth and splendour : her ships 
 swarmed in the Mediterranean, and innumerable 
 charitable institutions, and magnificent endowments 
 to the Church, the nobles, and the plebeian confra- 
 ternities of St. Lazarus, attest her great wealth ; 
 and while Venice devoted herself to the arts of 
 painting and architecture, her humbler neighbour 
 shone in the realms of literature with a splendour 
 which the lapse of two centuries has little abated. 
 
 But in the midst of honour without, and con- 
 tent and prosperity within, a tremendous catas- 
 trophe covered with destruction this devoted city. 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF RAGUSA. 129 
 
 At half-past eight o'clock on the morning of the 
 sixth of April, I667, a violent shock of earthquake 
 threw down all but the most solid houses, and in 
 an instant six thousand persons, or one-fifth of the 
 whole population of the town, was buried in the 
 ruins. The sea was so violently agitated that 
 vessels anchored in deep water knocked their keels 
 against the ground, and several of the lofty cliffs 
 around Ragusa were split up from top to bottom. 
 The Rector, or President of the Republic, Simon 
 Ghetaldi, and several other senators, were waiting, 
 and just about to commence the sittings of the 
 Council, when they were engulphed, as was also 
 an unhappy Dutch ambassador, with a suite of 
 thirty persons, on his way to the court of Con- 
 stantinople, whither he was accredited. A whole 
 seminary of children was enveloped in the ruins, 
 and one of the persons extricated in a wounded 
 condition describes their heartrending cries for 
 water ; complaints unheard, and unrelieved, by 
 those above ground. The Archbishop being on 
 the first floor of his house, with great presence 
 of mind leapt out of the window, and got off* 
 with a sprained foot, and limping to Gravosa, 
 found the road all covered with masses of rock 
 thrown down from the mountain above. Even 
 in my own walks to the south of Ragusa, a thick 
 solid mass of wall, which held together in its pros- 
 trate state, and hung just over a steep declivity, 
 made such an impression on me, after reading the 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 detailed accounts of this calamity, that my mind at 
 once reverted to the sublime image of Mohammed, 
 And what shall make thee understand how terri- 
 ble the striking will be : on that day men shall be 
 like moths scattered abroad, and the mountains 
 shall become like carded wool of various colours 
 driven by the wind." 
 
 Fire and rapine added to the disorder ; for as 
 the earthquake took place in the morning, many 
 fires were lighted to prepare the mid-day meal, and 
 while many were extinguished in the crash of 
 superincumbent walls, others by ventilation, and 
 contact with timbers, caused an extensive confla- 
 gration, and the exertions to prevent the fire from 
 approaching the three powder-magazines, delayed 
 the excavation of human beings. To add to the 
 distress of the unhappy city, the Morlacks of the 
 surrounding country, unappalled by the calamity, 
 commenced an indiscriminate plunder of all valu- 
 ables ; but through the determined energy of two 
 men, Nicola Bona and Marino Caboga, order was 
 restored, and the peasants terrified ; and even on 
 the third day some human beings were extricated 
 alive from the ruins. 
 
 The life of Marino Caboga is one of the most 
 romantic that can well be imagined. Born in 
 1630, he was educated in Ragusa, but spent his 
 youth in thoughtless dissipation ; till, discovering 
 the malversation of his funds by a relation in 
 whom he had too readily confided, a law -suit 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF RAGUSA. 
 
 131 
 
 which followed was pleaded before the Senate, in 
 which the law-suits of the nobles were decided. 
 His relation, to make up his cause, reproached 
 Caboga with his disorderly life, and threw doubts 
 on his honour. In the youthful fire of five-and- 
 twenty Caboga drew his sword and stabbed his 
 aspersor dead on the spot, and a hasty flight to 
 the asylum of the Franciscan church saved his 
 life, but not his liberty. Confined for life in the 
 prison of the state, his only companion was a 
 Latin Bible ; and verses written by his own hand, 
 expressive of the most profound penitence, were 
 seen for years afterwards on the walls. In the 
 earthquake the solidity of his prison was his pre- 
 servation, but the door was completely blocked up, 
 and with great presence of mind he stripped off his 
 shirt, and putting it on the point of a stick, in- 
 serted it through the bars as a signal, and was 
 liberated. In the confusion of the scene he might 
 have escaped, but he devoted himself to extricate 
 the living and dying, and displayed such an energy 
 in restraining the plundering Morlacks, and driv- 
 ing them by force out of the city, that on the third 
 day he presented himself to the remnant of the 
 Council in their deliberations, with feelings alter- 
 nating between doubt and hope. No sooner had 
 he, with a penitent look, presented himself at the 
 Raveline, when a senator pronouncing him dis- 
 honoured and incapable of sitting, he was about 
 to retrace his steps ; but the common calamity had 
 
132 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 softened all hearts, and approbation of his services 
 was declared by a majority of those present, who 
 readmitted him to his rank and honours. 
 
 The severe school of adversity formed Caboga, 
 and in the solitude of prison he had stored up the 
 temperament which leads to great things — that 
 diffidence of prosperity which makes a man ask 
 his inmost self when the wheel will turn, and that 
 indifference to difficulty and opposition, which has 
 caused some to call patience the highest effort of 
 courage. For ten years he laboured unremittingly 
 in the reconstruction of the city, and the repair of 
 the tattered elements of social order. All Europe 
 expressed sympathy with the Ragusans for their 
 losses ; but on the rapid restoration of the city 
 through the exertions of Caboga, the Grand Vizier 
 of the Ottoman empire, Cara Mustapha, a deadly 
 hater of all Christians, expressed the utmost jea- 
 lousy and displeasure, and setting aside the capitu- 
 lations of Ragusa with the Porte, sent a claim for 
 35,000 dollars of customs revenue, on the pretence 
 of Ragusa having been an integral part of the im- 
 mediate dominions of the Porte, as a pretext for 
 the annexation of the city to the empire. 
 
 On the 8th of August, I677, Caboga arrived 
 at Constantinople, to attempt the aversion of the 
 storm that was menacing his native land. The 
 Grand Vizier, struck with the capacity he shewed 
 in the arts of persuasion, and acquainted with his 
 resources in active life, resolved to deprive his 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF RAGUSA. 
 
 133 
 
 country of so able a head and hand, and on the 
 13th of December following he was thrown into 
 prison, where he remained several years, having 
 languished out the latter part of the time in the 
 dungeons of Baba lafar, lying on the humid 
 ground. When asked if he consented to make a 
 transfer of Ragusa to the Porte, he boldly answered 
 that he was sent to serve, and not to betray his 
 country and through the means of a Jew he 
 secretly wrote to the Senate, animating them to 
 hold out to the last, and, regardless of his own 
 fate, expressing his only anxiety that his young 
 children should receive a sound religious educa- 
 tion. Cara Mustapha meanwhile, in 1683, went 
 to thunder at the gates of Vienna with 300,000 
 men ; but while Caboga sat in the dungeons of 
 Constantinople, Stahrenberg in Vienna saw, from 
 the high tower of St. Stephen's, the legions of Po- 
 land led by the gallant Sobieski, approaching to 
 relieve the city. Germany was saved, Cara Mus- 
 tapha, the enemy of Eagusa, defeated, and soon 
 after beheaded ; and Caboga, being liberated, re- 
 turned to Kagusa. As he approached the city, 
 every knoll, villa, and house-top, was covered with 
 an admiring, almost adoring people ; every bell in 
 Eagusa rang a merry peal, and the Eector and 
 Senate, in full robes, went out of the city to give 
 a cordial welcome to the wonderful Marino Ca- 
 boga. His lineal descendant and representative. 
 Count Bernard Caboga, is, while I write, a distin- 
 
134 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 guished officer, and high in the Austrian army, 
 having attained the rank of Feld-marechal Lieu- 
 tenant ; and to this very day, the letters of Marino 
 Cahoga, the spontaneous effusions of a warm heart, 
 have a value in the eyes of his family which sur- 
 passes that of all treasures of art or wealth. 
 
 When the earthquake took place, and the Eec- 
 tor, with many of the Senators, were swallowed up 
 in the ruins, necessity obliged the exclusive no- 
 bility of Ragusa to make room for a certain num- 
 ber of persons in possession of simple citizenship 
 in the ranks of the Senate ; but so extravagant was 
 the aristocratic spirit, that up to the period of the 
 fall of the Eepublic in our own century, the dis- 
 tinction between the nobility whose patents dated 
 before and after I667, was always kept up by ex- 
 clusive marriages, the parties taking their names 
 from the pretensions of the universities of Spain 
 and France, the old nobility calling themselves 
 Salamanchese, and denominating the new sena- 
 torial families Sorbonnese. 
 
 The first Council of the Eepublic was called 
 the Gran Consiglio, or Consiglio Maggiore, con- 
 sisting of all the nobles that had completed their 
 eighteenth year ; their characters being registered 
 in a book called Specchio, or the Mirror. The 
 sovereignty resided in them, the President of the 
 Eepublic bearing the name of Eector, but holding 
 his office only a month at a time, from the fear of 
 hereditary or dictatorial power ; nevertheless in 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF RAGUSA. 
 
 135 
 
 practice it often happened that an individual, from 
 his talents and influence, while never omitting the 
 formality of election, virtually exercised the supreme 
 power the greater part of his life. 
 
 The legislative body was the second Council or 
 Senate, of forty-five members, composed principally 
 of the superior magistrates and officers of the go- 
 vernment, who had also some of the functions of 
 an executive body, such as the nomination of am- 
 bassadors and consuls by election. 
 
 The third Council was the Consiglio Minore, 
 composed of seven senators and the Eector, and was 
 the really working committee for the despatch of 
 business ; thus, the features of the Ragusan con- 
 stitution were a sovereign constituent assembly, a 
 legislative senate, and a minor council executive 
 of the orders of the senate. The Rector lived 
 during the month in the palace with princely 
 pomp ; his habitual dress was of red silk, with a 
 black stole over the left shoulder ; and the nobles 
 up to the end of the eighteenth century wore black 
 gowns and wigs. They possessed nearly all the 
 land, the most lucrative offices, and the control of 
 large funds which had been bequeathed by patriotic 
 and charitable individuals for useful or charitable 
 purposes j and as the ' misera contribuens plebs' had 
 no voice in state aflFairs, each patrician had, like 
 those of Rome, a long suite of clients and depend- 
 ents, whom they protected for pecuniary considera- 
 tions. 
 
136 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The first years of the French war were in recent 
 times the most prosperous for Kagusa. The flag 
 of San Biagio being neutral, the Eepublic became 
 one of the chief carriers of the Mediterranean. 
 The Continental blockade was the life of Ragusa ; 
 and before the rise of Lissa the manufactures of 
 England, excluded from the ports of France, Italy, 
 Holland, and Germany, found their way to the 
 centre of Europe through Saloniki and Kagusa. 
 But this state, which had managed the Turks so 
 skilfully, which had survived the Greek and Ser- 
 vian empires as well as the Republic of Venice, 
 was unable to stand upright in the terrible contest 
 which included the extremities of Europe in its 
 sphere. The philanthropic republicans of France 
 ofi^red to fraternise with all other republics ; and 
 we shall see that Napoleon, with the Imperial 
 Crown on his head, did not despise the small Re- 
 public of Ragusa. 
 
 The battle of Austerlitz, and the consequent 
 treaty of Presburg, having compelled Austria to 
 hand over Dalmatia to France, Ragusa was put 
 in a novel dilemma. Cattaro held by the Vene- 
 tians against the Turks, was always accessible to 
 Venice, which was a naval power. But while 
 France held the land, England and Russia held 
 the sea ; and while France was marching her 
 troops from Austerlitz to Dalmatia, eleven Russian 
 sail of the line entered the Bocca di Cattaro, and 
 landed 6000 men. As 5000 Frenchmen under 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF RAGUSA. 
 
 187 
 
 Marshal Molitor marched southwards, and took 
 pacific possession, one after another, of the for- 
 tresses of Dalmatia, the Eussians pressed the sena- 
 tors of Ragusa to allow them to occupy their city, 
 as it was an important fortress, — thus anticipa- 
 ting France might block the further progress to 
 Cattaro, as the reader will see by an examination 
 of the map that there is no way from Dalmatia to 
 Cattaro but through Ragusa. Marshal Molitor 
 was equally abundant in friendly professions, press- 
 ing instances, and solemn pledges, to respect the 
 integrity of the Republic, in his passage to Cat- 
 taro. Ragusa felt herself without the power of 
 causing her neutrality to be respected, and long 
 and anxious were the debates that ensued. 
 
 " Dear as this land is to me," said Count John 
 Caboga, " consecrated as it is to our affections by 
 its venerable institutions, its wise laws, and the 
 memory of illustrious ancestors, it will henceforth 
 cease to deserve the name of patria^ if its indepen- 
 dence be subverted. With our large fleet of mer- 
 chantmen, let us embark our wives and our chil- 
 dren, our state treasures and our laws, and ask of 
 the Sultan an island in the Archipelago, which 
 may become a new Epidaurus^ and the sanctuary 
 of our time-honoured institutions." 
 
 Serious as the dilemma was, the senators were 
 unprepared for so desperate a remedy. A large ma- 
 jority were for opening the gates to Russia \ but the 
 echos of Austerlitz had scarce died away, and such 
 
138 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 an act would have at once exposed them to the 
 vengeance of Napoleon, then in the zenith of his 
 lawless ambition and military power. So the occu- 
 pation of the city was assigned to the French under 
 General Lauriston. No sooner did this take place 
 than the Russian force moved to the siege of the 
 city, and unhappily for Eagusa a barbarous and 
 undisciplined horde of Montenegrines accompanied 
 the regular Russian troops ; and such a scene of 
 horror had not been seen since the Huns and the 
 Avars swept round Aquileia. The environs were 
 studded thickly with villas, the results of a long 
 prosperity; and the inhuman scenes of rapine with 
 which the wars of the Montenegrines with the 
 Turks were accompanied were transferred to these 
 abodes of ease and luxury. Accustomed to the 
 poverty of their own mountains, these invaders 
 could scarce believe their own eyes when, passing 
 Ragusa Vecchia, the smiling villas and well-filled 
 store-houses of Breno Ombla and Pille were pre- 
 sented to their cupidity, and the siege of Ragusa 
 commenced by the burning and plundering of the 
 villas, involving the irretrievable loss of above half 
 a million sterling. 
 
 The city was in the utmost straits ; General 
 Molitor, who had advanced within a few days' 
 march of Ragusa, made an appeal to the Dalma- 
 tians to rise and expel the Russians and Monte- 
 negrines, which met with a feeble response, for 
 only three hundred men joined his standard ; but 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF RAGUSA. 
 
 139 
 
 a stratagem made up for his deficiency of numbers. 
 A letter, seemingly confidential, was despatched to 
 General Lauriston in Ragusa, announcing his proxi- 
 mate arrival to raise the siege with such a fopce 
 of Dalmatians as must overwhelm Russians and 
 Montenegrines ; which letter was, as intended by 
 Molitor, intercepted and believed by the besieging 
 Russians. With his force thinly scattered, to 
 make up a shew, Molitor now advanced towards 
 Ragusa, and turning the - Montenegrine position 
 in the valley behind, threatened to surround the 
 Russians who occupied the summit of the hill be- 
 tween him and the city ; but seeing the risk of this, 
 the Russians retreated back towards the Bocca di 
 Cattaro, and the city was relieved. 
 
 The French, reinforced by 4000 pr 5000 men, 
 were now commanded in chief by General Mar- 
 mont, the newly appointed civil and military Go- 
 vernor of Dalmatia, who, with 9000 sabres and 
 bayonets, boldly advanced to the gulf of Cattaro, 
 and, defeating the Russians and Montenegrines 
 again at the Sutorina with great loss, and the 
 battle of Friedland taking place in 1807, followed 
 by the treaty of Tilsit, France was left in undis- 
 puted possession of the coast, as we have already 
 stated under the head of Cattaro. 
 
 Freed from Russians and Montenegrines, Na- 
 poleon soon forgot the pledges of neutrality given 
 by his lieutenants; and in January, 1808, as the 
 senators met, an adjutant of General Marmont 
 
140 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 announced to them that the independence of Ra- 
 gusa had ceased to exist, and that all administra- 
 tive functions had devolved on the French com- 
 mander. Thus ended the Republic of Ragusa : 
 after a municipal existence that filled up the whole 
 period from the fall of the empire of the West to 
 the nineteenth century ; and a virtual independence 
 that, in spite of conflicting claims for nominal 
 superiority by the Byzantine Caesars and the Ve- 
 netian Republic, had been preserved in the same 
 political forms for eight centuries. But an aveng- 
 ing fate soon spoiled the spoiler ; and of Napoleon 
 in St. Helena the Ragusan might say, as of the 
 first Gozze, constituit, rexit, luget. 
 
CHAPTEE XL 
 
 RAGUSAN MANNERS. 
 
 The society of Ragusa is very agreeable to a 
 stranger, who does not enter into the petty jea- 
 lousies of old nobility or parvenu. Some of the 
 best families, in spite of their long pedigrees, are 
 not in a more prosperous condition than the Hi- 
 dalgo of Gil Bias ; but several, having preserved 
 their entailed estates from dispersion during the 
 French occupation, are in easy circumstances. One 
 of the more fortunate of these families is distin- 
 guished by a refined literary taste ; and their old 
 Italian library, with Aldine and other editions, 
 Latin as well as vulgar, was not more interesting 
 than their assiduous attentions were agreeable. 
 
 One day we made a trip to the coast to the 
 north of Ragusa, and went first to Gravosa on 
 foot, where we took a boat for Valdi Noce. In- 
 stead of the extreme chill of the morning when I 
 landed, nothing could be milder than the climate ; 
 the sun was even hot as we glided down the bay, 
 between the clustering villas, just where the port 
 opens out into the main Adriatic. Struck with the 
 
142 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 fresh-looking appearance of one of the villas, I 
 
 learned that it belonged to one , a Ragusan 
 
 goldsmith, who had left his native place when a 
 boy, and gone to Mexico, where fortune had fa- 
 voured him with considerable wealth ; and on his 
 return in his old age he found himself, beyond com- 
 parison, the wealthiest man in Ragusa ; but his 
 social position was very far from what it would 
 have been in France, Italy, or England, owing to 
 the extravagant pitch to which the spirit of aris- 
 tocracy is carried. This most meritorious citizen 
 has therefore abandoned the residence in his native 
 country, because he could get no entrance into the 
 circle to which his wealth and merit had entitled 
 him. Surely this is carrying a pardonable weak- 
 ness too far. The pride of birth is so universal 
 in those who can boast of it, that we must set it 
 down as just and natural ; but for the Ragusan no- 
 bility to maintain this Chinese wall, after they have 
 lost their national independence and that wealth 
 without which aristocracy cuts a sorry figure, is 
 surely contrary to common sense. A rich aristo- 
 cracy, open to rising wealth and talent, will always 
 command respect ; but the exclusive principle, un- 
 supported by large pecuniary means, is a chimera. 
 
 Our course continued along the coast, which 
 here rises from the water's edge to rugged moun- 
 tains, here and there broken by side-gulfs, se- 
 questering themselves inland, and, after a couple 
 of hours' sail, we disembarked at a village called 
 
RAGUSAN MANNERS. 
 
 143 
 
 Malfi. A pleasant walk of half-an-hour through 
 the Val di Noce, sometimes lost in the dark ever- 
 green woods, through which we heard the distant 
 tinkle of a goat-bell, and the herd singing an Illy- 
 rian lay, brought us to a clear abundant stream, 
 leaping from rock to rock, which fell into a basin 
 to be conveyed in an aqueduct ; and here were 
 two plane-trees, which form the eighth wonder of 
 the world of the Adriatic. Such famous fellows 
 I scarce ever saw ; trunks like the columns of a 
 Nubian temple, branches like the trunks of ordi- 
 nary forest-trees, and the whole forming a verdant 
 tent, under which a battalion might bivouac. The 
 planes were, alas ! at this season of the year with- 
 out foliage, but all the other plants, shrubs, and 
 trees, were in undiminished green. Here, in the 
 heat of summer, to the sound of the little cascade 
 dashing over the rocks, the Eagusans, in holidays, 
 find a delicious villeggiatura. 
 
 Descending an alley not far off, we found our- 
 selves in the grounds of a fine old-fashioned Italian 
 villa, laid out by the Counts of Gozze, the descend- 
 ants of the founders of the aristocracy in the tenth 
 century, the representative of which, to whom Mr. 
 B. presented me, did the honours. Quite close to 
 the sea was the villa, an ancient edifice ; and be- 
 tween it and the village above were the gardens 
 of thick high laurel alleys, cut into straight lines, 
 still in their full foliage, through which the setting 
 sun occasionally succeeded in shooting a golden 
 
144 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 dart that trembled with the breeze on the inner 
 thickets : suddenly the rushing of water was heard, 
 and an open space shewed an extensive Italian foun- 
 tain, to which the water was conveyed on arches, 
 and where a colossal statue of Neptune, with moss- 
 crowned head, and tended by moss-clad nymphs, 
 recorded the taste and opulence of the bygone 
 Eagusa. "It was after a voyage to Rome that 
 these gardens were laid out, in 1525,'* said the 
 Count, " and that tall oak was planted." And 
 this garden -monger, thought I to myself, may 
 have stood at the easel of Raffaelle himself, and 
 seen with his own eyes the genius of Angelo 
 crowning with vaulted dome the substruction of 
 a Bramante, and, as a Ragusan, burned with 
 envy at the mention of Venetian names that the 
 rest of the world almost worshipped. Leaving the 
 moss-grown statues, and the dripping aqueduct, 
 we re-entered the villa. In a large hall, on the 
 first floor of which was a tesselated pavement as a 
 floor, and around the walls antique mirrors, were 
 the full-length portraits of the successors of the 
 garden-fancier, most potent, grave, and reverend 
 signors, in Mechlin frills and black satin. The 
 Count presented me to his mother, in whom, to 
 my great pleasure, I found an English woman long 
 absent from the land of her birth, and speaking 
 Illyrian and Italian almost as her mother-tongue, 
 but still preserving the sweet unembarrassed dignity 
 of her native race. Mutual seemed the pleasure 
 
RAGUSAN MANNERS. 
 
 145 
 
 of meeting in this strange, sequestered, antiquated 
 spot. A fair exchange is no robbery, and the 
 accounts of her terrors of Ragusan earthquakes 
 were not more painfully interesting to me, than 
 my accounts of modern London seemed to unsettle 
 all the landmarks of her unmarried days. But in 
 bringing a lady on the tapis at all, I have already 
 gone to the full verge of the fair and legitimate 
 license allowed to a tourist : suffice it to say, that 
 it was night when we took our leave and mounted. 
 
 A complete contrast to the antique air of the 
 villa of the founders of the patriciate of Eagusa> 
 is that of my worthy friend. Count Giorgi. There 
 is always something about these Eagusan houses 
 that bears reference to some period of European 
 history. In the drawing-rooms of the Palazzo 
 Giorgi, I no longer recognised the Eagusa of the 
 cinque cento, with its marble floors and its faded 
 ceilings, with copies of the Venetian school of 
 painting ; nor yet the Eagusa of last century, with 
 every ornament or table-leg carved, and bulged 
 a la Louis Qui?ize ; here the straight lines, the 
 yellow satin walls, and the frigid Greek mytho- 
 logical ornaments, proclaim the upholstery of the 
 French empire. Eector Giorgi, the last president 
 of the Eagusan Eepublic, became a Count of the 
 French empire, and, residing at Paris, acquired 
 French tastes ; and his son, a septuagenarian, has 
 still the thoroughly French manner, the gaiete du 
 cceur and felicity of expression of that sprightly 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 CHAPTER Xr. 
 
 nation, when conversing of the strange historic 
 scenes and accidents of his youth. The Giorgi 
 family was one of the most illustrious of Eagusa ; 
 and the Count shewed me the red cross of Genoa 
 in their arms, which commemorates a curious cir- 
 cumstance. Matteo Giorgi commanded the Ea- 
 gusan galleys which accompanied the Genoese in 
 their expedition against Venice, in 1378 ; and the 
 loss of the battle of Chioggia was attributed to 
 Doria refusing the advice of Giorgi as to the 
 dispositions to be taken. In token of this, the 
 Eepublic allowed the family to have the cross of 
 Genoa in their arms. 
 
 Of those salient angles of domestic economy 
 which are to be remarked in Servia, and which 
 are essential accessories of a knowledge of physical 
 and political geography, my note-book contains few 
 traces. The dinner-parties at the palace of the 
 civil Governor, and the mansion of the General in 
 command of the district, were in no respect dif- 
 ferent from those of well-ordered hospitable man- 
 sions in European capitals. At a dinner given 
 by the Bishop there was a brilliant improvisation 
 between each brindisi of champagne, by the rising- 
 poet and philosopher of Eagusa, Don Marco Kalu- 
 gera, the professor of philosophy in the Lyceum of 
 the city. All the grand themes of the day, not 
 forgetting Britannia, were brought in with a fe- 
 licity and a mastery of versification that reminded 
 me of the happiest moments of Pistrucci. 
 
RAGUSAN MANNERS. 
 
 147 
 
 With still more local colour was a dinner pre- 
 ceding a marriage at the house of Signer E,., one 
 of the most kind-hearted men whom I had known 
 during my tour, and who was one of the party with 
 which I had made the moonlight visit to the ruins 
 of the suburbs. We were received on the first 
 stage in a drawing-room, the floor of which was 
 paved with slabs of black and white marble, about 
 a foot square, which appears cold to an English- 
 man, but custom makes the Eagusans feel no regret 
 for the absence of the snug carpet and the cheerful 
 fire ; in other respects the furniture was Italian. 
 Italian was also the language spoken, as I am too 
 weak in Illyrian to sustain a regular conversation. 
 Each of the ladies dandled a varnished earthen- 
 ware pot of charcoal on the knee, with which they 
 warmed themselves, and which they carried about 
 even in rising, and never quitted. Kagusa is as 
 remarkable as Venice for the beauty of the fair 
 sex : they have all dark complexions, and the mix- 
 ture of Eoman with Illyrian blood is evidently so 
 considerable, that the contour of the Ragusan in 
 general is scarcely to be distinguished from that 
 of the Italian. 
 
 Instead of going down stairs to dinner, we went 
 to an upper chamber, not very luminous, as the 
 bright red plaster and green Venetian blinds of 
 the opposite side of the street were not many yards 
 off^. The narrow streets of the Christian south 
 and Moslem east are well suited to a hot climate, 
 
148 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 and a legacy of the contracted species of construc- 
 tion common among the ancients ; the greater 
 wideness of the northern style being probably a 
 result of the formation of towns out of the straof- 
 gling isolation of old German villages. Our dinner 
 was as a dinner on the eve of a marriage should be, 
 more gay and good-humoured than formal. The 
 Pilaff, the famous Bottarga of the neighbouring 
 Albania, and a variety of other dishes, were all 
 indicative of the geographical position of Ragusa ; 
 and, according to local custom, the health of the 
 bride and bridegroom were drunk in Malmsey. 
 
 Several of the old customs of Ragusa have fallen 
 into desuetude since the French and Austrian oc- 
 cupations. In marriage, for instance, the parents 
 invariably decided on the husband that a young 
 lady was to have. From twelve years of age she 
 was secluded from all intercourse with the world ; 
 when the papa had found a suitable match, he said, 
 " My dear, you ought to marry such and such 
 a one ; to-day let us go and sign the contract 
 and without more ado the cameriera produced her 
 bonnet and veil, and the old gentleman offering his 
 arm, the young lady, with emotions of apprehension 
 or curiosity to see her partner for life, went to get 
 the preliminaries of the nuptial knot adjusted : but 
 if Signora Rosina had a Lindoro, then a series of 
 domestic persecutions commenced, and a convent 
 was the alternative of a marriage of convenience. 
 
 The old society of Ragusa was not without 
 
RAGUSAN MANNERS. 
 
 149 
 
 some other local peculiarities which are worthy of 
 notice. 
 
 With the ease, elegance, and opulence of the 
 eighteenth century was mingled a frivolity of man- 
 ners which did not escape the satiric pen of the 
 ruder and homelier Dalmatian, and a few pages 
 have furnished me with a sketch, wherein a slight 
 deduction must be made for the jealousy of Eagusa, 
 from which the neighbouring Dalmatian is not to 
 this very day altogether free.^ 
 
 The Countess sat in her drawing-room on her 
 birthday awaiting visitors ; what intoxication in her 
 patches and high-heeled shoes ! She has the very 
 last fashions from Venice and Naples ; and a uni- 
 versal coquetry consoles her for the marriage of 
 convenience which she made with the old Count. 
 That plausible disciple of Loyola, who is her confes- 
 sor, is said to have a powerful quiet influence over 
 her ; and as she receives, with undisguised pleasure, 
 the flatteries of that elegant young man who has 
 just entered, there is a latent hostility between 
 them. What a bow the dandy makes her and all 
 the company around ! you would swear that he had 
 learned his manners at Versailles, except that he 
 betrays too unskilfully the furtive glances which 
 he, from time to time, casts at the large mirror 
 to admire his own attitudinising, and the graceful 
 disposition of his dangling sword. 
 
 1 This is a picture of a class existing in the last century, and 
 alludes to no individual. 
 
150 
 
 CHAPTER XT. 
 
 " The mob of Eagusan fashionables now crowds 
 up stairs ; and among them two plebeians enter the 
 room ; Solomon the Jew broker (whose name stands 
 between the wind and the Count's nobility^ as 
 owner of the ships in which he has the chief share) 
 enters, and placing a bouquet on the table, salutes 
 the lady, and retires forthwith. The other is a 
 rustic priest, brother of the footman Giacomo, and 
 in his younger days began by household offices, but 
 was subsequently brought up to kill two dogs with 
 one bone — to be the parish priest and chaplain, and 
 at the same time steward of the Count's estate. 
 
 The mingling of voices as a sedan chair is 
 set down tells of another visitor, and Monsignore 
 the Archbishop of Ragusa is announced. This 
 lofty personage is much less formidable on a nearer 
 view ; nothing can exceed the courtesy of his ad- 
 dress, or the pliability of his manners. He must 
 be a foreigner, according to the laws of the Republic, 
 and his salary is only a hundred zecchins a year ; 
 but for all that, he lives in good archiepiscopal 
 style ; for he has to beg from time to time dona- 
 tions from the senate, and the political powers that 
 be are thus guaranteed against spiritual ambition. 
 What a kind salutation the Archbishop gives the 
 Jesuit, because the senate rules the Archbishop, 
 the Count rules the senate by his influence, the 
 Countess rules the Count, and the Jesuit rules the 
 
 1 In a sketch like this, only a free translation would be un- 
 derstood. 
 
RAGUSAN MANNERS. 
 
 151 
 
 Countess. As for the poor fribble, he counts for 
 nothing." 
 
 Occasional balls and the opera for a couple of 
 months are the entertainments of winter. A few 
 literary friends used to assemble nightly at the 
 house of Count Z., who is a fanatico for English 
 literature ; and at the town-house of my fair fellow- 
 countrywoman, Countess Gozze, I had an oppor- 
 tunity of seeing a Ragusan ball. Our orchestra 
 was the dingy gypsies of the Hungarian regiment ; 
 but better dancing music I never would desire ; the 
 accentuation of the waltz phrases was so marked 
 that the dullest ear must have caught the em- 
 phasis and danced in time. The charm of the 
 waltz is surely in part owing to its contrast with 
 the absurd modern method of dancing a quadrille ; 
 nay, not dancing, but monotonous marching, as if 
 the effect of music and beauty was to set a man 
 half asleep. The dances of Spain and the Mon- 
 ferino of Italy enable the dancer to correspond to 
 the transport of good music, without going to the 
 opposite extreme of stage gesture ; but now custom 
 compels the natural impulse of music to be pain- 
 fully subdued. 
 
 The honours were done with exquisite grace by 
 the fair hostess, but nothing was worthy of remark 
 as peculiar or national. 
 
 The theatre gave me little satisfaction, being 
 small, and badly lighted. The three principal 
 singers were passable, considering the place, but 
 
152 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 the scenery was below par. CM dura vince, " He 
 that endures conquers," — a sound moral, adopted 
 by Timour the Tartar, after seeing that an ant 
 failed sixty -nine times in carrying a grain up a 
 wall and succeeded the seventieth, — but set to 
 music by Ricci, had not much to be boasted of, 
 either in the way of sound or sense ; the baked 
 meats of defunct predecessors having coldly fur- 
 nished forth his marriage of music with verse. I 
 confess that except Chiara Rosenbergs I have never 
 been able to sit out an opera of this composer, for 
 half-a-dozen pleasing movements cannot float a 
 whole evening of commonplaces. 
 
 Such are the winter amusements. The fa- 
 vourite summer retreat is the delicious Val d'Om- 
 bla, — the Yallombrosa of our Slaavic Tuscany, 
 a sequestered valley and gulf that branches out 
 from that of Gravosa, runs round to the back of 
 the mountain that overhangs Ragusa, and is en- 
 closed in woods and mountains, so that the spec- 
 tator would never imasfine the water before him to 
 be an arm of the sea. 
 
 To have as much of the illusion of summer as 
 possible, my friends selected for me one of the 
 beautiful mild days that intervened after the Bora 
 has blown out all its cold from the north, and 
 before the Scirocco has begun to blow its clouds, 
 rain, and heat, from the south. At about nine 
 o'clock, Messrs. R. and B., with Don Marco Ka- 
 lugera, called on me, and we proceeded out of the 
 
RAGUSAN MANNERS. 
 
 153 
 
 northern gate of Kagusa, and ascending the hill 
 above Gravosa, walked on till we came to a cleft 
 in the mountain chain, where the little gulf, 
 overhung by high rocks, forked suddenly inwards ; 
 here we followed a bridle road, and turning sharply 
 round to the right, found ourselves in the vale of 
 Ombla, the semicircle we had described having 
 completely shut out from our view the gulf of 
 Gravosa. Eich vegetation rose from the deep sea- 
 green water, which here formed a sort of lake, en- 
 closed by mountains, at the further extremity of 
 which a river, gushing out of the rock, mingled 
 its fresh water with the salt of the gulf. Here 
 is a most unusual sight in Dalmatia, a level plain 
 of rich meadow land, part of it planted with 
 cypresses, and forming the grounds of the villa of 
 the Dukes of Sorgo, to which we descended. The 
 villa was quite in disorder, but the large gardens 
 shewed the care and expense of former occupants ; 
 for the ducal line being extinct, the place had 
 been purchased by a retired ship -master, who, 
 having navigated the Mediterranean, had come to 
 own shipping, and purchased this abode. 
 
 A large and open corridor in the upper floor, 
 paved with red marble, had its walls adorned with 
 frescos something in the manner of Giulio Romano, 
 and representing mythological subjects. A broad 
 flight of steps, with a fine Italian balustrade, led 
 down to the water's edge ; and on the other side of 
 the villa were the ruined parterres of the garden, 
 
154 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 and the grove of cypresses, beyond which appeared 
 the lofty nook of precipitous rocks from which the 
 river issued. Seeing a sheaf of rye cut on the wall, 
 I asked its story, and was informed that, in the 
 year 1200 and odd, when a famine raged in Ra- 
 gusa, a rich merchant of Albania brought a cargo 
 of rye-grain (^sorgo) and distributed it to the poor. 
 Touched by his humane munificence, the Senate of 
 Ragusa granted him the patriciate of the Republic, 
 and an ear of sorgo stood for six centuries on the 
 blazon of the family to commemorate this origin. 
 The family is now extinct, the last Duke having 
 died at Paris some years ago without issue. 
 
 The sun was bright, the air was warm, the 
 ever-verdant cypresses rose from the high grass, 
 and the green waters clouded like Malachite with 
 the depths and shallows of the gulf, or eddies 
 produced by the waters of the Ombla, and clasped 
 all around with high wooded hills, had a loneli- 
 ness and a loveliness so strange and rare, that no 
 scene of my travels recurs to me oftener or with 
 more distinctness than the vale of Ombla. 
 
 We now entered a boat, and rowed up the river 
 between the meadows to its source, for which a 
 quarter of an hour sufficed ; for never before did 
 I see such a body of water with so short a course. 
 At the source, a river almost as large as the Thames 
 at Richmond, bubbles and boils out of the earth, 
 so that it looks literally like a giant's cauldron. 
 Here are fullers' mills, and several women of Her- 
 
RAGUSAN MANNERS. 
 
 155 
 
 zegovina were standing round the troubled waters 
 with a most amusing difference of costume, — those 
 who wore a brass ornament at the back of the 
 head were married, those who wore on their temples 
 silver Turkish five-piastre pieces were unmarried. 
 
 From the arrangements that had been made 
 the rest of the day was spent in festivity, and never 
 did I see the cares of life driven away with greater 
 success than by these Eagusan philosophers ; but, 
 in the midst of our gaiety, the room gradually 
 darkened, and a cry of Scirocco, scirocco!" was 
 heard. Out we went, and the whole scene was 
 in an instant black and dismal ; a herd of thick 
 clouds had invaded us all of a sudden from the 
 south, and getting into a boat, as being most likely 
 to save us from rain, we made the men row as swiftly 
 as possible to Gravosa. Gusts and lulls of wind 
 succeeded each other by turns, and still no rain ; 
 but I saw by the hints to pull quick, that the 
 storm was brewing, and long before we reached 
 Gravosa down it came, with such violence, that we 
 were in a few minutes drenched through. How 
 melancholily whistled the wind through the caves 
 and detached rocks on our left ! As pleasantly as 
 I had a few hours before wandered through the 
 cypress-groves of the Villa Sorgo, so equally un- 
 pleasantly did I sit in the stern of the boat, cast- 
 ing a glance from time to time on the sea boiling 
 among the wave-worn rocks, while thick irregular 
 masses of cloud shot across the face of the sky. 
 
156 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 It was black night when we arrived at Gravosa, 
 and our boat was challenged by the Austrian cor- 
 vette ; but on the assurance that we were travel- 
 lers, and not smugglers, we landed. 
 
CHAPTEE XIL 
 
 RAGUSAN LITERATURE. 
 
 As Bohemia, forming an ethnographical peninsula 
 in Germany, is, and was, the most advanced of all 
 the Slaavic nations of central Europe, so Ragusa 
 evidently owes her civilisation to her position on 
 the shores of the Adriatic, opposite, and of easy 
 access to, the Italian peninsula. The Slaavic 
 Athens was the name which Ragusa acquired in 
 the seventeenth century, but surely the Ferrara 
 of a hundred years previous comes within the 
 limits of a juster parallel. As the rudest blast 
 of winter and the coolest breeze of summer come 
 from the west, so the boisterous vigour of Ariosto, 
 and the smoothness, the elegance, and complete- 
 ness of Tasso, seem to mingle their alternate in- 
 spirations in the genius of Gondola. 
 
 Marino Ghetaldi, surnamed the Demon of ma- 
 thematics, had a high European reputation in the 
 seventeenth century. The name of Boscovich 
 stands deservedly high among the mathematicians 
 and astronomers of the eighteenth century, and in 
 1759 he visited London, and had a brilliant recep- 
 
158 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 tion from the Royal Society, of which the Earl of 
 Macclesfield was then president. Both these au- 
 thors wrote in Latin and Italian, and the name of 
 the first confers high honour on Ragusa ; but, from 
 the progress of science, their works are unread or 
 forgotten. 
 
 Cervario Tuberone, Cerva, and others, have 
 distinguished themselves in the historic line, and 
 when public attention becomes generally awakened, 
 as it must in time be, to the past and present con- 
 dition of the countries to the east of the Adriatic, 
 their works will be again sought after ; but it is in 
 poetry that the genius of Eagusa shines forth with 
 its brightest lustre. The biography and criticism 
 of Zamagna Giorgi and many others, fills a closely 
 printed quarto of Appendini, including several good 
 female dramatic writers ; but to do justice to all 
 would have detained me longer in Ragusa than I 
 could spare time for ; I therefore fixed my atten- 
 tion on Gondola, the epic poet, the principal figure 
 of the group, and from a variety of published lives, 
 and the criticisms of modern Ragusans, I will 
 attempt " to place a fading chaplet on his eternal 
 shrine." In consequence of his having written in 
 Illyrian, he does not enjoy a European name ; but, 
 after the lapse of more than two centuries, he is 
 still read with rapture through all the lands of 
 Illyria, and native partiality assigns him a rank 
 as an epic poet immediately after Homer, Virgil, 
 Dante, Milton, Ariosto, and Tasso. The poetry 
 
Lou ac jL.Cliapriiaa. , Strini 
 
RAGUSAN LITERATURE. 
 
 159 
 
 of Servia is mostly lyric, but Ragusa, on the 
 shores of the Adriatic, could scarcely escape the 
 influence of the more majestic plans and per- 
 formances of Italian genius. The gems of Servia 
 are scattered on a thousand brows ; in the great 
 epic of Gondola, the incidents of dramatic situa- 
 tion, the emotions of passion, the exuberance of 
 fancy, and the vivid colours of description, all 
 unite their lustre on the poetic crown of Gondola, 
 and a great historic interest is alone wanting to 
 the framework of this immortal poem. 
 
 Gondola was born in Ragusa on the 8th of 
 January, 1588, when Philip of Spain was preparing 
 his Invincible Armada for the invasion of England, 
 and was educated by the Jesuits. At twenty years 
 of age he devoted himself to the study of the law, 
 and at thirty married a daughter of the house of 
 Sorgo. The Illyrian dramas of Dorsich, Nale, 
 and others, were then the favourite literature of 
 Ragusa, and Gagliufii thinks that, had the Ragu- 
 sans persevered, they might have risen to the ce- 
 lebrity of the Spanish theatre ; but the beauty of 
 the Aminta and the Pastor Fido entirely turned 
 the public taste. The favourite reading of Gon- 
 dola was the Gerusalemme of Tasso ; his first youth- 
 ful essays were pastoral dramas of no extraordinary 
 merit, nor was it without a great deal of consider- 
 ation that he undertook an epic poem ; and well 
 he might ponder, for ambition which pricks on, 
 pricks off again. Our own Milton began an epic. 
 
160 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 and it became Paradise Lost ; so did Wilkie, and 
 it became the Epigoniad ! 
 
 The choice of Gondola's subject seems, to our 
 age, a strange one, if viewed without reference 
 to the political situation of Ragusa, in the very 
 century in which the Turks were the most hated, 
 and in which our own Waller wrote his " Presage 
 of the Downfall of the Turkish Empire." Gondola 
 enthusiastically takes for his hero, Osman, who 
 became sultan in I6I8, and after a variety of wars 
 and amours, is imprisoned and beheaded. It was, 
 therefore, entirely the events of the day that sup- 
 plied Gondola with his matter. The Porte, in 
 the zenith of her military and political power, was, 
 although the enemy of all Europe, then the pro- 
 tectress of Ragusa againstYenice ; and Osman, the 
 antipathy of Christendom, is a daring hero in the 
 eyes of the patriotic Eagusan. 
 
 The war with Poland in 1621, the captivity of 
 Korewsky as hostage in Constantinople, the dis- 
 guise of his wife as a Hungarian boy to deliver 
 him, the condition of all these countries, and a 
 variety of episodes and adventures, concluding with 
 the death of the Sultan, form the staple of the 
 work. Thus while Milton's subject was too vaguely 
 remote from the daily existence of the poet, that 
 of Gondola was too near ; and party-spirit, rather 
 than strict historic justice, inspires the portrait of 
 the hero. The same objection of the introduction 
 of contemporary subjects may apply to Dante, only 
 
RAGUSAN LITERATURE. 
 
 161 
 
 he was not a spectator of the action of his poem, 
 but part and parcel of it ; and as his vengeance 
 flashes from page to page, and his music thunders 
 from canto to canto, we feel ourselves, after five 
 centuries and a half, living in the world of Guelph 
 and Ghibelline, loving with Dante's loves, and 
 hating with Dante's hates. The adventures of 
 Osman in the political history of Turkey fail to 
 awaken our interest ; but as the balm of the 
 Egyptian preserved the humblest of remains to the 
 wonder of a hundred ages, while the bones of a true 
 hero moulder unknown, so the poetry of Gondola 
 will preserve the events of Osman's life when 
 greater names are forgotten. 
 
 Gondola died in 1638, at fifty-one years of age ; 
 two of his sons fought in the Thirty-years' War 
 under Wallenstein, and the youngest died in 1682 
 in the supreme office of Eector of the Republic. 
 The male line is extinct, but I had the pleasure 
 of making the acquaintance of his representative 
 and namesake in the female line, who has a good 
 unincumbered estate, and has lately been made a 
 baron by the emperor. 
 
 The finest passage in the work, according to 
 some, is the entrance of the ambassador of the 
 Sultan into the palace of Warsaw, where he sees, 
 to his shame and surprise, woven on the walls, a 
 tapestry representing the defeat of his master at 
 the battle of Koezim ; according to others, the 
 lamentations and reflections of Osman in prison. 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 CHAPTER XIT. 
 
 I am not a sufficient master of Illyrian to be able 
 to decide the matter myself ; the piece I have 
 selected is the Episode of Suncianitza, the daugh- 
 ter of the deposed Lord of Servia. A translation 
 of a translation, like a print after a print, may 
 convey the outlines, but cannot pretend to the 
 touch and colour of the original. 
 
 " The chief of the black eunuchs of the Sultan 
 entered the city of Semendria, where he hoped to 
 find the daughter of Gluibedrag, the fair and the 
 young Suncianitza. She is of the illustrious fa- 
 mily of the despots of Servia, the apple of the eye, 
 the light of her blind father. He is the nephew of 
 the nephews of George and Jerina ; his power hath 
 passed away, but his deeds and his conduct are 
 those of a prince. His old age leans on the staff 
 that was once the sceptre of his fathers, his king- 
 dom is the narrow meadow, his subjects are the 
 bleating sheep, his hounds are his guards, and 
 shepherds are his courtiers and allies. His twelve 
 sons have fallen before the sharp sword of the Os- 
 manli ; and his eyes flowed with tears until the 
 springs of vision dried up. He is the trunk of the 
 tree whose branches have been scattered by the 
 tempest ; he would have perished amid his sobs had 
 he not lived on the voice of his daughter. 
 
 " This fountain of life is the fair young Sun- 
 cianitza, whose virtue has been blown with the 
 trumpet of fame ; and the fruits of this one branch 
 are the only hope of the father. But the virginity 
 
RAGIJSAN LITERATURE. 
 
 163 
 
 of that maid is consecrated to the Almighty. The 
 old man perceives it with grief, and assembles the 
 youth of Bulgaria to wake her soft desires. The 
 rustic games, and the accents of music, mingled 
 wath the dance of the shepherds, and the flower- 
 crowned maids. The language of courtesy is 
 held while they sit on the meadow, and the 
 echoes are charmed with the pipe and the tabor ; 
 the maidens lose their lustre at the appearance 
 of Suncianitza, like the stars of night at the 
 blushing dawn ; the zephyrs play with her blonde 
 tresses, and her step in the dance is the subtle 
 enchantment. 
 
 " The sight of the chief of the black eunuchs 
 suddenly ends the games ; he sought the fair Sun- 
 cianitza for the harem of his master. A thrill of 
 terror froze every heart ; the flowers dropt from the 
 hand of Suncianitza, and, mute as a statue, she hid 
 her visage in her hands ; but the cunning slave, 
 masking his design, said mildly, ' Let fear and 
 trouble end, cease neither the dance nor the song ; 
 all I desire is peace, and the continuance of the 
 games.' 
 
 " ' Wise and good father,' said the black, ' may 
 the Most High give thee the light of thy counte- 
 nance. Tell me, who were thy ancestors ? Were 
 they of the royal race, and who dispossessed them ?' 
 The old man, troubled in spirit, answered, * The re- 
 membrance of past grandeur is bitter ; what avails 
 illustrious birth in obscurity and poverty ?' He told 
 
164 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 his sad tale, and with a voice of sorrow added, ' All 
 that remains to me is my cherished daughter — my 
 only consolation.' The chief of the eunuchs drew 
 a golden veil from his girdle, approached Sun- 
 cianitza, and giving it with respect, said, * Great 
 is thy happiness, O noble daughter, thou art now 
 the spouse of the Sultan of the world.' 
 
 Thrilled with horror, Suncianitza was about 
 to fall ; but the mutes approached, and the fair one 
 was torn from her father, struggling like a dove 
 in the talons of a vulture. The blind Gluibedrag 
 tore the white hair from his head. 
 
 " ' Cruel Fate,' said the frenzied grey-beard, 
 * to make a shepherd of the sons of princes, to 
 snatch from me my sons and my only daughter ! 
 Where art thou, my love ? let the blind old man 
 but hear thy voice. O inexorable Death, why have 
 you left me in the land of the living ?' 
 
 " But Suncianitza, carried far away, heard not 
 his accents of grief ; tears filled her eyes, or terror 
 froze her heart. ' Whither am I dragged from the 
 arms of a father ? Ah ! who will calm his troubles, 
 and assuage his grief ? Come, father, let thy flow- 
 ing tears soften their obdurate hearts ; may thy grey 
 hairs drive violence far away.' 
 
 " 'Virgin, thou hast wept enough,' said the 
 eunuch, who had sought the fairest beauties of 
 Egypt, Bosnia, and the land of the Dukes (Herze- 
 govina), leaving disconsolate mothers, and bring- 
 ing with him the daughters of the noble, the fair 
 
RAGUSAN LITERATURE. 
 
 165 
 
 in person, and those endowed with mental quali- 
 fications, who all now approach the city of em- 
 pire. 
 
 " The Sultan entered at the same time, and the 
 agas presented to him the female slaves in the 
 seraglio. Ranged in the form of a half moon, the 
 like had never been seen in all the world. The per- 
 fect beauties of the palace were like the spring 
 flowers of the forest united in the garden ; one 
 stole softly on the senses, the other dazzled like 
 the noontide sun ; sweetly smiled the one, noble 
 was the gait of the other ; but Suncianitza out- 
 shone them all by the lustre of her charms, but 
 her brow was pale with modesty and virtue. 
 
 " * Open thy mind,' said the Sultan, ' and con- 
 fide in Osman, who can calm thy grief.' Sun- 
 cianitza, raising her thoughts to God, asked His 
 succour to soften the heart of the Sultan, and 
 off*er on the altar of the Most High the lily of 
 her virginity. 
 
 " * Powerful and glorious Sultan,' said Suncian- 
 itza, ' thy words embolden me to bare my breast. 
 I am the only daughter of a father blind with 
 grief for the loss of twelve sons ; I alone stand 
 between him and the tomb : the cherished daughter 
 has been torn from his embrace ; like the plant 
 whose last root fails, death and annihilation are in- 
 evitable. Oh, father ! what hand shall close thy 
 eyes, or honour thy remains with the ceremonies 
 of the tomb? By Mahommed thy prophet, and 
 
166 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Ahmed thy father, let the daughter rejoin the 
 parent, and glory surround thy name.' 
 
 " An icy silence followed the speech of Suncian- 
 itza, and uncertainty reigned in the heart of the 
 Sultan. To lose the flower of his seraglio, or act 
 with the harshness of a barbarian, was the dilemma 
 in which he was placed ; but virtue triumphed. 
 * How I' said he, ' ought I to govern others, 
 and not know how to govern myself? Thy trouble 
 is ended, noble girl ; my heart is moved, and the 
 favour is granted. My desire is to reign in the 
 hearts of mankind by love and justice ; thy affec- 
 tion is most lovely in misfortune, as the rays of 
 the sun that vanquish in the struggle with the 
 mists, and long live your father to enjoy your 
 society.' 
 
 Thus spoke the Sultan : but Suncianitza can 
 scarcely believe the reality of her liberty, as the 
 mariner, after the long and stormy night, mistrusts 
 the rays of dawn that shew him the wished -for 
 haven. Throwing herself at the feet of the Sul- 
 tan, she cried in a transport : ' Great and mag- 
 nanimous sovereign, a movement of thy lips hath 
 breathed youth and strength into the body of a 
 dying old man : more valiant than the conquerors 
 of kingdoms, thou hast vanquished thyself. Noble 
 and generous action, time and distance will take 
 nothing from its glory.' 
 
 The Sultan, opening his treasures, hung a 
 splendid necklace around the throat of Suncian- 
 
RAGUSAN LITERATURE. 
 
 167 
 
 itza, at once the ornament of her heauty and the 
 memorial of his magnificence. 
 
 " The slaves that brought her as a prisoner, 
 returned with her as guards and servants to the 
 door of the blind Gluibedrag." 
 
CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 ENVIRONS OF RAGUSA. 
 
 The coasts and islands to the south of Ragusa are 
 full of historic interest and romantic beauty, and a 
 little trip, in which the accomplished and erudite 
 Professor Kalugera acted the obliging cicerone, 
 afforded me two of the pleasantest days I passed in 
 the Adriatic. It was on one of the finest days of 
 the faithful month of January, so called from the 
 number of calm days in it which follow the blasts 
 of late autumn, and precede the still ruder ones of 
 February and March, that the professor and myself 
 entered a boat at the quay near San Biagio, and 
 were rowed across the bay to a lofty cavern south- 
 wards of Kagusa. Not a breath of air was in 
 motion, and an English September seemed to usher 
 in the new year of Ragusa ; the Adriatic ebbed and 
 flowed among the fragments of rocks in the gentlest 
 of whispers ; a veil of golden gauze trembling on 
 the dark roof of the cavern, and reflecting the 
 sunlight playing on the sea, was the only ocular 
 evidence of its motion ; while the depths of the 
 cavern gave back each stroke of the great bell 
 
ENVIRONS OF RAGUSA. 
 
 169 
 
 of the city tolling solemnly across the tranquil 
 waters. 
 
 It was in the first years of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, when Bacon and Shakespeare were completing 
 the Cyclopean foundations of English science and 
 literature, that a man in middle age, with sharp 
 visage, and those penetrating eyes which make the 
 stranger curious to know their owner's fate and 
 fortunes, surmounted by the broad-brimmed peaked 
 hat of the period, might be seen in this cave. 
 Strange instruments surround him 5 they shew that 
 the age of alchemy is gone, and that of sound ex- 
 periment commenced. Marino Ghetaldi, the in- 
 dividual in question (1566-1627), was one of the 
 first astronomers and natural philosophers in Eu- 
 rope ; his Promotus Archimedes shewed a dim per- 
 ception of the coming discoveries of Newton ; and 
 it certainly was Ghetaldi and not Des Cartes who 
 first applied algebra to geometry. He spent six 
 years in travels through Europe ; at Venice, Paolo 
 Sarpi called him " Angelo di costumi, e demonio 
 in matematica — an angel in manners, and a demon 
 in mathematics," in allusion to his attainments and 
 that modesty which is generally inseparable from 
 true greatness ; and he confesses in his Promotus, 
 ** Malim scire quam nosci, discere quam docere." 
 So high was his reputation, that the magistrates of 
 Louvain in Flanders pressed him to be professor 
 of mathematics in their university, when it was to 
 Antwerp as the Padua of that northern Venice. 
 
170 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 But Ghetaldi had studied and travelled for Ea- 
 gusa : " Patria non quia magna sed sua" was the 
 small but powerful magnet which re-attracted him 
 to the shores of the Adriatic. Here, in cool grot, 
 undisturbed by the hum of the city commerce, he 
 pursued his experiments. Strange and improbable 
 traditions still exist of his having been addicted 
 to magic, and more than one Ragusan captain at- 
 tributed tempestuous weather to the incantations 
 of the cavern ; even the fishermen, for ages after 
 his death, never passed without an appeal to San 
 Biagio against the machinations of the mysterious 
 cavern. 
 
 At one side of the cave a dark recess, about 
 three feet deep, with which the sea-water commu- 
 nicates, was the bath of Ghetaldi, and all around 
 on the rocks is the beautiful Adiantum, Capillus 
 Veneris, with jet black stem and fine small green 
 leaf. At one side of the cave, next the sea, is a 
 staircase cut in the rock, and Don Marco (as the 
 professor was usually called) informed me that it 
 was in communication with the villa above. A 
 door, almost rotten with sea-air and water, barred 
 the passage ; but Don Marco, applying his hands to 
 his mouth, shouted aloud, so that the rock-vault 
 echoed again, and in a minute a servant-girl was 
 seen descending the stairs to the door, which she 
 opened. Passing over slippery rocks, we got 
 within the door, and, ascending the steps, wound 
 round the rock that flanked the entrance to the 
 
ENVIRONS OF RAGUSA. 
 
 cave, and found that we had gained a narrow 
 terrace in front of a villa overhanging an abrupt 
 precipice, and looking straight across to Kagusa, 
 with its round towers and high ramparts. Don 
 Marco, who seemed to know every body, ushered 
 me into the parlour of the little villa of Ghetaldi, 
 where pictures somewhat in the Bolognese school 
 were hanging from the walls. Madame S., the 
 spouse of a descendant of the co-heiress of Ghe- 
 taldi, now entered, and received us with Kagusan 
 courtesy. She regretted that his portrait, which 
 had adorned the room, had been taken to her town- 
 house ; but Don Marco and myself joined in a 
 prayer to see it restored to its true position. 
 
 From the revolutions of science the works of 
 Ghetaldi are unread and forgotten, but his name 
 blooms fresh in the memory of the Eagusans ; and 
 a large slab of pavement in the Dominican church, 
 with three fleur-de-lis and two stars, is still regarded 
 with veneration, as covering his remains. 
 
 When we got into the boat again, Don Marco 
 ordered the men to row us to La Chroma, a small 
 island about a mile from the cave, which seemed 
 to be entirely covered with wood and shrubbery, 
 and without any habitation, except a small modern 
 fort which crowned the top of the hill. Other islands 
 lay to the south, and, on asking their names, I found 
 that they were called Marcana and Bobara (St. 
 Mark and St. Barbara). " They are mere rocks," 
 said Don Marco, " fit for sea-fowl, and not fit for 
 
172 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 a man, unless he be a passionate fowler ; and yet 
 they have often played an important part in the 
 ecclesiastical history of Eagusa." 
 
 " Eather extraordinary," said I ; " you church- 
 men are not generally fond of bleak barren po- 
 sitions. The clergy have capital taste for land- 
 scape-gardening in general. You see that Bene- 
 dictine convent at the extremity of the bay, how 
 snugly sheltered under the point of land, with 
 plenty of vegetation and a fine view." 
 
 " They are both Turkish islands," said Don 
 Marco, " in the diocese of Trebigne ; and whenever 
 the Eagusan Archbishops wished to escape de- 
 pendence on the senate, they used to hold their 
 councils here in security." 
 
 We soon rounded the wooded point of the 
 island, and found ourselves in a little bay, beyond 
 which was a level plain of turf between a wood of 
 pines and the hill on which the fort was built ; and 
 in the most sheltered part of this little valley was 
 a ruined convent, and a church of a period much 
 anterior, and evidently of Byzantine form. This 
 was the island and monastery of La Chroma, at 
 which Eichard Cceur de Lion landed on his re- 
 turn from the Holy Land. It appears that the 
 tempest off Albania must have been most violent, 
 and Eichard made a vow to erect a temple to the 
 Virgin in the first place of his landing. Presenting 
 himself to the monks, he declared his design to 
 build a church there, for which he gave, or would 
 
ENVIRONS OF RAGUSA. 
 
 give, 100,000 niimmi argenteu No sooner did the 
 rector hear of Richard's arrival, then he went with 
 the senate to congratulate him on his escape, and 
 offer him the hospitality of Eagusa, which Richard 
 accepted along with magnificent spectacles but 
 the rector begged him to write to the Pope, to 
 commute the locality of his votive offering from the 
 island to the city of Ragusa itself, the cathedral 
 of which was small and inconvenient ; to which 
 Richard consented, on the condition that, every 
 second of February, being the Purification of the 
 Virgin, the superior and monks of the convent of 
 La Chroma would be allowed to celebrate the mys- 
 teries of that festival. It appears, however, that 
 in the sixteenth century the Archbishop wished 
 to resist this right, and a hot dispute was the 
 consequence, which led to a research of the ar- 
 chives, and the right of the monks was confirmed 
 by a curious decree of the rector and senate. 
 This privilege they retained till I667, when the 
 earthquake threw down both the cathedral of 
 Richard and a great part of the convent of La 
 Chroma. 
 
 The illustrious author of Ivanhoe had per- 
 haps never heard of this island, but it might well 
 have furnished a splendid chapter to this great 
 inventor : a tempest-tost King of England landing 
 from Palestine ; the monks giving hospitality to 
 a stranger, to find that their guest is a king, and 
 the taker of Acre ; and the senate crossing in all 
 
174 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 the pomp of middle-age magnificence to welcome 
 the valiant chevalier and crusading king. 
 
 " Do you know," said Don Marco, as we walked 
 amid the sequestered foliage, "that for us Bri- 
 tannia is a poesia ; her whole history, down to 
 Victoria, is an epic poem." 
 
 Does not France," said I, come up to your 
 idea of greatness ?" 
 
 "No," said he; "the French character is less 
 phlegmatic, and with us more sympathetic than the 
 English ; but Italy began our modern civilisation, 
 and England is completing it. France is a country 
 of elegant writers ; but for a steady, constant, and 
 enduring succession of illustrious deeds, we must 
 go to Albion." 
 
 "Many people on the continent," said I, "main- 
 tain that, having arrived at her full growth, she 
 must soon begin to decay." 
 
 Niente qffatto ; not a bit of it," answered 
 the professor ; "if she has not extended her 
 branches, she has been growing at the roots ; if 
 the conquests of this generation have not been so 
 extensive as former ones, her mercantile navy, the 
 root of all her power, has increased ; a nation that 
 perpetually wars with the elements needs never fear 
 the corrosion of a long peace." 
 
 Leaving La Chroma, we now rode some miles 
 to the southwards, and, passing a bluff point, a 
 new prospect opened on us ; a beach of yellow 
 sand, glistening with white pebbles in the un- 
 
ENVIRONS OF RAGUSA. 
 
 clouded sun, skirted a bay, which formed a grace- 
 ful semicircle. The precipitous mountains fell 
 away inland, and broken but richly cultivated 
 ground, interspersed with vines, olives, pastures, 
 and occasional oak-trees, intervened between the 
 bluff point we had passed, and the promontory of 
 Epidaurus, some miles ahead. This was the re- 
 nowned bay of St. Hilary, not less celebrated in 
 the annals of Christianity than the bay of St. 
 George in Syria, where the dragon was killed. 
 Three hundred and sixty-five years after Christ, 
 St. Hilary landed in this bay, and defied and 
 vanquished by miraculous power, according to tra- 
 dition, a terrible serpent that infested the coast ; 
 the serpent being of the family of St. George, 
 that is to say, no other than the Greek mythology, 
 whose death-rattle sounded in the fourth century 
 through all the Roman world. Titus and St. Paul 
 first preached the Gospel in Illyria, St. Hilary 
 followed in their footsteps, and St. Jerome, a na- 
 tive of Dalmatia, completed the work, and speaks 
 with enthusiasm of the reputation for piety which 
 Hilary had left in the whole region ; but, in writ- 
 ing the life of his predecessor, he might surely have 
 spared us the miracle of the serpent, and the re- 
 straining of the threatening sea during the apos- 
 tacy of Julian. 
 
 In the middle of the bay is the village of St. 
 Hilary (St. Ilarione), with a few boats drawn upon 
 the beach, but without the unpleasant odours, the 
 
176 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ill-dressed children, and the untidy houses of a 
 fishing village ; behind it is the plain of Breno, the 
 agricultural garden of the east of the Adriatic. 
 Ombla is a wild, highland loch, fitter for a country- 
 house than the labours of agriculture ; but here, 
 every nook is fenced and cultivated, so that the 
 traveller might think himself in the environs of an 
 Italian capital. The olive-trees and all the other 
 products shewed at once the traces of that superior 
 culture which makes the berry the largest and 
 fattest of the coast, even surpassing that of the 
 opposite Gallipoli. The aspect of the peasantry 
 fully corresponded with the appearance of nature ; 
 instead of the drunken, patched misery of Dal- 
 matia, the men were all coarsely but tidily and 
 decently dressed. The women, although sunburnt, 
 had clear healthy complexions, that shewed the 
 purity of the air and the results of an orderly 
 material existence. Altogether I was delighted to 
 find, in so distant a part of Europe, a region that 
 in every respect might vie with its centres, with 
 one exception ; the vicinity of the Turks had led 
 the Eagusan republic to the policy of having no 
 roads practicable for artillery. 
 
 We had not walked above half an hour along 
 the plain, when I saw approaching a middle-aged 
 man, with broad-brimmed hat, and a collar of white 
 linen turned down over a stock studded with little 
 blue beads, and wearing black knee-breeches and 
 silver buckles in his shoes. This was the clergy- 
 
ENVIRONS OF RAGUSA. 
 
 177 
 
 man of Breno, the friend of Don Marco, who had 
 come to meet us, and conducted us to the parsonage, 
 a neat new house, on a rising ground a quarter of a 
 mile off, embosomed in cypresses. He apologised 
 for the roads as contrasted with the new ones that 
 had lately been made in various parts of Dalmatia, 
 and mentioned an old local proverb, " Deus fecit 
 Brenam, vias autem ejus diabolus." 
 
 The parsonage-house was a small new stone 
 building ; the folding doors being of iron, studded 
 with bolts, like a prison entrance. Don Marco 
 joked him on his precautions ; but the clergyman 
 reminded him that he was the banker of the 
 savings of the parish, and that a few desperadoes 
 might be tempted to rob the whole parish, and cut 
 his own throat ; for they were within a few miles 
 of the Turkish frontier. During dinner the con- 
 versation fell on the comparative morality of the 
 Ragusan peasant and the Dalmatian, which pos- 
 sessed much interest for me, because the clergy are 
 best acquainted with the condition of the pea- 
 santry. Both the Ragusans and the Dalmatians 
 are very poor in money ; for a woman of Breno 
 will carry a load of firewood six miles to gain four- 
 pence. The peasant of the environs of Zara, the 
 capital of Dalmatia, will walk the same distance 
 to sell a pair of fowls for a shilling ; but instead 
 of taking home the money to his wife, he never 
 leaves the Piazza del? Erbe until the half of it 
 be squandered in liquor or disorder. 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The landed proprietor of Eagusa deals more 
 easily with the peasant than the landlord of Dal- 
 matia. In BreAo, the countryman, instead of 
 farming the land, divides the produce with the 
 landlord. When corn-lands are good and produc- 
 tive, the landlord on giving the seed receives the 
 half of the produce. If the peasant furnish the 
 seed, and the land be easily worked, the landlord 
 receives a third ; but if the land be poor and in- 
 conveniently worked, he receives only a fourth, or 
 perhaps less. In Dalmatia the peasantry are lazy 
 and vindictive, not so in the territory of Ragusa ; 
 here every scrap of manure on the roads is care- 
 fully picked up, and put round the trunks of the 
 olives. The cultivators are mild and fair spoken ; 
 but the proprietor must look very sharply after the 
 division of the spoil, otherwise he will find himself 
 short of his due. The best property is that of 
 olives ; and instead of florins, such and such a land- 
 lord is said to be worth so many barrels of oil a 
 year. Permanent absenteeism is almost impossible. 
 A proprietor wished to let his lands, and live at 
 Venice, but he could not find a middle -man or 
 farmer of adequate capital and character, willing 
 to give him a certainty, except at a great sacrifice. 
 
 I found that tile-draining, subsoil- ploughing, 
 and other processes, were unknown, for the enemy 
 to be combated is the long droughts of summer ; 
 the territory of Eagusa suffering, in a minor de- 
 gree, from the dryness of the neighbouring Dal- 
 
ENVIRONS OF RAGUSA. 
 
 179 
 
 matia. In the middle ages all the sea-ward slope 
 of the Yellebitch was covered with wood, mulberries 
 below, and pines above ; which not only retained 
 the soil on the slopes by the reticulation of their 
 roots, but, attracting and retaining the moisture, 
 caused the rains to be more frequent, and the 
 running streams to be more copious even in the 
 heat of summer. But the Turkish war ruined Dal- 
 matia, and the Venetian policy was to keep the 
 people dependent on the Eepublic for subsistence. 
 Paolo Sarpi, in his report on Dalmatia, in the 
 capacity of Consultatore, shews his narrow bigotry, 
 by openly avowing that this kingdom, with its ro- 
 bust population, must be kept needy in order to 
 remain in subjection ; hence the inhuman extirpa- 
 tion of the mulberries, and the prohibition of the 
 silk culture, a most impious interference with the 
 part assigned by Nature to Dalmatia in the terri- 
 torial division of labour. This was not the fault 
 of Venice alone, but pervaded the colonial policy 
 of all other nations — of Spain and America, as 
 well as of the Dutch in the Spice Islands, and 
 from which the history of our own settlements in 
 India and America shews that we were not free. 
 
 By a calm pleasant evening we returned to the 
 village of St. Hilary, which we examined more in 
 detail ; the habitations are scattered among thick- 
 grown gardens, and mills in motion ; a stream dash- 
 ing over a low precipice, and glistening in the 
 evening sun, loses itself for a short way under 
 
180 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 the willows, planes, and poplars, and reappearing, 
 fretted with its combat with the mill-wheel, in- 
 tersects the yellow beach, and mingles its spent 
 force with the ripple of the bay. Here we em- 
 barked for Kagusa Yecchia, at the southern ex- 
 tremity of the bay, where the hills again approach 
 close to the sea. The port is small, and the 
 modern town of Eagusa Vecchia is a mere village, 
 forming a wretched contrast to the magnificence of 
 Epidaurus, which covered the neighbourhood. 
 
 The inn was humble, but cleanly ; and, after 
 supper, we went to the cafe, and had some chat 
 with the people there assembled. Every village 
 in Dalmatia has just such a small cafe. A female 
 stands at a counter, on which are large bottles of 
 brandy and maraschino, and a brass lamp of olive- 
 oil ; three or four small black walnut tables have 
 each a tallow candle, at which are seated the prin- 
 cipal people of the place playing at cards, and half 
 of them smokino^, so that the den is rather obscure. 
 The talk is quite local, such as, " Why does Ali 
 Pasha in Herzegovina impose such illegal duties 
 on goods from Eagusa ?" How is oil selling at 
 Trieste ?" " Such and such a one made a bad 
 speculation to Bari, on the Neapolitan coast, with 
 his lugger and a great deal about the production 
 of particular fields, and whether they are highly or 
 moderately rated in the Catasto.^ 
 
 1 The register of the Government, which fixes the value of 
 the fluctuating tithes by an average of years. 
 
ENVIRONS OF RAGUSA. 
 
 181 
 
 Next morning we took a survey of Epidaurus, 
 of which only mounds remain ; but wherever the 
 earth is excavated, foundations of houses, frag- 
 ments of tombs, sections of columns, and muti- 
 lated statuary are found. Encheleian Illyria, of 
 which Epidaurus was subsequently the chief city, 
 was the scene of the adventures of Cadmus, after 
 his flight from Thebes ; and the city itself, founded 
 by the Greeks, became, in due time, a Koman co- 
 lony, in which Esculapius was the special object 
 of veneration in the principal temple of the city. 
 To this day, one of the capitals of the colon- 
 nade of the palace of the government in Eagusa, 
 represents a scene, in alto relievo, of the god seated, 
 with a species of mitre on his head, and a flowing 
 beard ; a book being open on his knee, and instru- 
 of pharmacy and chemistry around him, taken from 
 the ruins of Epidaurus.^ 
 
 ^ Epidaurus was twice sacked by the Avars, in 625 and 639, 
 and at length totally destroyed, 656, by the Croats. The anti- 
 quities of this part of Illyria have been fully described by Appen- 
 dini in his Notizie, Ragusa, 1803. 
 
CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENTS IN RAGUSA. 
 
 The subject of the antiquities of this part of 
 Illyria is so extensive and interesting, that it 
 deserves either to be treated thoroughly, or let 
 alone ; I therefore look forward with pleasure to 
 a perusal of Sir Gardner Wilkinson's Travels in 
 Dalmatia, having, for my own part, in the middle 
 age and modern relations of this coast, more than 
 enough to occupy my attention. After a cursory 
 survey of the site of Epidaurus, I returned to 
 Ragusa, to make farther inquiry into the adven- 
 tures of the lion-hearted Richard ; and went first 
 to a local antiquary of my acquaintance. 
 
 Passing through the Corso, or main street, I 
 turned off, and began to ascend one of the steep 
 breakneck lanes that lead to the wall on the moun- 
 tain side of the town, where no carriage can move, 
 and even a loaded mule could with difficulty ascend 
 such an acclivity, and at length got to the Min- 
 cietto, a sturdy crenellated tower of the fifteenth 
 century, which overlooks the town. Here was the 
 house of the bibliomaniac, and in a low dark room. 
 
RAGUSAN ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENTS. 183 
 
 which smelt of mouldy books, in their dingy vel- 
 lum bindings, were tomes and manuscripts, having 
 reference to Eagusa, thick piled on the shelves all 
 around. Prints of the most celebrated Eagusan 
 authors were hung here and there ; and prominent 
 in the room was the picture of a brig owned by his 
 father during the Eagusan neutrality of the last 
 war, the Madonna del Eosario, with the dark blue 
 flag of the Eepublic, bordered with white, and, in 
 the middle of it, the figure of San Biagio in full 
 canonicals. Our man of books had been Neapo- 
 litan vice-consul in Eagusa, in the days of Murat j 
 but, wdth the changes of time, became a clerk in 
 the tribunal or court of justice. 
 
 That recalls to me old days," said he, point- 
 ing to the Madonna del Eosario ; " when the flag 
 of the Eepublic of Eagusa, being neutral, was the 
 carrier of the Mediterranean ; every quay covered 
 with merchandise, every house full of gold ; but 
 then subsequently we paid for it with our mishaps 
 and adventures. Coming from Malta to Eagusa, 
 when the French occupied the Eepublic, I was 
 seized, when off" the coast of Albania, and suffered 
 a long imprisonment at Scutari." 
 
 After stating my wants and wishes to the anti- 
 quary, he directed me to the neighbouring Fran- 
 ciscan Convent, as his own collection did not go 
 so far back, — one of the monks of which is the 
 greatest bibliophile of Eagusa. The convent is a 
 lofty, simple Gothic edifice, in front of which is a 
 
184 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 very large and elegant circular basin of water, with 
 dragons and cornices elaborately carved, after a 
 design by Onofrio Giordiani, of the first half of 
 the fifteenth century, which is the receptacle of the 
 water that principally supplies Hagusa, brought in 
 an aqueduct a distance of no less than nine miles 
 from the vale of Gianchetto. Within the convent 
 was a large quadrangular cloister, with the slender 
 double columns of the style of the Lower Empire, 
 surrounding a garden of myrtle and citron, just 
 as in the Levant. A third style, seen in the in- 
 terior of the church, was the least attractive of all 
 three, having stucco mouldings of the middle of 
 last century, with their pear-shaped lines of beauty 
 jostling each other to confusion. 
 
 Through a wide magnificent gallery I was led 
 to the cell of the padre, where I saw that a convent 
 in Dalmatia is just the reverse of a London house. 
 In our foggy climate even the houses of the rich 
 are mean in exterior, with narrow staircases, where 
 two persons can scarce pass, but comfort reigns in 
 every apartment ; here, on the contrary, a good 
 edifice and a superb corridor, and a miserable little 
 cell of bare whitewashed walls. The padre, a fresh, 
 hale old man, past seventy, with a grey head and 
 a ruddy complexion, sat at a small table on a black- 
 leather chair. A crucifix stood in front of him, 
 and old books, coffee apparatus, prints, and thumbed 
 Missals, were all heaped together in the narrowest 
 space. 
 
RAGUSAN ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENTS. 185 
 
 " Every information I possess," said Padre Giu~ 
 rich, " is at your service ; I remember my Lord 
 Guildford, who came here a great many years ago, 
 he who founded the University of Corfu, and took 
 a great interest in Ragusa. You English are 
 always spreading knowledge and getting informa- 
 tion ; but we, like a set of fools and traitors, have 
 dispersed our own stores. The Dominicans, filled 
 with avarice and meanness, were the first, when the 
 French came, to sell away their magnificent library. 
 A precious library, containing all that could have 
 interested you in Ragusa ; but, actum est, it is gone. 
 But there is Cerva at your service," continued the 
 Padre, pointing to a long range of volumes on a 
 shelf in the cell. 
 
 The Franciscan taking me to be a helluo libro- 
 rum like himself, recommended such a course of 
 reading on the middle ages of Ragusa, as would 
 have taken six months at least ; but some extracts 
 made for me by Don Marco, before my departure, 
 will be sufiicient for my purpose. Philip de Di- 
 versis de Quartigianis, writing^ in 1440, describes 
 the old cathedral, built at the expense of Richard 
 Coeur de Lion, as follows : 
 
 The Cathedral of Ragusa is a temple of hewn 
 stone, of regular architecture, surrounded with a 
 balustrade and columns ; easy access to within, and 
 a pleasant walk without. The colonnade is half 
 the height of the church, and has a frieze of ani- 
 mals cut in stone ; the roof is of lead ; and within 
 
186 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 are three aisles, the middle one sustained with 
 thick and lofty columns. The grand altar in the 
 middle has a magnificent canopy, supported by 
 four columns. A curious pulpit, on four pillars, 
 is remarkable for its ingenuity and artifice. The 
 pavement is of variegated marbles, and the walls 
 adorned with representations from the deeds de- 
 scribed in the Old and New Testaments. The 
 windows are of coloured glass, nor must we omit 
 to admire the baptismal font." 
 
 The subsequent adventures of Richard are com- 
 paratively well known. It is positively stated in the 
 chronicles of Zara, that it was at that city that he 
 disembarked, and commenced in disguise his journey 
 to Vienna, no doubt through Croatia. He arrived 
 safely at a hostelry in the Erdberg, and on a Sun- 
 day morning, giving a piece of gold to the mistress 
 to buy fowls, suspicion was excited, and led to his 
 imprisonment. 
 
 The old cathedral of Richard Coeur de Lion 
 was thrown down by the earthquake in 1667; ^ 
 year after Old St. Paul's of London was burned. 
 The new cathedral was completed by Angelo Bian- 
 chi in 1713, the year of the completion of Saint 
 Paul's. The only relic of the old sacristry is the 
 Reliquary, which is truly splendid. Within a high 
 iron gate, in a dark apartment, lighted by day with 
 lamps and candles, is such a quantity of dead men's 
 bones set in gold and jewels, as does not certainly 
 exist in all Europe. A part of a skull, encompassed 
 
KAGUSAN ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENTS. 187 
 
 with gold filagree-work, is called the head of St. 
 Blasius, and looks more like a goblet of Benvenuto 
 Cellini than the skull of a bishop : it is stated by 
 Cerva to have been brought to Ragusa from Greece 
 in 1026. His arms, the left one brought from 
 Venice in 1346, and the right one given by Tomas 
 Falelogus, despot of the Peloponnesus in 1459, are, 
 along with the relics of convents and churches in 
 Bosnia, and skulls and arms of other saints and 
 heroes, all shining in the most precious middle- 
 age goldsmith-craft. Nor are they few in number, 
 but at least forty or fifty pieces ; and I think it 
 probable that some of them must have been of the 
 first centuries of the Christian era, Dalmatia and 
 lUyria having embraced Christianity at so early a 
 period. The curious extracts Gibbon gives about 
 the horror of the later Pagans at the salting and 
 preserving of the heads of the first martyrs, re- 
 curred with great force to my memory, as I looked 
 around and saw the disjecta memhra of mummies 
 glistening by the glare of the lamps, as if they 
 were arms and legs cased in armour of gold enamel. 
 For the historian of subsequent periods, this collec- 
 tion has a moral interest far beyond the art of the 
 goldsmith ; for it was after the conversion of Bosnia, 
 Albania, and Herzegovina to Islamism, that Ra- 
 gusa became the asylum of the Christian element ; 
 and the nobility of character and energy they dis- 
 played in never delivering up to the vengeance of 
 their more powerful neighbours those princes or 
 
188 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 nobles who sought refuge within the precincts of 
 the city, is a subject of honourable pride in the 
 breast of every Eagusan. 
 
 In the body of the church the most venerated 
 object is the pelican altar, containing a representa- 
 tion of a pelican feeding her young with her blood, 
 a symbol of the redemption of mankind by the 
 blood of Christ. Pelicans abound in the lower 
 Narenta, and I am writing this present scripture 
 with the large pen of a Narenta pelican. 
 
 The Ragusans have throughout with great te- 
 nacity adhered to the .Church of Rome ; and the 
 Synod of Basle, in 1433, in a permission to them 
 to trade freely with infidels and schismatics (Turks 
 and Greeks), passed a brilliant eulogium on their 
 fidelity, for it would appear that their political 
 connexion with the Sultans had previously caused 
 some umbrage. Scarce had the surrounding pro- 
 vinces turned Turk when the Reformation broke 
 out in all its fury in Germany, flourished at Fer- 
 rara, and, notwithstanding the silence of the Ragu- 
 san writers on the subject, I was assured that in 
 the middle of the sixteenth century a majority of 
 the youth entertained the principles of the Refor- 
 mation, and the peace of the Republic was seri- 
 ously menaced. One of the absurd Catholic tra- 
 ditions of the town is, that fifteen young men of the 
 first families having, during the reform struggle, 
 refused to salute the Host in the street, were next 
 day found dead ; and to this day, at Stagno, is 
 
RAGUSAN ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENTS. 189 
 
 shewn a place in which a Protestant was immured 
 alive. He is supposed to have been a Sorgo, for 
 the accounts of the period were carefully sup- 
 pressed ; but I was present at a hot and long dis- 
 pute that took place on this subject — a represen- 
 tative of the Sorgo family declaring, with inex- 
 pressible horror, that the heretic was a Caboga. 
 
 Ragusa succeeded to Epidaurus as an Archi- 
 episcopal see, and continued so during all the Re- 
 public, always contesting with Spalato the primacy 
 of the Littorale or coast of Illyria ; but at present 
 it is simply a Bishopric. The present incumbent, 
 a man of distinguished courtly manners, and clear 
 active intellect, debarred by his profession from 
 meddling directly in civil or political affairs, is 
 working out a laudable political end, by means 
 within his legitimate sphere, and is so judicious 
 a patriot as to deserve some mention of his pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 There is now-a-days no Gondola or Boscovich 
 in this city, but a great readiness and capacity for 
 instruction. The nobility, up to the fall of the 
 Republic, were in easy and opulent circumstances ; 
 but after their fleet of three hundred merchantmen 
 was burned or taken, and the Republic merged in 
 the French empire, those who had not landed pro- 
 perty, but lived on the profits of shipping (held 
 ostensibly by a Jew broker), or enjoyed lucrative 
 offices, found themselves in a new and painful po- 
 sition. The citizens have the resources of trade, 
 
190 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 but the prejudices of the aristocracy against trad- 
 ing openly are too strong to be overcome. The 
 Dalmatian is quite different from the Eagusan ; he 
 has a generous heart, but is rude, uncultivated, 
 and spendthrift ; and the remedy for this is a 
 more efficient system of public instruction than 
 that which exists. 
 
 Each city of Dalmatia has its own sphere of 
 action. Zara, nearest to Austria, is the military 
 capital ; Spalato is the seat of the trade of Bosnia ; 
 but Kagusa, from its literary tastes, cultivated man- 
 ners, and the cheapness of living, ought to be the 
 seat of a regular university for the formation of 
 members of the liberal professions, as well as the 
 civilians and clergy, who might in time effect an 
 educational revolution on all the coast, from Istria 
 to Albania, — in short, it is by becoming a univer- 
 sity, and a seat of learning, that Ragusa is most 
 likely to prosper. The Bishop has perfectly under- 
 stood this question. A Dalmatian by birth, he is 
 sensible of the defects of his fellow-countrymen, of 
 their many excellent native qualities which lie dor- 
 mant or are misdirected, and of the necessity of a 
 more enlightened class of rural clergy, as well as 
 of the advantage of enabling the rising generation 
 of Eagusa to have superior instruction on the spot. 
 He is sensible of the great capacity of this people 
 for intellectual pursuits, and has earnestly applied 
 himself to realise the local funds for this excellent 
 object. 
 
RAGUSAN ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENTS. IQl 
 
 The foundations of the Republic for educa- 
 tional or charitable purposes were opulent ; but no 
 sooner did the French invasion spread over the 
 land, than a general scramble took place. The 
 large libraries of the colleges of the Jesuits and 
 Dominicans were sold and dispersed, and the funds 
 of the charitable and educational institutions were 
 appropriated by those who had the care of them. 
 There are, however, fragments of these endow- 
 ments scattered about. The present Bishop has 
 put an end to the usufruct of these by individuals, 
 and has consolidated them so as to found a Lyceum 
 or Philosophical Institution, which promises well. 
 There are, moreover, about 35,000 scudi belonging 
 to the Eagusans in the Monte di Pieta of Rome, 
 and an active negotiation is now going on with the 
 Pope ; and as the people of Ragusa have the most 
 favourable opinion of the justice of the new Pontiff, 
 it is to be hoped that the funds will be speedily 
 realised. 
 
 A visit to the embryo Institution was the oc- 
 cupation of an interesting forenoon. Besides the 
 usual class-rooms, with the apparatus of Natural 
 Philosophy, there is a library, which has begun 
 with three thousand volumes of private donations. 
 Here I found, among other works, a Moliere in 
 Illyrian, as his plays used to be acted a century 
 and a half ago ; and I cannot close this chapter 
 without acknowledging the kind attentions as well 
 as valuable information which I have received on 
 
19^ 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 various subjects, from the Bishop, and from Don 
 Marco Kalugera, who, by his profound and ex- 
 tensive erudition, is the ornament of the Insti- 
 tution. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 RAGUSAN TRADE AND NAVIGATION. 
 
 Ragusa always maintained a traffic with European 
 Turkey, as much from its geographical position as 
 from the political relations existing with the Porte. 
 The enemy of Venice and the ally of Genoa was 
 protected hy the Porte ; and it was the privileges of 
 separate jurisdiction and right of worship in the 
 great cities of the region now called European 
 Turkey, that were the types of the present anoma- 
 lous position of the subjects of foreign powers in 
 the dominions of the Sultan. In Belgrade, Roust- 
 chouck, Silistria, Adrianople, and Sofia, were so- 
 called Ragusan colonies, or, in our own commercial 
 language, factories, in which the consul exercised 
 civil and criminal jurisdiction, even before the con- 
 quest of Constantinople by Mohammed II. 
 
 The Ragusan ambassador at the Porte was 
 therefore an important personage for the Republic ; 
 and the last dragoman of the last legation still lives 
 in Ragusa, in the enjoyment of a green old age. 
 He is an enthusiastic oriental scholar, and even 
 carried complaisance so far as to give me a little 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 dancing-party, in which the waltz, gliding on the 
 marble pavement, reminded me of the Levant 
 He had been brought up as jeune de langues in 
 the time of the Republic, and last saw Constanti- 
 nople in 1805 ; but in consequence of the friendly 
 relations that always existed between Ragusa and 
 the Porte, he was a Turcophile of the heartiest 
 sort. He asked me, with the greatest avidity, for 
 information on the new and altered state of the 
 empire ; and seemed particularly pleased when I 
 informed him, that the severe difficulties Turkey 
 had contended with had produced, upon the whole, 
 a favourable effect; — had braced the latent fibres 
 of coherence, and had roused them out of that 
 torpor, the continuance of which would have in- 
 volved the unavoidable and irremediable fall of the 
 empire. 
 
 Ragusa is still the port of Herzegovina, whence 
 its raw products are exported, and whither its 
 manufactures are imported ; and one day he took 
 me to see the Turkish bazaar outside the town, 
 which is sequestered, for sanatory reasons, off the 
 main southern road, by two stone fences breast 
 high, which permit commerce and conversation 
 without contact ; and the excellent macadamised 
 road to Herzegovina is seen forming a red-brown 
 zigzag line on the face of the hill above. A thick 
 grove of trees planted within the enclosure gives 
 a convenient coolness in the heat of summer ; but 
 in January it was leafless ; and on the other side 
 
RAGUSAN TRADE AND NAVIGATION. 1^5 
 
 of the barrier mules were loading and unloading, 
 while bags of wool and grain were being weighed 
 and delivered. The Moslem merchants and 
 dealers from Herzegovina sat smoking on stone 
 benches within, coolly ordering their servants to 
 bring this bale or that bale, while the Greeks of 
 Eagusa outside were full of agility, and perpetually 
 on the move to turn a penny. The Moslem beyond 
 the barrier, whether he bought or sold, acted the 
 master ; the Greek on this side, whether he 
 bought produce of the Moslem, or sold him manu- 
 factures, seemed his servant. 
 
 " A happy morning, Hadgi," said our Ragusan 
 orientalist to a well-dressed Herzegovinian, who, to 
 use our own slang, had got a touch of the tar-brush 
 in his face ; ** here is a friend of mine who has 
 been lately in Egypt so we fell a talking, and he 
 told me that his father was from the Soudan (coun- 
 try of the upper Nile), and having come to Bosnia 
 with a pasha, whose name I have forgot, had mar- 
 ried a white Bosniac woman, and that he himself 
 was born in Trebigne, and had been four years in 
 Alexandria, in the house of a Bosniac merchant, 
 and was now in trade there. In the midst of our 
 discourse, up came a man, with a bag, to pay the 
 Hadgi money owing him, which was all counted 
 out in ducats and Austrian zwanzigers, which are 
 now the favourite coin of Ragusa ; and whilst they 
 were telling the money, Mr. B. informed me that 
 all the accounts of the State of Ragusa were kept 
 
196 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 in Turkish piastres up to the French invasion, in 
 1809. 
 
 Without entering further into unimportant de- 
 tails, I will state briefly how Ragusa stands with 
 reference to trade. Ever since the destruction of 
 her mercantile navy, in consequence of the French 
 occupation, Ragusa has ceased to possess any ma- 
 ritime importance in the Adriatic ; that is to say, 
 instead of 800 merchant ships of long course, she 
 has now not quite 60. Once exclude a place from 
 trade for a few years, and disperse its capital, 
 and it is very difficult to restore it again ; com- 
 merce being so curiously capricious, abandoning 
 with great unwillingness unfavourable positions 
 that exist for ages on the momentum of some for- 
 mer impulse, and often unaccountably and perti- 
 naciously refusing to occupy positions that appear 
 favourable. But if an unfavourable position be 
 abandoned, it is very difficult to bring about a 
 reaction. 
 
 Undoubtedly the first measure ought to be a 
 total abolition of the Customs duties ; for Dal- 
 matia, nowhere very broad, is here a narrow stripe 
 of a very few miles, so as to render smuggling 
 quite easy, and the collection of an adequate re- 
 venue impossible ; and, at the conclusion of my 
 travels in Dalmatia, I will enter into such details 
 as to justify this proposal, whether considered with 
 reference to the welfare of the people, or the pro- 
 sperity of the revenue. Another of the partial 
 
RAGUSAN TRADE AND NAVIGATION. 197 
 
 ameliorations which suggest themselves, is an al- 
 teration in the duties levied by the Yizier of Her- 
 zegovina on imports and exports, which are no less 
 than twelve per cent, while Austria has a right to 
 have her trade carried on along the land frontier 
 at a three per cent duty. It may be asked how 
 such a state of affairs can exist in a province ad- 
 joining the Austrian states ; but the fact is, that 
 in this part of European Turkey the power of the 
 Porte is nominal. Bosnia and Herzegovina, called 
 by Boue the Vendee of Turkey, from the steadi- 
 ness with which they resist the reform government 
 of the Sultan, have yet to be conquered and re- 
 duced to obedience. The Porte has suppressed 
 all the open revolts with the Nizam troops, but 
 has never been able to counteract the passive re- 
 sistance of the local administrations. The physical 
 force of these provinces has always been subdued 
 in civil war, but the Porte is too happy to humour 
 them when in a state of quiescence ; and Austria 
 has now enough on her hands to let this frontier 
 alone. Firman after firman has been sent to Ali 
 Pasha of Herzegovina, at the instance of Austria, 
 which received no attention from him. 
 
 Another measure would be satisfactory to the 
 Bagusans. The west coast of the Adriatic is Bo- 
 man and Neapolitan, the east coast is Austrian ; 
 but the Levant steamers from Trieste to Corfu, 
 instead of taking the direct line by Dalmatia, cross 
 over to Ancona, coast along to Brindisi, and cross 
 
198 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 over again to Corfu, to the east of the mouth of 
 the Adriatic. The passengers in the steamers fre- 
 quenting the coast of the Levant may be divided 
 into two classes, — the cabin-passengers, who are, for 
 the most part, persons in easy circumstances visit- 
 ing the lands of classical antiquity ; then Turks 
 and Greeks, who take a deck-passage, but by their 
 numbers make up for the smallness of their fares. 
 For the first class of persons, nothing could be 
 more attractive than a visit to the noble ruins of 
 the palace of Diocletian at Spalato ; for in no 
 land of classical antiquity are there any monu- 
 ments of the Homan period so perfectly preserved ; 
 and the Levant line of steamers would gain greatly 
 in attraction by touching at Spalato and Ragusa, 
 as it accomplishes an object congenial to the taste 
 of that class of passengers. Ragusa is, moreover, 
 the point at which Bosniacs going to Constantino- 
 ple might embark, and thus save the long land 
 journey, and the city would gain by being put in 
 direct communication with the Levant. 
 
 One of the drawbacks to the town can scarcely 
 be remedied; the old port under the walls was 
 sufficiently large for the galleys of the middle ages, 
 but unfit for vessels of long course. After the great 
 earthquake it was proposed to build the new city 
 at Gravosa ; but the circumstance of the solid 
 walls of the old town remaining almost uninjured, 
 determined the re-edification on the old spot. Now 
 that lofty ramparts, in the style of the middle ages, 
 
RAGUSAN TRADE AND NAVIGATION. 199 
 
 are of no value, this resolution is regretted ; as 
 Gravosa, which could contain all the largest ships 
 of the Adriatic, is a mile off, and this undoubtedly 
 keeps down the value of house -property in the 
 town. 
 
 With a university and a more moderate Cus- 
 toms tariff, I think that Ragusa might bloom forth 
 anew, if the inhabitants chose to second these 
 measures by putting forth their own energies. It 
 was by self-reliance that their forefathers laid the 
 foundation of that wealth which is passed away. 
 It is by the same qualities that the Greeks of Her- 
 zegovina, now established in Ragusa, have almost 
 a monopoly of the internal trade. And it is by 
 accommodating their position to their means that 
 they have any chance of retrieving their past splen- 
 dour.' Let them remember (I say it in the most 
 friendly spirit, and in gratitude for the reception 
 they gave me), that the aristocracy of England, 
 the most flourishing in the world, has not only en- 
 riched and ennobled itself by alliance with families 
 of wealthy citizens, but does not consider itself de- 
 graded by activity in every department of trade 
 and manufactures. 
 
 ^ The population of Ragusa at the time of the earthquake 
 was 30,000, now 6000. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE DELTA OF THE NARENTA. 
 
 The fortnightly steamers from Trieste have been 
 a great advantage for Dalmatia ; but in reality 
 they have produced a very slight addition to the 
 knowledge of the interior. Few travellers can re- 
 sist preferring the towns visited on the coast, with 
 the conveniences of a well-furnished cabin, books, 
 society, and a good table, to the fatigues of a 
 journey on the Turkish borders, where roads and 
 inns are scarce and bad. It is for this reason that 
 the coast of Dalmatia from Ragusa to Spalato is 
 almost entirely unknown to modern tourists, al- 
 though the Delta of the Narenta is, without ex- 
 ception, that part of the coast in which Nature 
 has poured out her territorial wealth with a libe- 
 rality which equals, if it does not surpass, that of 
 the plains on the opposite coast of Apulia ; but 
 it is, at the same time, the most uncultivated and 
 the most unhealthy spot in Dalmatia. 
 
 The Ragusans speak of the Delta of the Na- 
 renta just as the Romans spoke of the Pontine 
 marshes before they were drained. When I talked 
 
THE NARENTA DELTA. 
 
 '201 
 
 of going there, they shook their heads, and shrugged 
 their shoulders, as if I were going into a plague- 
 hospital ; and one said, that if I caught the fever, 
 I might never have the pleasure of smelling a Lon- 
 don fog again. But the words of an English book- 
 seller recurred to my mind : "A traveller and a 
 writer of travels differ ; the former loses his way 
 if he go out of the beaten track, the latter loses 
 his time if he remain in it, and can never go astray 
 when he has turned his back on the high road." 
 I therefore resolved to see the Narenta ; and meet- 
 ing at the house of a friend the principal merchant 
 and agriculturist of the Delta, he declared that the 
 climate was better than that of Ragusa, and that 
 he was always ill in the city, and never well again 
 until he got back to the Narenta. I then recounted 
 this anecdote in glee to the Eagusans, who an- 
 swered, that if a frog were taken out of a marsh, he 
 was unwell until thrown in the water again ; but 
 the Narentan concluded, that England, being a 
 country of perpetual fog, must be all marsh, and 
 decided that I ought to go with him just to revive 
 me with something akin to my native air. The 
 Hagusans having asked him whether the fogs of 
 the Narenta had ever produced a Gondola, or a 
 Marino Ghetaldi, he felt himself put on his mettle 
 for a genius that might do honour to his birth- 
 place j but he could only recollect a brave admiral 
 of their galleys, and as he was defeated by the 
 Venetians, and hanged for piracy, the debaters 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 felt indisposed to allow the claims of his beloved 
 Narenta. 
 
 It was just as the drum was beating the retreat 
 at seven o'clock that I started from Eagusa. For 
 the last time I traversed the High Street of this 
 friendly town, with its dim lamps and scanty 
 thoroughfare, and ascending to the house of the 
 kind-hearted R., where the Narentan was awaiting 
 me, I took farewell of the family, and went out at 
 the gate of the Pille. Count Giorgi, Don Marco, 
 and some other friends, accompanied me a short 
 way, and it was with the most pleasing recollec- 
 tions of agreeable studies, and the greatest personal 
 attentions, that I took leave of those kind-hearted 
 people. Arrived at Gravosa, we got into a small 
 boat, and were rowed out to a coaster lying at 
 anchor in the middle of the harbour, which had 
 conveyed to Ragusa a quantity of raw produce 
 from the ISTarenta, via the Isthmus, and was now 
 returning with town conveniences to that quarter. 
 It was pitch dark, therefore the best thing I could 
 do was, to go down to the cabin ; where, making up 
 my mattress and pillow, and putting on a fez, and 
 covering myself with my cloak, I was soon fast 
 asleep ; but awoke again in the night with unplea- 
 sant sensations, not so much from the motion, — for 
 our course was shut in from the open Adriatic by 
 the Archipelago, — as by the odour of bilge- water. 
 Going upon deck, I attempted to make out her 
 position, and saw the islands of Mezzo and Giu- 
 
THE NARENTA DELTA. 
 
 203 
 
 pana on our left ; but disliking the dark air, 
 turned-in again. 
 
 Next morning, the light penetrating through 
 the interstices of the hatches, called me on deck, 
 and I found that we were in the Gulf of Stagno, 
 smooth as a pond, the sunshine clear and bright, 
 and the hills on each side rising rapidly from the 
 water's edge. Every where, as at Curzola, the 
 most beautiful flowering shrubs, that seemed to 
 take no note of either February or July, covered 
 all the slopes, leaving an almost imperceptible rim 
 of red gravel next the water. The boat moved 
 slowly, and perceiving a road cut on my right paral- 
 lel to the Gulf, I landed, and seemed to take a 
 delicious morning walk in the park of a million- 
 naire, whose mania was the collection of the choicest 
 evergreen shrubbery. Even the larger trees were 
 pines and olives, which remind one of statesmen out 
 of place, who feel the winter of discontent, but take 
 care never to shew it. 
 
 But .the view fell off* as we came to Stagno, a 
 walled town at the head of the Gulf, hemmed in 
 by mountains, so as to prevent the circulation of 
 the air. The stagnant salt water has a dead look 
 of coarse clouded green glass, and a broad belt of 
 mud and marsh intervening between this water 
 and the massive walls of the town created in me an 
 antipathy to the place ; but a jetty comes out into 
 deep water, and here we landed ; and my com- 
 panion, a plain, blunt, honest man, with a good 
 
204 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 practical knowledge of the country, — a much better 
 quality than historical erudition for a rough ex- 
 pedition like this, — so managed, that, before half 
 an hour had elapsed, bag and baggage were all 
 packed on mules and sent off to the other side of 
 the isthmus that separates Sabioncello from the 
 main land of Dalmatia. 
 
 Stagno, during the Servian empire a fief of 
 the house of Branivoj, was conquered by the 
 Eagusans in 1 333 ; and the present walls, as an 
 inscription states, were built in 1505. The in- 
 terior of the town presents no object of interest ; 
 the walls, gates, and houses are of solid masonry, 
 and the inhabitants of a most sickly appearance. 
 Entering the cafe to get some breakfast, while the 
 Narentan went about his business, in came a man, 
 who went up to the bar, and drank off a large 
 glass of brandy without winking his eyes : whereon 
 I began to ask him some questions about the place, 
 and he abused the fever, for its egotism. 
 
 " This is a terrible place, sir," said he ; " we 
 have no fresh air in summer ; and the fever is so 
 selfish as not only to be an enemy to health, but 
 will allow no other disease to exist in the place 
 but itself." Having seen me on the jetty with the 
 Narentan, he then said, " I suppose, as you are an 
 Englishman, you are in search of raw materials." 
 I confessed that I was, and he asked me where I 
 sold them. I answered, in Paternoster Row, and 
 other places ; but he answered, that he had never 
 
THE NARENTA DELTA. 
 
 205 
 
 heard of that port. He then asked me if busi- 
 ness was good ; and I complained there was too 
 much competition to allow high profits. "Ah, I 
 understand," said he, " no doubt a porto Franco ; 
 the great men carry all before them, and a man 
 who does business on a small scale cannot exist 
 at all/' 
 
 The Narentan now entered the cafe, and we 
 soon started on foot to follow the baggage across 
 the isthmus ; the ground rising gently to a ridge, 
 from which we looked down on a gulf, or angle of 
 sea formed by the peninsula of Sabioncello on the 
 west, and on the east by the mainland. It is this 
 nook which supplies Ragusa with its famous 
 oysters ; and it is supposed that the vicinity of the 
 Narenta is the cause of their fatness and flavour. 
 
 We now embarked in a boat, and made for the 
 Delta : the peninsula on our left covered with 
 woods and villages perched high in the mountains, 
 surrounded with patches of cultivated land ; the 
 main land on our right utterly bare, barren, and 
 rocky. About eight miles on we came to the Bay 
 of Klek, where the territory of the ex-Eepublic 
 of Ragusa ended, and where a morsel of Turkish 
 land comes down to the bay, — a monument of Ra- 
 gusan hatred, — having been ceded to the Porte 
 for the purpose of preventing Venice from being 
 the limitrophe of her little neighbour ; but the 
 Turks by treaty cannot import, or export, or carry 
 on communication with the sea, and an Austrian 
 
206 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 brig lay at anchor to check any smuggling or con- 
 travention of the stipulations. 
 
 As we advanced down the Gulf, it widened to 
 a considerable breadth, — Sabioncello, still high, 
 and draped in forest, but a bluff point, and a 
 rocky island, marked the termination of the hill 
 ridge of the main land. A great break was visi- 
 ble, and the low reed-covered coast of the Delta 
 was seen a-head to our right. At length, within 
 an hour of sunset, we found ourselves at the mouth 
 of the left branch of the Narenta, with the land- 
 scape just like that of the Po below Ferrara ; and 
 leaving the sea-green water of the Gulf, we now 
 steered right up into the river, which was red, 
 turbid, and charged with soil, and we found our- 
 selves between low flat banks overgrovwa with reeds, 
 over the tops of which we saw a wide amphitheatre 
 of grey distant rocks. An entire willow, root and 
 branch, undersapped, and fallen from some bank, 
 floated past us ; gun-shots were heard, some faint 
 and distant, others from the immediate neighbour- 
 hood, and the quantity of game was truly pro- 
 digious ; more particularly coveys of wild ducks, 
 pattering, clattering, and scattering the water in 
 their course across the river. 
 
 The water here is six months mixed, and six 
 months fresh. In winter and spring, when the 
 Bora blows, and the rain falls, or the snow melts, 
 the impetuosity of the full volume of water from 
 above keeps it fresh ; but in summer, while the 
 
THE NARENTA DELTA. 
 
 river is low, and the north-west wind accumulates 
 the waste water in the Gulf, the water is very 
 salt. 
 
 After an hour's rowing, the reeds ceased, the 
 ground became more solid, and an artificial bank 
 on our left not only restrained the river, but 
 formed a road ; so we all disembarked, and getting 
 up on it, I saw Fort Opus, the chief place of the 
 district, about three or four miles off, and some of 
 the land of the Delta laid out in vines and mea- 
 dows, but, like the Dutch Polders, much under 
 water. Fort Opus is at the apex of the Delta, or 
 just where the waters separate ; but the left branch, 
 which we ascended, has much less water than the 
 right branch, which is navigable for vessels of se- 
 veral hundred tons, and was ascended in a steamer 
 by the King of Saxony on his visit to Dalmatia. 
 
 It was black night before we arrived at Fort 
 Opus, having got into the boat again for fear we 
 should, in the dark, fall into a quagmire. The 
 gun-shots had entirely ceased, but such a chorus of 
 frogs resounded through the air as I never heard 
 before. At length we landed, and our Narentan 
 led the way through a short street to his own house, 
 which had solid foundations, and uninhabited lower 
 rooms, as the whole town is from time to time 
 under water, with boats sailing through the streets, 
 or lying under the first-floor windows. Having 
 shewn me to my bedroom, we then adjourned to his 
 parlour, a long room with stencilled or papered 
 
208 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 walls, a new chest of drawers covered with gilt 
 coffee-cups, and rush -bottomed sofas ; here his 
 family was brought in, — his wife, his brother and 
 brother's wife, and the aged grandmother, all full 
 of curiosity and kindness, for Fort Opus is not 
 much troubled with strangers. His brother kept 
 a universal store, supplying the whole country, and 
 spoke Italian, but the females of the establish- 
 ment knew only Illyrian. Feeling rather damp 
 and chilly in their fine lugubrious room, I asked 
 where was their usual place of sitting, and they 
 confessed that it was by the kitchen hearth ; so I 
 immediately proposed adjourning there, but instead 
 of going down stairs, we all followed up to the 
 garret with black smoked rafters. A large stone 
 hearth jutted out into the ipiddle of the floor ; old 
 benches were placed on each side for the farm 
 overseers and upper servants, and in the front was 
 a bench of a better sort for the family. Large 
 fagots blazed away on the hearth, a large turkey 
 turned on the spit for supper, and, at the farther 
 end of the hearth, two cats and two pointers 
 shewed themselves sensible of the comfort of the 
 ingleside. The men rose with the gaping jaws of 
 wonder as I entered, not understanding how I could 
 leave the room they considered so fine for a smoky 
 kitchen ; but I made them sit down again, and as I 
 asked one by one his name, the daily employment 
 of each formed the amusement of the evening. I 
 found that the severe distress and hunger of the 
 
THE NARENTA DELTA. 
 
 209 
 
 other districts of Dalmatia were here unknown ; 
 they did not depend upon the potatoe crops ; and if 
 a man has only cash enough for a single musket- 
 charge, he has only to shoot a duck or a pair of 
 francalins and he fares sumptuously. How dif- 
 ferent is the world of yesterday from the world 
 of to-day. In Ragusa, elegant town -life ; here, 
 roughing it in the country ; yonder, polished 
 poverty ; here, patriarchal plenty. On retiring to 
 rest I found my bed to be a broad one of 
 carved walnut- wood ; and the mosquito curtains 
 shewed that these insects must be rather trouble- 
 some in summer. 
 
 Next morning I went out with the Narentan 
 to take a view of the place ; which proved to be 
 a straggling village of 800 inhabitants, its position 
 at the diffluence of the Narenta corresponding in 
 its own petty way with the Batan el Biikur, or cow's 
 chest, at the apex of the Delta of the Nile ; a 
 circumstance which recommended it to the Vene- 
 tians, as it is thus accessible from the sea, and 
 separated from the rest of the land by the two 
 arms of the Narenta. The fortifications no longer 
 exist ; and a row of enormous mulberries, some with 
 trunks fifteen feet in circumference, shew the great 
 depth and excellence of the soil. We then went 
 and paid a visit to the Praetor of the district, an 
 active and energetic man, who has been of great 
 service to the people. The water used to be very 
 bad, but he has constructed a curious cistern ; it 
 
 p 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 spreads out on the top, so as to catch the rain- 
 water, and has Roman statues and funereal monu- 
 ments inserted in the walls. With the filters of 
 Egypt nothing could be better than the water of 
 the Narenta ; but as it passes through Mostar, a 
 filthy Turkish town, the capital of Herzegovina, 
 eight hours higher, they have an antipathy to it. 
 There were no mills in the Narenta before his ar- 
 rival, and, strange to say, the inhabitants got their 
 corn ground within the Turkish frontier until he 
 erected mills. In the immediate environs of the 
 town was a large mulberry-nursery which he had 
 planted, and in which the prisoners of the 
 praetorship were working ; the principal purchaser 
 of these mulberry - shoots being the Pasha of 
 Herzegovina, who has planted many thousands 
 on his lands. He is, from his great wealth, al- 
 most the only Pasha in the Ottoman empire who 
 retains his official rank along with hereditary local 
 wealth and influence ; the invariable policy of the 
 Porte ever since 1820 having sought to disconnect 
 political power from hereditary local influences. 
 
 We crossed in a boat to the left bank of 
 the river, where a hill projected, crowned by a 
 round fort, whither we ascended, and took a ge- 
 neral view of the valley. The distant hills to the 
 north-eastward that separated Bosnia from Herze- 
 govina were white with snow. Nearer me, just 
 where the river issued from Herzegovina, and 
 meanders through the plain, was the village of 
 
THE NARENTA DELTA. 
 
 211 
 
 Metcovich, with a bazaar of exchange with the 
 Turks. The hills that enclose the valley were per- 
 fectly barren, there being no medium between the 
 rich and neglected soil of the plain and the sterility 
 of the hills around. Looking down towards the 
 gulf, the delta, enclosed by the two branches of 
 the river, was spread out as on a map ; Fort Opus, 
 with its gardens, vineyards, and mulberry-nurseries, 
 looked like a civilised spot ; nearer the sea, sheets 
 of water were mingled with patches of cultivated 
 land, but lower down all was abandoned to wild 
 fowl ; beyond this, a narrow stripe of sea was visible, 
 and the bold range of the Sabioncello limited the 
 prospect to the west. 
 
 The Narenta was, in the time of the Lower 
 Empire, a nest of pirates, who infested the Adriatic, 
 and were extirpated by the Doge Orseolo, and a 
 large Venetian force, in 991 ; for such was their 
 power, that not only Venice, but many of the small 
 states of the Adriatic, paid them tribute. From 
 this time, up to the twelfth century, when the dis- 
 trict became a part of the kingdom of Hungary, 
 they governed themselves by a species of oligar- 
 chical constitution, the leading family being that 
 of the Vladimirs or Vladimirovich, one branch of 
 whom was for several generations on the throne of 
 Bulgaria ; subsequently Christopher, king of Bos- 
 nia, was also of this race, and, except the Nemanje, 
 it would be difficult to name one more illustrious 
 between the Adriatic and the Black Sea. The 
 
212 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Turkish invasion was a great blow to them ; but, 
 in 1646, John Vladimirovich drove them out, and 
 handed over the territory to the Venetian Republic, 
 which founded the mud-walled Fort Opus in 1685, 
 just after the eventful siege of Vienna, and the ex- 
 pulsion of the Turks from Hungary. 
 
 The renowned race of Vladimirovich still lin- 
 gers in the place : and though in poverty, and 
 fallen to the condition of peasants, they still care- 
 fully preserve the title-deeds of their lands in Bos- 
 nia and Herzegovina, and other documents authen- 
 ticating their lineage. Musing on the past splen- 
 dour of this race, I asked the Narentan to get me 
 a sight of one of its scions, and the head of the 
 family was at once sent for. I sat by the fire as 
 he entered, and found him to be about forty-five 
 years of age, of middle stature, with a greasy red 
 cap on his head, and rude sandals on his feet. A 
 row of pins and darning-needles stuck in a blue 
 jacket, like that of a sailor, at first disposed me to 
 smile ; but as he timidly kissed my hand, my mind 
 turned to the hue of compassion, and the words of 
 Gondola crossed my recollection : " His kingdom is 
 the narrow meadow, and his lieges are the bleating 
 sheep." 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE FRONTIER OF HERZEGOVINA. 
 
 Next day, the Prsetor and the Narentan going 
 on business to Metcovich, the bazaar on the Turk- 
 ish frontier, I accompanied them thither. Cross- 
 ing the river, we found saddled horses, and mount- 
 ing them, proceeded along the bank above the 
 diffluence, the rich undrained land stretching away 
 to our right and left. Half an hour up is a strong 
 tower or keep, called the ** Torre di Norin," or 
 tower of Narona, often alternately taken by Turks 
 and Venetians, and, on the evacuation of Dalmatia 
 by the French, the last place to surrender. The 
 commandant having at length expended his ammu- 
 nition, went off in the night into Turkey to avoid 
 becoming a prisoner. Farther up, on the left, was 
 Vido, the Narona of the Romans, but now a heap 
 of mounds and ruins ; the statues and domestic 
 utensils frequently found there, however, shew, by 
 their elegance and excellence, that the population, 
 cultivation, and civilisation, must have equalled 
 
214 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 that of the best towns in Italy itself. What the 
 substratum of the population of Illyria really was, 
 no one seems able to say with certainty, as the long 
 list of classical names, recognised to be essentially 
 Slaavic, seems to justify a theory of the Illyrians 
 being Thracian. Gaj, and many other most eru- 
 dite Slaavists, maintain that the irruptions of the 
 Croats from the Carpathians in the fifth and 
 seventh centuries, were later invasions of a Ro- 
 manised but aboriginal Slaavic country. 
 
 Metcovich, the last place on the frontier, is 
 situated on a steep hill, stretching out into the 
 plain, and is very badly built, the houses being 
 roofed with unhewn flagstones, placed on each 
 other like slates ; while the streets connecting 
 the dificrent parts of the village are cut into 
 staircases, in consequence of the steepness of the 
 hill : but, from its position, it is healthier than 
 Fort Opus, and a small part of the plain being 
 drained and planted, shews what a magnificent 
 region this might be, if it were all systemati- 
 cally rendered fit for cultivation. The best house 
 of the place was that of the Syndic, who had 
 married the sister of my host of Fort Opus about 
 a month before ; and the furniture and dinner- 
 service was fresh, new, and homely, such as one 
 might expect of a honeymoon household on the 
 Narenta. 
 
 We now embarked in a boat, and rowed up the 
 river to the bazaar. A ditch of about ten feet 
 
FRONTIER OF HERZEGOVINA. 
 
 wide, crossing the valley from hill to hill, formed 
 the boundary between the two empires that for so 
 many years had battled every inch of ground from 
 the Julian Alps to the plains of Wallachia. On 
 the Austrian side of the boundary were the offices, 
 and on the Turkish a wall, with slides like coffins 
 for the exchange of commodities. The Sirdar, a 
 tall, wiry old soldier, now marshalled up the fron- 
 tier-guard in a row, while the Prsetor inspected 
 them ; and they looked just like Turkish irregu- 
 lars, all wearing frieze robes, with the fez, and a 
 belt of pistols and dirks. 
 
 The Sirdar made a long speech to the Prsetor, 
 requesting a new roof to the guard-house, but he 
 decided that the old one should be repaired. We 
 then had some talk about the place, and were in- 
 formed that this part of the valley is occasionally 
 infested with wolves, who come down from the 
 upper country ; but the animals understand the 
 business of defensive war in their own w^ay just 
 as well as the Sirdar and his pandours : the oxen 
 form a circle, with the calves within, and gore 
 outwards ; while the horses join their heads in- 
 wards, and kick outwards in a ring. 
 
 Metcovich is seven hours distant from Mostar, 
 the capital of Herzegovina, the principal item of 
 sale to the Turks being salt ; but it is evident that 
 if the climate were better, it is well situated for 
 trade, having easy access to the sea, and a valley 
 road to Mostar, instead of one up hill and down 
 
^16 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 dale, as from Eagusa. Dalmatia being a narrow 
 stripe of land intervening between Turkey and the 
 Adriatic, cannot do without the trade of the in- 
 terior, and the Bosniacs, unable to communicate 
 conveniently with the Black Sea, the Mediterra- 
 nean, or the "Adriatic, are compelled to resort to 
 Dalmatia ; and all along the frontier, at every 
 twenty or thirty miles, there is a bazaar and 
 quarantine establishment, as here. Previous to 
 1814, the caravans travelled freely down to any of 
 the ports on the coast; but a terrible plague having 
 in that year desolated Macarsca and other , places, 
 the trade became confined to the bazaars on the 
 frontier, to the great loss, damage, and decadence 
 of all the small towns on the coast, which ceased 
 to enjoy the privilege of a caravan guarded by- 
 health officers ; but Spalato and Ragusa have in 
 latter years had a restoration of this privilege. 
 Thus, however much Christian Dalmatia and Mos- 
 lem Bosnia may hate each other, they cannot do 
 without each other. Cool mountainous Bosnia 
 needs the oil of hot Dalmatia, and dry Dalmatia 
 needs in her turn the cattle of the verdant Bosniac 
 pastures. Inland Bosnia needs the colonials and 
 manufactures of maritime Dalmatia, and poor Dal- 
 matia needs the corn of the rich alluvial valleys of 
 Bosnia. But one has only to look at this valley of 
 the Narenta, and see that Dalmatia is infinitely 
 more dependent on Bosnia than she ought to be. 
 The snipe, the pelican, and the wild duck, occupy 
 
FRONTIER OF HERZEGOVINA. 
 
 territories which, with a moderate expenditure of 
 capital, might be of immense benefit to the king- 
 dom ; and although Dalmatia produces corn for 
 only three months' consumption, this very territory, 
 which ought to be the first cultivated, remains the 
 last. 
 
 The Narenta is the most considerable of all the 
 rivers that flow into the east of the Adriatic, from 
 Friuli to Greece ; its course is not extended in 
 comparison with that of other rivers, but it collects 
 all the waters of Herzegovina, and in the rainy 
 season deposits the rich humus in these fertile 
 plains. The attention of the Government seems 
 at length to have been drawn to the advantages 
 likely to be derived from the drainage and cultiva- 
 tion of this district, for which two methods present 
 themselves. The first is the so-called honificazione 
 per sedimento, which arbitrarily regulates the direc- 
 tion of the river during the rains, when the water is 
 full of alluvial matter, and then spreads them over 
 the marshy land, and, restraining the sediment 
 within fixed bounds, produces a slow spontaneous 
 rise of the soil ; the other method is the usual 
 drainage by ditches and canals. The first of these 
 methods is certainly the most complete, but as it 
 could scarcely be efi^ected under an expense of a 
 million and a half of florins, the other plan seems 
 the more feasible ; for although by canalisation a 
 considerable amount of surface would be lost for 
 cultivation, yet a commencement can be made with 
 
218 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 a few thousand florins, and the accumulating reve- 
 nues of the first years would gradually furnish the 
 funds to complete the whole. There is another 
 circumstance worthy of notice that recommends the 
 latter plan ; it is the silk culture that must form 
 the future mine of wealth of the Narenta, and the 
 mulberry not only produces a large quantity of 
 leaves when planted on the ridge edging a river 
 or canal, but their roots, interlacing themselves in 
 the embankment, are the best preservatives of the 
 labours of drainage. 
 
 What, then, is the best official machinery for 
 efifecting this object, civil or military ? I confess 
 that I lean to the latter, under the actual circum- 
 stances of the Austrian empire. As a general 
 rule, it is better for parties having a personal in- 
 terest in such undertakings to accomplish them, 
 than a bureaucratic Government. I am willing 
 to admit that what I have seen of the Praetor of 
 Fort Opus (if he had funds) is against my own 
 theory ; but in the simplicity and directness of a 
 military administration, the activity of the indivi- 
 duals in the subordinate details could be more 
 easily harmonised with a comprehensive general 
 plan. What is to prevent the Government from 
 getting a body of prisoners to commence imme- 
 diately digging a few canals, and making the be- 
 ginning, and then settling a military colony ? On 
 the Save and the Danube, where the soil is rich, 
 the military colonists are well ofl^ ; but in the Banal 
 
FRONTIER OF HERZEGOVINA. 
 
 219 
 
 regiments, which constitute the Switzerland of 
 Croatia, this romantic region (which we will visit 
 with the reader before we are done), although 
 worthy of the pencil of a Salvata Rosa, can barely 
 feed the population, and the officer is often com- 
 pelled to order a man to his turn of duty, when 
 he knows that he cannot be well spared from the 
 laborious cultivation of an ungrateful soil. The 
 wide Atlantic separates the Highlands of Scotland 
 from the rich alluvia of Upper Canada ; but here 
 is a robust mountain population scraping the scanty 
 soil in the wild woods, rocks, and mountains of 
 Croatia, while, within a few days' march of them, 
 the rich alluvial deposits of the Narenta accu- 
 mulate with the useless rapidity of a miser's 
 hoard. 
 
 The climate at present is so bad that it de- 
 serves notice. Along with the heat of summer, 
 and the humidity of winter^ the mephitic vapours 
 arising from the large earth-enriching deposits of 
 putrefied animal and vegetable matter are most in- 
 jurious to human life ; the most healthy suffer 
 from sluggish digestion, and obstinate liver com- 
 plaints arise from the imperfect oxygenisation of 
 the air ; so that last year, in Fort Opus, in a 
 population of 680 souls, the deaths were 58, and 
 the births 30, while the average deaths in the 
 corresponding latitudes of southern Europe are 
 35 per thousand. The deadly fevers commence 
 in August, and the deaths usually take place in 
 
2^20 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 November and December ; before, therefore, a co- 
 lony be settled, a few preliminary canals ought to 
 be cut by the convicts of the military frontier, 
 to avert the evil effects of the insalubrity of the 
 climate. 
 
CHAPTER XVIIL 
 
 MACARSCA. 
 
 After another trip through the polders and 
 marshes, which added nothing to my previous 
 stock of knowledge, I embarked in a large stout 
 boat for Macarsca, a town on the mainland, mid- 
 way between the Narenta and Spalato, in company 
 with an eel speculator returning to Sebenico ; and, 
 on a fine sunshiny morning we pushed off, and 
 descended the right bank of the river, which is 
 much wider than the other, the delta being now on 
 our left hand. I observed a great many vineyards 
 on this branch considerably elevated ; for, during 
 the inundation, the vine-branches and roots form a 
 sort of net which intercepts the alluvial deposits, 
 and the soil thus annually rises a trifle. The oars 
 and the current combined soon carried us down 
 to the mouth of the river, the brown muddy waters 
 eddying among low sedgy islands, which were 
 gradually acquiring cohesion, from the soil which 
 the sea repelled and settled. Beyond the mouth 
 of the rivQr, a rocky point of the mainland jutting 
 out into the sea protected an anchorage from the 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 north-west wind, and this entrance goes by the 
 name of Porto ToUero. 
 
 Eounding the point, the delta was gradually 
 excluded from view, and I found myself in the 
 wide open gulf, between the peninsula of Sabion- 
 cello and the mountain range on the coast of the 
 mainland, which was from its boldness visible forty 
 miles at least. The wind was easterly ; and the 
 oars being laid aside, the sails were set, but instead 
 of cutting off the bays, and steering right across 
 to our destination, they kept close in shore, and 
 seemed terrified lest they should ever be fifty yards 
 from the land. I remonstrated with them, and 
 asked why they did not run down the gulf with so 
 good a wind ; for my patience was out, in spite of 
 an amusing French novel which I read to kill time. 
 But they urged the danger of Bora ; and after a 
 sharp altercation the steersman said, " We don't 
 pretend to know your business, how can you know 
 ours? When you get to Macarsca you may risk 
 your life as you choose, but you cannot make us 
 risk ours. If no Bora came, we might be at 
 Macarsca in five hours with the wind ; but if it 
 should come, we might be blown Heaven knows 
 where." Tedious as this sort of navigation was, 
 I afterwards found that the man was right, that 
 no craft can withstand the vehemence of a Bora 
 in February and March, and the only chance is 
 to keep within a few yards of the shore ; but how 
 wearily did I sit I skirting the bays, and tantalised 
 
MACARSCA. 
 
 223 
 
 by the headlands, to which a slight touch of the 
 helm could have carried us with rapidity. The 
 coast was generally rocky and cavernous, and each 
 bold cape shone sunnily ahead, like the objects in 
 the voyage of life, so ardently wished, so painfully 
 approached, and so barren on attainment. 
 
 My companion had not much conversation, and 
 answered every word with " per servirM^ (at your 
 service). " The wind has slackened," said I. 
 
 Per servirla," said he. " It threatens to rain," 
 said I. ** At your service," quoth he. As night 
 came on, rain, indeed, soon began to fall, and 
 scirocco ; and, as reading was now out of the 
 question, my patience was well worn out, when, 
 doubling the last point, I saw the lights of Ma- 
 carsca gleaming through the windows, and soon 
 landed on the beach. My friends knowing that 
 there was no proper inn at the place, I had a letter 
 to Signer I., a Dalmatian man of letters, and I 
 entered his house by a large outside stair, facing the 
 sea ; but he not being at home, a message was sent 
 to him at the Casino, informing him of the arrival 
 of a stranger, and back came another message about 
 dried eels and commercial transactions in Illyrian, 
 which I could not understand. In the midst of the 
 imbroglio, however, in came the master of the 
 house, to whom I presented my letter ; w^hich hav- 
 ing read, he indulged in a roar of laughter, and 
 gave me a hearty shake of the hand and a welcome 
 to Macarsca. The riddle was soon solved. My 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 cap had been blown into the sea by the scirocco, 
 and my fellow-passenger having lent me his jacket 
 with a hood until I could get at my hat-box, his 
 household, seeing me appear in this strange figure, 
 had stated me to be a Greek from the Narenta. 
 
 My host was a man of herculean thews and 
 sinews, and a countenance expressive of great good 
 nature, while his conversation was very interesting. 
 He had a large library for a private individual in 
 a place like this, — not a few cases and shelves, but 
 a large room full of books. He had never written 
 any great work, but many curious articles in jour- 
 nals, on Dalmatia. He had a small landed pro- 
 perty in the neighbourhood ; and his brother being 
 the principal merchant of the place, he had an in- 
 terest in the business, enough to keep him from 
 being a mere literary idler. The most interesting 
 person of his household was a bedridden female 
 servant, one hundred and two years of age, who 
 had been in his family since 1775, He took me 
 up to her room to see her, and there lay the help- 
 less relict of humanity free from pain, — her shri- 
 velled mummy head shaking from side to side on 
 the pillow with paralysis. Every word she pre- 
 ceded with " Fala Bogo, if it be the will of God." 
 She said she awaited death without impatience, for 
 she knew it was coming quickly ; and expressed her 
 sentiments of gratitude to her kind protector, who 
 had cherished her in this helpless state for so many 
 years, as if she had been his great-grandmother. 
 
MACARSCA. 
 
 A scene in a pantomime, all of a sudden 
 changing from stormy darkness and midnight pi- 
 racy to a sunrise on the Sicilian coast, bears some 
 resemblance to the aspect under which I had 
 entered the harbour yesternight and the scene of 
 next morning when I looked out of my windows. 
 Who ever heard of Macarsca ? I confess I never 
 did before coming to Dalmatia, and a prettier 
 situation can scarce be imagined. The town lies 
 in the fashion of a crescent facing the sea. A 
 marine parade, having the regularity of an English 
 sea-bathing place, but without the monotony of one 
 house resembling another, like Birmingham buttons 
 out of the same mould. All the houses are of 
 cream-coloured freestone, many of them polished 
 smooth, and several with elaborately cut balconies, 
 having quite a town air. Macarsca had been up 
 to 1814 a place of considerable wealth and trade, 
 in consequence of the caravans that came down 
 from Turkey ; but the great plague of that year, 
 and the subsequent interruption of the caravans, 
 had caused the place to return to a mere agricul- 
 tural and fishing subsistence. Behind the town 
 are pretty enclosed gardens, sloping gently up- 
 wards, with here and there a plot of grass, on 
 which may be seen a white goat with tinkling 
 bells sporting with the children of the house, or 
 cropping what vegetation he can fall in with from 
 the winter herbs. Behind the gardens is an ex- 
 tensive wood of olives, as thick as such a wood can 
 
 Q 
 
2^6 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 grow in the steep concave slopes of the basin that 
 half encircles the bay, beyond which the rocks rise 
 up quite perpendicularly, until the brow of their 
 crests shews a pure white mass of thick snow : but 
 Macarsca pays for its picturesque position in sum- 
 mer, by the intensest heat on the coast. 
 
 Two objects, conveying the most opposite sen- 
 sations, terminate the crescent- shaped town. At 
 the tip of the north-western horn is the plague 
 cemetery, an enclosure close to the sandy beach, 
 where every family in the town mourns a parent 
 or kinsman, which the urchins to this day shun in 
 their gambols, and in which the departed prospe- 
 rity of the town seems to slumber with the dead. 
 At the south-eastern horn is a venerable group of 
 trees, through which rushes a copious stream from 
 the mountain above, and beyond which, a few yards 
 off, are the shells and pebbles of the beach ; and 
 had the ruins of an altar caught my eye, I might 
 have asked myself if the sylvan mysteries of the 
 Druids had their origin in the rites of Phoenicians 
 or Pelasgi. 
 
 " This was our parliament," said my host, as 
 we stood under a thick tree, and looked up the 
 stream winding through the grove from its unseen 
 source ; " other cities of Dalmatia had their Loggia, 
 but this grove was the Senate of Macarsca, where 
 council was held in the open air." 
 
 The Turkish war of the sixteenth century re- 
 duced the town of Macarsca, like many others, to 
 
MACARSCA. 
 
 a few mere huts, the real habitations of the people 
 being caves in the mountain, with an artificial wall 
 in the front, so that they could be attacked only 
 on one side. When at length, in 1645, the country 
 side rose and drove the Turks away, they sought 
 Venetian protection through the Bishop, assisted 
 by seven gentlemen, who met under the thickest 
 shade of the grove ; and when words ran high, the 
 Prelate, Carlo Pietro, interposed to moderate the 
 rage of faction. " Let your valour in fight," said 
 he, " be like the rushing brook, swollen with the 
 thunder cloud, but let the warbling of the birds in 
 these green branches commend harmony to our 
 councils." 
 
 They formed a Patriarchal Pepublic under Ve- 
 netian protection, with a primitive constitution of 
 their own, for they received no garrison from 
 Venice, but only military stores, and governed 
 themselves by a Council of Nobles, and a demo- 
 cratic assembly called the Community ; subse- 
 quently they procured a noble Venetian as Presi- 
 dent, but elected his Chancellor or Secretary, and 
 the Eepublic was too happy to have such energetic 
 auxiliaries. By the compact she could not even 
 create nobles in Macarsca, but all must be elected 
 by three -fourths of the Council. The Venetian 
 President administered justice, both civil and 
 criminal, under the surveillance of three assessors 
 named by the Council of the Nobles, who could 
 deliberate but not vote, and were called the Eye 
 
228 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 of the People. The Venetian, therefore, unless 
 he were a man of great nerve, seldom dared to 
 stand alone in his decisions. Their financial af- 
 fairs were managed by an elective Camerlengo ; 
 the revenue was derived from taxes on wine, flesh, 
 and fish ; and in conclusion, all the laws passed 
 in the Council on any subject were, by the organic 
 statute, valid for twenty years only, and if not re- 
 newed, lapsed into desuetude ; thus recognising the 
 vanity of human pretence to infallible wisdom or 
 foresight. 
 
 Xext morning, at daybreak, I embarked for 
 Spalato in a large trabacolo, or lugger ; a stiff 
 southerly breeze filling the large latine mainsail, 
 and impelling us forward at a rapid rate, so that 
 the neat little town of Macarsca was soon lost be- 
 hind a rocky point. A moderate sea was running, 
 isolated clouds chequered the heavens, and the 
 coast on our right rose from the water's edge, with 
 the dark green of the olive-plantations next the 
 water, the red and brown of the rocks above, and, 
 superior to all, the crests of the mountain-chain 
 still draped in snowy white. The voyage from 
 the Narenta had disgusted me ; but here, as I sat 
 in the hatchway, and the boat scudded along, with 
 the eddies of foam boiling astern, I felt all the 
 exhilaration which the rapid motion, the changeful 
 scene, and the unconscious passage of headland 
 after headland, could scarce fail to produce. Forty 
 or fifty miles of the coast were distinctly visible ; 
 
MACARSCA. 
 
 229 
 
 an Alpine wall overlooking the green sea, its 
 gloomy shades broken with brilliant patches of 
 sunshine, revealing mountain and flood, terraced 
 vine, and eyrie village, in that agitated mood of 
 nature which vacillates between smiling calm and 
 frowning storm. As we advance, the scenery 
 changes in character ; the chain sinks into mo- 
 derate ridges, in their intervals affording glimpses 
 of fertile and verdant plains, in which the spires 
 of village churches mingle with lofty trees, and the 
 snow-peaks, though still visible, are some miles in- 
 land. 
 
 A white tower, like an obelisk, seen against a 
 grey cloud, well up the coast, was pointed out to 
 me by the brown finger of the helmsman, with the 
 single word, " Spalato." This was the tall cam- 
 panile of the temple-cathedral ; and though the 
 mast nodded, and the canvass strained with the 
 breeze, impatience possessed me, until, rounding 
 the point of the mole, one of those grand harbour 
 prospects spread out before me which peculiarly 
 exercised the pencil of Claude. The palace of 
 Diocletian, with a long and imposing array of pil- 
 lars and arches, rose from the water, mingled with 
 the swelling sails of vessels arriving and depart- 
 ing ; the gardens and villas of the environs curved 
 round in a bay ; while the empurpled isles of the 
 Archipelago, some miles distant, lay like blocks 
 of porphyry on the horizon, and completed the pa- 
 norama. 
 
230 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 As we arrived between one and two o'clock, 
 which is the dinner-hour of the Customs officers, 
 I sat on the deck of the trabacolo in a state of 
 great impatience : the harbour was full of these 
 vessels, too large to be called boats, and too small 
 to be called ships. One large one next us had 
 several Turks on board, with blue-checked turbans 
 and scarlet robes, who proved to be Bosniacs. They 
 had brought manufactured goods from Trieste, 
 which they were taking home with them. A new 
 stone quay, about forty yards broad, intervenes be- 
 tween the water and the palace of Diocletian ; and 
 it is only by looking closely that you can perceive 
 it to be one uniform edifice, and not a row of 
 houses fronting the quay. It is an inhabited 
 ruin ; the grand gallery, or crypto-porticus, has 
 all its interstices built up, with here a green 
 Venetian blind, there a pole on which clothes are 
 drying ; here you discover the archivolts and co- 
 lumns, there they are obliterated by middle-age 
 battlements, or modern house-building. The ori- 
 ginal stages are not adhered to : it was two lofty 
 floors, now you see three and four floors, with the 
 modern windows within the old shell ; the base- 
 ment of the front is obscured with shops, but here 
 and there an open space shews the grand massive 
 old Homan masonry, the joinings as clear, and the 
 parallelograms as perfect, as in the last years of 
 the third century. 
 
 A boat, very little larger than a coffin, took me 
 
MACARSCA. 
 
 231 
 
 from the trabacolo to the quay ; and my baggage 
 being passed, I got into lodgings which a friend 
 had engaged for me, as I designed Spalato to be 
 my head -quarters in Dalmatia. My rooms were 
 situated in the centre of the palace, for one-third 
 of the population of Spalato lives within the walls 
 of this grand edifice. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN. 
 
 Before I ascend to the description of this noble 
 ruin, or descend to the description of my own ad- 
 ventures, let me first give the reader a general 
 prospect of the town and its environs. Spalato is 
 situated on a peninsula, in the form of a spear- 
 blade, or oblong hand-mirror, that intervenes be- 
 tween the Gulf of Salona and the Adriatic. It 
 is placed on the outer shore of the peninsula that 
 looks to the sea ; and at a quarter of an hour's 
 distance on the inner side of the peninsula, the 
 spectator, after passing a slight ridge, sees before 
 him the Gulf of Salona, the shores of which form 
 the noblest part of the whole land : for beyond 
 the smooth wide waters of the bay he observes a 
 rich broad band of smiling villages and gardens, 
 dotted, at regular distances, with Venetian castles, 
 beyond which rises the rugged mountain-chain of 
 Caprarius ; and as the fairest races come of mixed 
 breeds, this locking of water in the embrace of 
 land has produced such beauty as is nowhere else 
 to be found in Dalmatia. 
 
PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN. 
 
 233 
 
 The town itself is a parallelogram, the length 
 of which is double its breadth, or, in other words, 
 two squares in juxtaposition ; one of which is de- 
 lineated by the shell or outward walls of the palace, 
 and the other by a mass of streets to the westward, 
 in the middle of which is the largest open space 
 in the town, called the Piazza dei Signori, but of 
 irregular medieval and modern architecture, — the 
 ex-palace of the Venetian Count, or Governor, 
 which is the present guard-house, being mingled 
 with meaner houses. Most of the streets leading 
 to or from this square are dark and narrow, of an 
 average breadth of ten feet ; one, called the Calle 
 Larga, or broad street, leading to the quay, is cer- 
 tainly not twenty feet broad. At the eastern side 
 of this square is the western gate of the palace, 
 the Porta Ferrea, still almost perfect, a magnifi- 
 cent vaulted entrance, with a horreum, or gallery 
 above, used as a chapel. 
 
 The interior of the palace is so choked up with 
 narrow streets and edifices huddled together, that 
 when I first passed under the vault of the Porta 
 Ferrea, and plunged into its labyrinths, I was dis- 
 appointed ; but moving onwards to the heart of the 
 mass, I suddenly found myself in the Piazza of the 
 temple, and all that I had heard and read of the 
 glories of Spalato burst upon me instantaneously. 
 Never shall I forget that moment bright and fresh 
 in my remembrance, — no drudgery of local re- 
 search has been able to deaden its impression. 
 
234 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Athens, Eome, and Thebes, I had seen in ruins, — 
 here the majesty of imperial antiquity conveyed 
 august illusions of contemporaneous existence. Of 
 the Peristyle, which forms three sides of the piazza 
 in which I stood, not one of its columns of rose 
 granite was displaced. On my left, the Temple of 
 Jupiter, with the shell internally and externally 
 almost as perfect as when the architect rested from 
 his labours, was guarded by one of those eternal 
 Sphynxes which the Nile sent forth over all the 
 Eoman empire, to remind the world of the birth- 
 place of architecture. 
 
 As nations in their material and intellectual 
 civilisation experience the phases of slow growth, 
 vigorous climax, declension, and subjugation by 
 some stronger element, so architecture seems to 
 have performed the same extensive cycle. Rude 
 massive grandeur, that loses half its due effect by 
 ignorance of the principles of proportion, is the 
 characteristic of the earlier efforts in Egypt ; cen- 
 turies later the beau ideal is discovered and real- 
 ised in Greece, and the Parthenon boasts of the 
 highest effort of the graceful in architecture. Ma- 
 jestic was the character of Roman architecture, 
 with much of the utility and variety that sprang 
 from the boundless wealth and power of the mis- 
 tress of the world. In the Byzantine we see the 
 sad downward progress of taste, and in the Gothic, 
 its final disruption, and reformation on a princi- 
 ple diametrically opposite to that of classical archi- 
 
PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN. 
 
 235 
 
 tecture. The ornament is no longer subordinate to 
 the general design, — the design seems to be struck 
 off so as to shew the ornament to most advantage. 
 Standing at Westminster, on the shores of the 
 Thames, I gaze with admiration on that extended 
 pile which is so consonant to the past history of 
 our great and excellent Fatherland, and feel that 
 in this edifice northern architecture has reached 
 the highest pitch of its peculiar beauty. I sympa- 
 thise with the old English architecture, but I feel 
 the profound subordination of the Gothic to the 
 classical style, from its want of simplicity, that 
 irresistible postulate of the sublime and beautiful. 
 Begun in 286, and completed in 301, the impres- 
 sion produced by this remarkable palace in Spalato 
 is Koman — essentially Roman, of a late, but still of 
 a fine period, — in the last lustres of the golden age, 
 or at most the faint beginning of the end. 
 
 The bases of my studies were the ground-plans 
 and elevations of the palace, as restored by Adams, 
 in his excellent work on the ruins of the palace of 
 Diocletian at Spalato. Adams was not only an 
 accomplished antiquary, but a most able architect, 
 and only an architect of great skill could have 
 produced such a work. Cassas, the author of the 
 Voyage Pittoresque en Dalmatic, flippantly tells 
 his readers that Adams had seen every thing with 
 the cold egotism of his nation, and very coolly 
 transfers to his own pages Adams's invaluable 
 Spalato Restored without the slightest acknowledg- 
 
S36 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 ment. Without Adams all is confusion, for in 
 consequence of the modern erections subsequent to 
 his visit in the middle of the last century, no living 
 architect could clearly make out the plan ; but the 
 comparison of the plans and sections of his aS^^j^- 
 lato Restored with the existing remains, enables 
 every traveller to have a fair idea of what the 
 palace may have been. 
 
 At the outset we are struck with the enor- 
 mous extent of the palace, which is not less than 
 nine acres and a half ; so that even Constantine 
 Porphyrogenitus speaks of it with admiration, as 
 one of the greatest edifices then extant. In the 
 time of Diocletian, his great retinue and a prse- 
 torian cohort could be lodged with convenience 
 in it. Sixteen towers gave strength and even 
 elegance to the edifice, of which the largest were 
 those at the four corners. The back of the edifice 
 looked to the north-east, or land-side, and here 
 was the principal entrance, the Porta Aurea, or 
 golden gate, which led to the Peristylium, or great 
 court of granite columns ; and the cross street, 
 which intersected the principal passage at right 
 angles, was terminated at each end by gates — the 
 one, the Porta Ferrea, or gate of iron, the other, 
 the Porta JEnea, or gate of brass, which are so- 
 called to this day. 
 
 This Peristylium, or court of granite columns, 
 of which we give a view in its present condition 
 (see Plate), was flanked by two temples ; the 
 
PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN. 
 
 237 
 
 greater of Jupiter, and the smaller of Esculapius ; 
 the former, a lofty octagon, was ascended by a stair 
 of fifteen steps ; an uneven number being generally 
 used in the temples of the ancients, that, beginning 
 to move with the right foot, they might, of course, 
 place it first upon the uppermost step in order to 
 enter the temple ; a form which was accounted 
 respectful in approaching the Deity. 
 
 From the Peristylium, or court of granite 
 columns, the Eoman entered the principal inha- 
 bited part of the palace : first was the Porticus, of 
 Corinthian order ; then the circular dome-crowned 
 Yestibulum, with the Lares and Penates ; then 
 the Atrium, or quadrangular hall (98 by 45), with 
 its arms and trophies, dedicated to ancestry ; and 
 last of all, the Crypto -porticus, or grand gallery, 
 looking to the south-west, thus facing the sea, and 
 forming a noble promenade of 515 feet in length, 
 in which, during the heat of summer or inclemency 
 of winter, the Emperor could take exercise. This 
 Crypto-porticus was the principal feature of the 
 palace ; and the well-known taste of Diocletian 
 leads us to suppose that the choicest statuary and 
 paintings of the old world must have adorned its 
 walls. The relics of Pompeii give some idea of 
 the daring fancy in ornament, the harmonising 
 contrasts in colour, and the consummate skill in 
 tesselation employed in the domestic architecture 
 of the ancients : and if we relieve these splendours 
 with the latent fascination in the unpretending 
 
238 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 forms of Greek statuary, how puny is the utmost 
 magnificence of Versailles compared with the 
 dwelling of the retired Roman ! 
 
 But to return to matters of fact. Adams, with 
 the eye of an architect, remarks, with great 
 aptitude, — If, from the centre of the Crypto- 
 porticus (or grand gallery facing the sea), we look 
 back to those parts of the palace which we have 
 already passed through, we may observe a striking 
 instance of that gradation from less to greater, of 
 which some connoisseurs are so fond, and which 
 they distinguish by the name of a climax in 
 architecture. The Vestibulum is larger and more 
 lofty than the Porticus ; the Atrium much exceeds 
 the grandeur of the Vestibulum ; and the Crypto- 
 porticus may well be the last step in such a climax, 
 since it extended no less than 517 feet. We may 
 likewise observe a remarkable diversity of form, as 
 well as of dimensions, in these apartments which we 
 have already viewed ; and the same thing is conspi- 
 cuous in other parts of the palace. This was a 
 circumstance to which the ancients were extremely 
 attentive, and it seems to have had a happy effect, 
 as it introduced into their buildings a variety, 
 which if it doth not constitute beauty, at least 
 greatly heightens it ; whereas modern architects, by 
 paying too little regard to the example of the 
 ancients in this point, are apt to fatigue us with 
 a dull succession of similar apartments." 
 
 Such was the Palace of Diocletian ! what now 
 
PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN. 
 
 239 
 
 remains of the edifice ? The shell or outer wall ; of 
 which the best preserved part is the grand gallery 
 facing the sea, and the rest of which is visible in a 
 more or less shattered condition on the other three 
 sides ; for Spalato, like its contemporary Baalbec, 
 being used as a fortification, the rough stone and mor- 
 tar of the middle-age battlements surmount in many 
 places the massive normal masonry of the Roman 
 Empire. The Porta Aurea, or golden gate, still 
 occupies the centre of the land side, but is a sad 
 ruin 5 the arch built up, and the earth of a gar- 
 den with its vegetables growing on a level so that 
 the lower half is under earth. Within the town, 
 fragments of Roman architecture are scattered 
 thick enough, but so obscured and mingled with 
 modern houses as to present a mass of confusion. 
 
 But while science can scarce identify the 
 disjecta membra of the edifice, religious veneration 
 has embalmed the core for the admiration of dis- 
 tant ages. The Peristylium is now the Piazza del 
 Duomo ; the temple of Jupiter is the cathedral of 
 Spalato ; and the temple of Esculapius has become 
 the baptistery. The Cathedral is the best pre- 
 served edifice I ever saw, not even excepting the 
 Pantheon of Rome. Of the body of the edifice not 
 a single stone has been displaced, except an open- 
 ing for light ; for like other Roman temples it was 
 merely the dark dwelling of a God. 
 
 The campanile, which is at the same time a 
 sort of propylon to the edifice, is (maugre some 
 
240 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 lions and griffins in the lowest taste of the Lower 
 Empire), the lightest and airiest thing imagination 
 can conceive, and transcends in elegance every other 
 similar edifice in Italy. It was built by Nicolo 
 Teverde, a common mason of Spalato, in 1416, out 
 of columns and sculptures supplied by the ruins of 
 Salona, and is an admirable effort of native inge- 
 nuity, but interferes with the classic character of 
 the vicinity. The pulpit -doors and font of the 
 cathedral would make any Gothic church admired, 
 from their tracery and middle-age knick-knackery ; 
 but are miserably mean in such a place. With all 
 these deductions, the noble octagon of Diocletian 
 predominates and overwhelms. To that strange 
 spell of unique curiosity and interest with which 
 the traveller first walks up the streets of Pompeii, 
 is added the real presence of an undilapidated 
 structure, worthy of the fame of the greatest of the 
 late emperors. " Among the innumerable monu- 
 ments of architecture constructed by the Komans," 
 says Gibbon, '*how many have escaped the notice 
 of history, how few have resisted the ravages of 
 time and barbarism !" — He that seeks the few must 
 go to Spalato.^ 
 
 1 Gibbon, in his account of the Palace of Diocletian, hesitates 
 between the distinct testimony of Adams, a professed architect, 
 and the Abbate Fortis, who, talking of the rozzezza del seal- 
 pello," evidently confounds the rough rilievi intended to be seen 
 in the semi- obscurity of the temple with those exposed to full 
 light ; and several other writers, including the late ingenious Mr. 
 Gaily Knight, consider the architecture of Spalato to be debased. 
 
PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN. 
 
 241 
 
 Diocletian, in spite of the prejudices caused by 
 his persecution of the Christians, was certainly one 
 
 because the Peristylium is an abandonment of the horizontal 
 architrave, and because the round stilted arch is found in all the 
 subsequent corruptions of the Romanesque and Byzantine styles. 
 In these conclusions I cannot coincide, not merely because it is 
 noble and simple, and therefore, apart from all school-canons, has 
 an intrinsic right to be classic, but because it seems to me that 
 these gentlemen have not drawn a proper distinction between a 
 corruption and a legitimate variety of principles already existing 
 in Roman architecture. The architects of the Peris tyhum of 
 Spalato did not interfere with the proportions of the column ; they 
 only combined the already invented arch with the column in its 
 recognised proportions ; hence the arcade, one of the finest fea- 
 tures of ItaUan architecture. The round stilted arch demands 
 a very bold cornice to achieve the horizontal principle, and this 
 we find at Spalato fully comprehended ; but these architects have 
 their talent and ingenuity made responsible for many corruptions 
 which followed them ; for instance, the chevron, multiplied ad nau- 
 seam in Norman architecture, is in its simple state at Spalato not 
 only not meretricious, but chaste and pleasing. The only part 
 of Spalato that shews a symptom of the period of transition being 
 proximate, is the Porta Aurea, a beautiful object of its kind, of 
 which Mr. Gaily Knight was reminded in the palace of Theo- 
 doric at Ravenna; but what an interval between the plans of 
 Spalato in 286, and the sixth century ! 
 
 Roman architecture was inseparably associated with the re- 
 ligion of the Romans ; hence its subversion in the reign of Con- 
 stantine. The adaptation of the Basilica, the abandonment of 
 the temple principle, and the decline of taste in the fourth cen- 
 tury, were an unavoidable result of the all-absorbing discussions 
 of graver and more important matters ; but all the third century, 
 in my humble opinion, may fairly be considered within the 
 Roman-classic period. 
 
 R 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 of the most remarkable of the Roman emperors. 
 Born in Salona, the capital of Dalmatia, or in 
 Dioclea, a neighbouring village, of humble paren- 
 tage, — for his father is supposed to have been a 
 scribe, — his valour as a private soldier, his merit 
 through the successive gradations that led to the 
 command of the Imperial Guards, and that mastery 
 which a well-balanced character gives over men's 
 minds, at length procured him the acclamations of 
 the army as Imperator. As coming events cast 
 their shadows before, one of these omens of his 
 splendid fortunes has been recorded by his his- 
 torians, as illustrative of that instinct of future 
 greatness so common in extraordinary men. When 
 with the armies in Gaul, he lodged with a Druid, 
 and being reproached by him for his spare diet, he 
 answered, " I will be more luxurious when I am an 
 emperor." The Druid answered, " You will be an 
 emperor when you have killed a boar (ctper)." The 
 death of Aper by the hands of Diocletian, for hav- 
 ing been concerned in the death of his predecessor, 
 the Emperor Numerian, has furnished a fulfilment 
 of the supposed second sight of the Celtic seer. 
 
 It was on the 15th of October, 284 after 
 Christ, that Diocletian was elected emperor, and 
 a month afterwards made his entry into Nicomedia, 
 where he passed most of his time while he held 
 the reins of empire. Having associated Maximian 
 Augustus in the supreme power, he assigned him 
 Italy, Gaul, Spain, and Africa, while he himself 
 
PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN. 
 
 243 
 
 ruled the Eastern world. In 286 he revisited his 
 native Dalmatia ; the cloak and sword of the 
 soldier, with which he had left Salona, were now 
 the purple and sceptre ; and in the month of April 
 or May of that year he laid the foundation of that 
 vast edifice which we have described, and which 
 seems at first to have been destined for the resi- 
 dence of his mother. 
 
 During all this time the armies of Rome were 
 combating with enemies at its extremities ; but 
 still better to hold the machine together, Diocle- 
 tian again increased the partners of the empire by 
 the creation of two more Csesars, Galerius and 
 Constantino Chlorus, and, to secure their attach- 
 ment, caused them to repudiate their wives. Va- 
 leria, the daughter of Diocletian, then became the 
 wife of Galerius ; and after a ten years' reign Dio- 
 cletian went to Rome to celebrate the decennial 
 anniversary of his elevation, when almost divine 
 honours were rendered to the man who, by the 
 vigour and prudence of his rule, had restored the 
 empire to its pristine splendour. 
 
 In we again find him visiting his native 
 Salona, and extirpating by the most violent means 
 the Christian religion. The political unity of the 
 empire had been the object of those military achieve- 
 ments which procured him the supreme power, and 
 its religious unity seems to have appeared to him 
 an equally essential object in his civil government. 
 In 302, after a conference with Galerius in Nico- 
 
244 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 media, were issued those edicts which proved so 
 terrible to the Church ; the temples of Christ 
 were destroyed ; the Scriptures were ordered to be 
 burned ; and it was in the midst of the massacres 
 of the martyrs and the fall of churches that Dio- 
 cletian celebrated the twentieth anniversary of his 
 reign. 
 
 A slight insanity, consequent on a physical 
 malady, at length induced Diocletian to abdicate 
 the supreme power j and it was at the urgent solici- 
 tations, nay perhaps the menaces, of Galerius, that 
 he at length gave up the throne. Senex languidus 
 lacrymabundus fiat, inquit. Si hoc placet." Lactan- 
 tius (cap. xvii.) tells the sad tale of his descent from 
 power. Returned to Salona, he fixed his residence 
 in the palace he had built, but appears even in his 
 retreat to have preserved the government of Dal- 
 matia. There are various accounts of his death, 
 but the most probable is, that, suffering extreme 
 pain, he accelerated his end with poison. 
 
 The character which Gibbon has given him is 
 marked by that elegance of composition which had 
 become his second nature, and that discrimination 
 which only a laborious digestion of all the known 
 facts of his reign could enable him to exercise. 
 " His abilities were useful rather than splendid ; 
 a vigorous mind, improved by the experience and 
 study of mankind ; dexterity and application in 
 business ; a judicious mixture of liberality and 
 economy, of mildness and rigour ; profound dis- 
 
PALACE OF DIOCLETIAN. 
 
 245 
 
 simulation, under the disguise of military frank- 
 ness ; steadiness to pursue his ends ; flexibility to 
 vary his means ; and, above all, the great art of 
 submitting his own passions, as well as those of 
 others, to the interest of his ambition, and of 
 colouring his ambition with the most specious pre- 
 tences of justice and public utility. Like Augus- 
 tus, Diocletian may be considered as the founder 
 of a new empire." 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 CARNIVAL IN SPALATO. 
 
 The Spalatines have not in general the polished 
 manners and illustrious pedigrees of the Ragu- 
 sans ; but they are, nevertheless, a kind, social, 
 cordial people, with no small stock of mother wit. 
 Arriving in the height of the carnival, I found 
 myself at the wrong time for commercial statistics 
 or serious studies, and therefore at once surren- 
 dered myself to the frivolities of the season : semel 
 insanire oportet. If a morning visit engages me, I 
 probably enter through a doorway of the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth century into a sort of Gothic transla- 
 tion of a Cairo house ; a hollow capital of a column 
 forms the mouth of the never-failing well ; a high 
 staircase, with some of the sculptured stone balus- 
 trades missing, leads to a folding -door, which is 
 opened by a rope passing through the floors above 
 to the latch, which is drawn up ; when a servant's 
 voice calls out, in a Venetian accent, ** Chi gxe?" 
 (Who is there ?) and, passing several rooms paved 
 with brick, you come to the drawing-room, with a 
 floor of battuto, where the lady of the house does 
 
CARNIVAL IN SPALATO. 
 
 247 
 
 the honours with much grace. And what forms the 
 subject of conversation ? Music, promenades, the 
 angry scirocco, the golden reminiscences of a carni- 
 val passed at Venice, and a little scandal. " Ah, 
 signor," said a lady to me, " in a little place like this, 
 where there is a scarcity of positive amusement, ex- 
 cept in carnival, we cannot avoid making up for it 
 by a little fun at the scrapes of our acquaintance." 
 
 A short way from the quay, but not within the 
 palace, is the Piazza Milesi, a small irregular open 
 space, one side of which is formed by a couple of 
 black middle-age donjons, or keeps, and on the 
 other side of which is a Venetian palazzo, one of 
 the very few edifices in Spalato that deserve the 
 name. This is the Casino ; the grand piano, or prin- 
 cipal floor, of which has a large ball-room, with 
 lustres, decorations, and side apartments, as read- 
 ing and coffee-rooms ; and, having received invi- 
 tations to the balls, I turned day into night for 
 nearly a week, having always found it best to view 
 men and manners in the way that the inhabitants 
 themselves present them to the stranger. 
 
 The rooms were well lighted, and well attended 
 by the rank, beauty, and fashion of Spalato, as the 
 court chronicles would say ; and it was altogether 
 the most showy affair I had seen in Dalmatia. 
 The company, some in fancy costumes, others in 
 plain ball-dress, began to assemble about nine. 
 Among the earlier arrivals of the brilliant and 
 unique assemblage, I recognised the Devil, by his 
 
248 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 horns, his mystic crown, and jet-black face ; his 
 sable majesty wore the costume of his own domi- 
 nions, being bright crimson, mingled with black. 
 The frivolous part of the company seemed to be 
 particularly delighted with his insinuating address, 
 and report says that he seldom missed being pre- 
 sent at a masqued ball. Not long after his en- 
 trance came two unhappy female captives, with 
 their golden chains ; but the malicious people 
 around them declared that they were impostors, 
 their object being to lead captive the lords of the 
 creation. A Frenchman of the age of Louis Qua- 
 torze was in full fig, with extravagant laces, rib- 
 bons, and sword-belt ; he evidently was a man of 
 incorrupt virtue, and a stranger to political in- 
 trigue, being unable to recollect the names of one 
 of the mistresses and ministers of the grand mon- 
 arque. I myself was a grave Moslem, resisting 
 every innovation except wdne and waltzing. 
 
 The dance enlivened, and the laugh went round; 
 but as the company consisted of the families of the 
 members of the Casino, not the slightest indecorum 
 or carnival-license was visible. A much droller 
 affair was a monferino, or ball of the humbler 
 classes, next evening, to which I went, as I was 
 told that it afforded a good opportunity of seeing 
 the people. About the hour of eight, I went to a 
 cafe in the Calle Larga, where tradespeople and 
 Bosniac Christians, in their turbans, were playing 
 at dominos. On entering, I heard a sound of a 
 
CARNIVAL IN SPALATO. 
 
 249 
 
 waltz of Strauss, and shuffling of feet over head ; 
 and going up an abrupt breakneck stair, I paid 
 eight pence to a money-taker in his sentry-box, 
 wrapt up in a dreadnought-coat, to keep oflp the 
 air. 
 
 A crystal chandelier, that had done duty for a 
 century at least, lighted an oblong ball-room, with 
 a couple of mirrors, covered with fly-marks, in 
 faded gilt frames ; and at the extremity of the 
 room was such a band of music as the immortal 
 Hogarth might have depicted. The bull-necked, 
 ruffian-looking trumpeter, with puffed cheeks and 
 swimming eyes, w^ore a sailor's jacket ; and, from 
 time to time, wetted his whistle with a phial of 
 brandy. The lantern-jawed, bald-headed violoncello 
 wore large spectacles and shabby black clothes. 
 Nothing could exceed the pompous importance of 
 the first fiddle. If not the weight of the globe, 
 at least the burden of the ball rested on his Atlas- 
 shoulders ; and the motions of arms, fiddle, head, 
 and body, resembled the complexity of an astrono- 
 mical system. 
 
 Not a woman was to be seen without a masque, 
 which is according to a statute for the limitation 
 of revels published by the police, and sealed and 
 exhibited in a prominent part of the hall. There 
 are no character costumes, but all are in dominos ; 
 and the fair part of the company evidently belongs 
 to the class which the French call " grisettes." 
 Should any thing superior to the grisette dress 
 
250 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 appear, the roba jina is suspected to be no better 
 than it ou^ht to be. The master of the ceremonies 
 wore a sort of court-dress of the last century ; 
 which, in all probability, figured in the anti-chamber 
 of some Italian court, then passed to the wardrobe 
 of a theatre, and in revolving years, being too bad 
 for a stroller's troop, had become, like the palace 
 of Diocletian, a sad relic of departed grandeur. 
 I should have called this personage a gentlemanly 
 man had he smelt less strongly of rum, and been 
 less addicted to shouting and hectoring. 
 
 After a poor, wretched figure, in regimentals, 
 had watered the floor with a tin pan, in which a 
 couple of small holes had been bored, a fat figure, 
 with a countenance which bore a considerable 
 resemblance to that of a bulldog, came skipping 
 in, like Figaro, and began to sing in a cracked 
 voice : 
 
 " Largo al factotum della citta — Largo, 
 
 La, la, la, &c. 
 La festa comincia, la notte e gia presto. 
 
 La, la, la, &c." 
 
 This was not a singer acting the barber, but a real 
 barber of the town mimicking an opera-singer with 
 great comic efi*ect. Screwing up his mouth, and 
 plucking up his gills, like a theatrical stroller 
 entering a barber's shop, he came forward, say- 
 ing : 
 
 Signor Barbiere, I want you to cut my hair ; 
 
CARNIVAL IN SPALATO. 
 
 251 
 
 and as I am an artist of the theatre you must do 
 it in proper style." 
 
 Umilissimo servilore,'' continued the Barber, 
 in his monologue a la Mathews; and pulling out 
 of his pocket a pair of scissors and comb, feigned 
 to cut hair, and added, " I also am considered a 
 distinguished artist." 
 
 " Corpo di Bacco ! what a pretension ! cut my 
 hair, you scoundrel, and don't talk to me of being 
 an artist. But take care you do not cut my hair 
 too short, or I shall appear ridiculous ; for my 
 hair is much admired by the women. A barber is 
 in the way of hearing public opinion ; now tell me 
 what do people say of my voice ?" 
 
 " A pure tenor, Slgnor Artist a, voce di petto 
 melodious, sonorous, and extensive." 
 
 Yes ; but an artist may have from nature. 
 Signer Barbiere, a very fine voice, but nature's gifts 
 demand cultivation. What do people say to my 
 style ?" 
 
 " I think I have cut enough off the front, 
 Signor Artista." 
 
 " Never mind the front ; what do people say 
 of my execution ?" 
 
 *' That you have had the best masters, the 
 most extensive practice, and a gusto that no 
 master can give; — but I think your temples are 
 short enough." 
 
 " Well, then, go to the back.— That is all 
 nothing without dramatic art ; I am sensible of my 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 defects, — every man has some fault, — and I think 
 that my weak point must be in the dramatic part 
 of the profession !" 
 
 ** Quite the contrary ! it is the opinion of the 
 public, and of that choice critical part of the 
 public whom I shave and dress, that, singing 
 apart, your declamation might rival if not surpass 
 Modena's : — but I think I have cut enough." 
 
 " No, you may cut me closer still ; — but to 
 return to our argument. All these gifts are sub- 
 ordinate to one, Signor Barbiere, — a fine person. 
 I do not consider myself a handsome man, al- 
 though many women have said so. What is the 
 public opinion of my person in this town ?" 
 
 Why, people say that you have a fine coun- 
 tenance, and a graceful and well-proportioned 
 body ; but I think there is one thing wanting to 
 you." 
 
 " And what is wanting ?" 
 
 " A wig ; which costs just sixty zwanzigers." 
 
 " Accursed barber ! bring me a glass ; you 
 have cut my head as bare as a barber's block !" 
 
 My blocks are all covered with wigs that cost 
 sixty zwanzigers ; — try one on." 
 
 " Malediction ! you have the brains of an art- 
 ist, and I have the head of a barber's block !" 
 
 When the barber was going on with his buf- 
 foonery, to which the bulldog countenance lent con- 
 siderable effect, a noise was heard at the other end 
 of the room, accompanied by a female's screams. 
 
CARNIVAL IN SPALATO. 
 
 253 
 
 hissing, and laughter; when all of a sudden, a black 
 pointer-dog rushed terror-struck under the sofa, 
 and, pursued from side to side, occasionally sought 
 refuge under the petticoats of a masque : at length 
 the master of the ceremonies, aided by the lieu- 
 tenant-colonel who had been watering the floor, 
 got hold of him by the neck, and ejected him from 
 the room. 
 
 Two more balls at the Casino closed the car- 
 nival. The first was prolonged till dawn began to 
 peep through the casements, when, as Theodore 
 Hook used to say, " the loveliest girls looked 
 haggard, and the dowagers horrid and a waltz 
 in which the ladies chose the gentlemen closed the 
 entertainment. 
 
 The quay being close at hand, I went down to 
 the marine promenade ; the sun had not yet risen, 
 the morning was calm and mild, and I enjoyed the 
 fresh air after the close atmosphere of the ball- 
 room. The busy industrious Morlacks were already 
 a-foot. The distant isles to the west were still in 
 something of grey obscurity of dawn ; and as each 
 dark crystal wave came rolling to my feet, I felt 
 the strange fascination that the sea produces just 
 before sunrise ; but a luminous space increasing 
 above the palace, shewed that sunrise was at hand, 
 and I was tempted to prolong my w^alk to the end 
 of the quay, and ascend the hill that overlooks the 
 town ; for, although in my masquerading dress, I 
 excited no surprise in carnival time. Following a 
 
254 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 narrow road between two low walls, I at length 
 found myself above the level of the roofs ; and a 
 resplendent rim of gold on the snowy peaks of 
 Caprarius made me hasten my pace to an elevated 
 rock above me. 
 
 The sun was just emerging in unclouded splen- 
 dour from behind these chill unhomely peaks, as 1 
 stood overlooking land and sea ; the distant island 
 of Brazza threw off her grey shroud for the warm 
 yellow livery of Phoebus, and the towns that dotted 
 the fringe grew from obscurity to brightness. The 
 Gulf of Salona on my left slept silent and motion- 
 less, and contrasted with the gentle ripple of the 
 outward Adriatic. But what a picture of rural 
 neatness and labour are those lands that skirt its 
 opposite shores! — the trim white villa, the fields 
 subdivided and well fenced, and the high Venetian 
 castles on the water's edge, seven in number, at 
 regular distances, and built in days of yore to sen- 
 tinel Dalmatia Felix against the Turkish invader. 
 Raising my eyes from the waters to the snowy sum- 
 mits behind which the sun had risen, Caprarius 
 was spread out before me like a bridal robe in all 
 the brightness and purity of satin and gold. Here 
 the yellow light streamed down a break in the 
 ridge ; there a pale shadow of unsunned snow ap- 
 proached the faintest blue, — a land of promise to 
 the traveller, a land of pure dry air, of noble 
 waterfalls, of romantic retreats, and a hardy primi- 
 tive population ; in short, the Highlands of Dal- 
 
CARNIVAL IN SPALATO. 
 
 255 
 
 matia. Spalato lay at my feet ; the smoke of the 
 early housewife's fagot, slowly rising in long grey 
 spiral columns, adorned rather than polluted the 
 air ; and such strange mixtures of construction as 
 the town presented, is, I believe, not to be seen on 
 all the Adriatic. The capitals of the Peristylium 
 were just visible in the midst of the mass of irre- 
 gular red tiles and ruined towers. Above all rose 
 the Campanile, column on column and order above 
 order, which is lost to the spectator in town, but 
 here looks grand and majestic ; like a genius whose 
 elevation, unknown to those who have stood in his 
 shade, finds his true standard in the distance of 
 time and place. 
 
 After so much gaiety and fatigue, my mood 
 was none of the merriest as I descended the hill 
 to the palace, which was still silent, except in its 
 ground-floor, where the mean colFee and dram shop 
 invited the ragged Morlack to spend his farthing. 
 As I viewed the august pile in its miserable decay, 
 and thought of its master and maker, the words of 
 the Arab poet came to my remembrance : " This 
 is all that remains of the lord of men, whom the 
 haughty kings feared, and the stubborn troops 
 obeyed ; who numbered a thousand thousand bri- 
 dles on the neighing steeds, and whose wealth was 
 beyond the science of numbers ; but death re- 
 moved him from the mansions of grandeur to the 
 abode of contempt." 
 
 At twelve o'clock on the last evening, the car- 
 
256 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 nival is supposed to be dead ; but a very singular 
 malady seemed to have seized the clock of the 
 Casino, as if the carnival would not give up the 
 ghost without a struggle. The minute-hand, se- 
 veral times silently approaching the fatal twelve, 
 was seen mysteriously to rally, and the pulsations 
 of the waltz to beat with redoubled animation ; 
 but Lent, the heir-at-law, at length impatient at 
 the longevity of his predecessor, would wait no 
 longer, and the carnival was buried in due form. 
 The folding-doors at the extremity of the ball- 
 room were seen to open, and out issued a proces- 
 sion — a coffin, winding-sheet, and tapers being pa- 
 raded round the room to a solemn funeral dirge ; 
 and thus ended the saturnalia of Spalato for the 
 season. 
 
 On a similar occasion, at Curzola, a gross prac- 
 tical joke was perpetrated on a boatman, who had 
 given some offence by his rudeness. His boat was 
 hired to carry a person near death to the care of a 
 physician at Zara ; and a little before midnight a 
 litter was conveyed with great care to the boat, 
 and instructions given not to disturb the person 
 until morning. The trabacolo proceeded on the 
 voyage ; and next morning the captain went below 
 with a salutation : " How are you ? I hope you 
 feel yourself passable," &c. No answer. "Per 
 Bacco, e morto !" (he is dead !) And approaching, 
 and lifting up the sheet, he found a straw figure 
 with an inscription on its breast : " The Carnival, 
 
CARNIVAL IN SPALATO. 257 
 
 near death at eleven o'clock, and dead outright at 
 twelve." The boatman made a furious complaint 
 to the authorities ; but, I am afraid, got as little 
 redress as an April fool with us smarting under 
 a hoax. 
 
 s 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 HISTORY OF SPALATO. 
 
 In 639, the neighbouring Salona, the Roman ca- 
 pital of Dalmatia, was destroyed by the Avars ; and 
 as the history of Ragusa begins on the destruction 
 of Epidaurus, so that of modern Spalato (a palatio) 
 begins when the miserable fugitives from Salona, 
 who had taken refuge in the various islands, re- 
 turned partly to the mainland, and at the instiga- 
 tion of a venerable man called Severus, who lived 
 close to the palace (which had become since the 
 death of Diocletian an edifice of the state), took 
 up their residence within its walls. Those who 
 were rich enough constructed their own houses, 
 the middle classes occupied the towers, and the 
 poor lived in the crypts, so that the palace became 
 both a small town and a fortress ; and no situation 
 could be more commodious, for they had an easy 
 escape to the sea by the Porta Argentea. The 
 archiepiscopal rights of Salona were transferred in 
 680 to the temple of Jupiter, which had become 
 a Christian church, dedicated to St. Doimo. But 
 two centuries of fear and barbarism succeeded the 
 
« 
 
HISTORY OF SPALATO. 
 
 ^59 
 
 destruction of Salona, and preceded the establish- 
 ment of feudalism by Charlemagne and the Franks. 
 The final baptism of the Croats, in 83.2, was the 
 event of all others that gave rest to Christian 
 Dalmatia; the Church, with its spiritual terrors, 
 subdued the fierceness of barbarism with a success 
 which physical force could never have attained ; 
 and, in course of time, the kings of Croatia and 
 Dalmatia became the most generous endowers of 
 the Church of Spalato. 
 
 Then began the long wars between the Vene- 
 tians and Hungarians, with their vicissitudes ; the 
 inhabitants enjoying municipal privileges, and al- 
 ways having their patrician assemblies ; until at 
 length, in 1420, Spalato became finally Venetian. 
 In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the 
 palatial town, although often in imminent danger 
 from the Turks, who held the heights of Capra- 
 rius, was defended by the Eepublic with success, 
 in consequence of its maritime position ; and the 
 walls, which, up to the tenth century, had been 
 almost in their original condition, were gradually 
 reduced to the huge pile of ruins which excites our 
 surprise and regret. 
 
 It was in the zenith of Venetian power that 
 Spalato, like the islands, adopted the domestic ar- 
 chitecture of the metropolis, which, mingled with 
 the still extensive relics of the Roman period, gives 
 Spalato a distinct stamp of its own. In the time 
 of the Hungarians, they contented themselves with 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 making the palace the fortress, by building up all 
 the crypto-porticus and crenellating the cornice. 
 The Venetians built a regular fortification outside, 
 with bastions, and mounted it with artillery ; while, 
 within the town, the doorways and windows we 
 admire so much were adopted in the houses of the 
 wealthier classes. Many Koman names of families 
 still existing in the town are a proof that much 
 of the blood of the inhabitants must be Salonitan ; 
 but the Croat royalty in the neighbouring Trau 
 and Sebenico, and the readiness with which the 
 Papal See granted the Slaavic liturgy to the Bi- 
 shop of Nona and others, gave a deep root to 
 Illyrian, which became the language of the people ; 
 though Italian being the language of the Venetian 
 Governor, it was confirmed as that of the upper 
 classes of society. 
 
 The eighteenth century, from the treaty of 
 Passarovitz in I7I8, when the great Turkish war 
 was ended, down to the French Eevolution, passed 
 off in tranquillity, merriment, and masquerading ; 
 but this explosion, which shook all Europe, was 
 felt here in its full force. The Dalmatians being 
 not only sincere but bigoted Catholics, the mass 
 of the people viewed the principles of the French 
 Revolution with the greatest horror, and the success 
 of the first campaign of Napoleon and the fall of 
 the Venetian Republic with dismay. But a cer- 
 tain part of the reading classes was tinctured with 
 the French encyclopsedism of the eighteenth cen- 
 
HISTORY OF SPALATO. 
 
 261 
 
 tury ; and as, in natural machinery, the revolution 
 of a wheel in one direction impels the cogs it meets 
 with to describe the opposite circle, the mob in 
 France, who plundered and massacred on the pre- 
 text of aristocracy and priestcraft, found a counter- 
 part in Dalmatia, where imminent danger men- 
 aced the purse and person of every man whom the 
 populace suspected of being a free-thinker, or 
 denominated a Jacobin. 
 
 On the approach of Napoleon to Venice in 
 1797> sill Dalmatia was in motion to assist the 
 Republic, and 12,000 men were raised and de- 
 spatched to the metropolis ; but on the abdication 
 of the Doge, and in order to facilitate the intro- 
 duction of the French troops into Venice, the Dal- 
 matians were re-embarked and transported back to 
 Zara, to the surprise and discontent of the nation ; 
 and the Pro veditor- General Andrea Querini di- 
 rected them to their provincial head-quarters, with 
 orders to each chief to send them home to the vil- 
 lages on the delivery and deposit of their arms in 
 the public arsenals. "But these soldiers," says 
 Cattalinich, " brought back with them the germs 
 of discord and revolution ; and in times when men 
 of all classes sought their individual elevation on the 
 ruin of existing social order, an evil genius did not 
 fail to appear in this weak province. Accordingly, 
 on the 15th June, 1797> being the festival of Cor- 
 pus Domini, a manifesto in Illyrian was circulated, 
 without author's or printer's name, or the place of 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 publication ; and on that day the hydra of an- 
 archy and disorder raised her head." 
 
 MANIFESTO TO THE DALMATIAN NATION. 
 
 Glorious nation ! You possess two noble 
 virtues, — the one, valour in action ; the other, sin- 
 cerity of word. For your valour all fear you ; for 
 your truth all esteem and court you. Keep, then, 
 these virtues which are the honour and glory of 
 your name. Glorious nation ! You have hitherto 
 been in allegiance to the most serene Doge of 
 Venice, to whom you spontaneously dedicated your- 
 self, that he might govern and direct you accord- 
 ing to justice and the law of Jesus Christ, and pre- 
 serve you in the Catholic faith. You have faith- 
 fully served your Doge and all councillors ; and 
 although you defended their dignity, they have 
 indignantly driven you from Venice, and betrayed 
 you. The Doge has abdicated, the Signoria is 
 annihilated, the image of St. Mark trampled under 
 foot, the law subverted, and in their place have 
 been put Jacobins and Jews, who wish you to unite 
 with them. A fine thing, truly ! those that have 
 betrayed you count you to be fools. Glorious 
 nation ! Remember your honour, and know that 
 the Jews are the enemies of your faith and the 
 destroyers of your religion," &c. &c. 
 
 The Venetian Republic being remodelled on 
 French principles, the importance of fraternising 
 
HISTORY OF SPALATO. 
 
 '263 
 
 with the energetic and hardy population of 
 Dalmatia was soon apparent ; and commissioners 
 were sent with pamphlets and a printing-press to 
 Zara, to assert the rights of man and the French 
 doctrines of liberalism in politics and religion j but 
 finding the impression made by this address, which 
 was circulated through all Dalmatia, and that the 
 popular current was running with great force in 
 the opposite direction, they prudently returned to 
 Venice, to give an account of the failure of their 
 mission, and thus escaped the fate of Basville. 
 
 The fury of the mob now vented itself through 
 all Dalmatia on those who were obnoxious to them, 
 and nowhere with greater violence than in Spa- 
 lato. During several days previous to the 15th 
 of J une, there was a strong feeling among the peo- 
 ple against a Colonel Mattutinovich of the ter- 
 ritorial force, who had commanded the militia of 
 the district in Venice, and re-conducted them to 
 their homes. He was a meritorious officer, of 
 handsome person ; and his only fault was the rigo- 
 rous discipline he had maintained. His friends, 
 hearing the menaces of the people, and foreseeing 
 an explosion, entreated him to remove for a short 
 time, until the blast blew itself out ; but, conscious 
 of no crime, he resolved to encounter it ; and hav- 
 ing barricaded his quarters, remained there with 
 his family and a servant, and intrepidly awaited 
 the popular movement. 
 
 At an early hour in the morning, a crowd of 
 
264 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Morlacks presented themselves opposite the house 
 of Nicolo Barozzi, the Venetian Count (the officer, 
 and not the title, is here meant), hallooing for arms 
 and ammunition, to attack the colonel in his forti- 
 fied house. The Count did all in his power to dis- 
 suade them ; but seeing that his own personal safety 
 might be compromised, he with dastardly facility 
 gave them the keys of the magazine of military 
 stores ; and the populace, providing themselves with 
 muskets, ammunition, and a cannon, attacked the 
 dwelling of the colonel, who defended himself by 
 keeping up an active fire from the windows, his 
 wife and servant reloading the muskets as fast as 
 he fired them. A peasant of the Borgo being shot 
 dead, their indignation knew no bounds ; scaling 
 the walls, they entered the house by the roof, and 
 penetrated to the room where the colonel stood 
 with a drawn sabre to repel attack ; overpowered 
 by numbers, he was stabbed in several places with 
 knives. His faithful wife and brave servant were 
 now cut in pieces ; and being himself decapitated, 
 his head was stuck on a pike, paraded through the 
 city, and put on the top of the flag- staffs in the 
 Piazza dei Signori. 
 
 The heroism of the nurse is worthy of mention. 
 She held in her arms the six-months old infant of 
 the unhappy colonel, and attempted to escape with 
 it through the crowd. A brutal Morlack sum- 
 moned her to throw it on the ground, that he 
 might transfix it without injury to the nurse j 
 
HISTORY OF SPALATO. 
 
 " No," said she, ** I will perish before a hair of 
 the infant's head be touched." On this the Mor- 
 lack, raising his cutlass, attempted the life of the 
 infant ; but the nurse raising her arm to parry the 
 blow, four of her fingers were severed from her 
 hand, and taking to flight, all bleeding as she was, 
 the life of the child was saved. Pavezza Daghetta 
 was the name of the nurse : when this book is for- 
 gotten, let her name be remembered. 
 
 The houses of the Jews were then menaced, 
 but the clergy, much to their honour, stepped for- 
 ward and intervened to preserve order. The com- 
 mandant of Castel Sussuratz, on the gulf of Salona, 
 in which was a small garrison, hearing of what had 
 happened in Spalato to Mattutinovich, took flight, 
 supposing that he would find security at the altar 
 of the neighbouring church of Castel Vecchio ; 
 and although a mob of Morlacks surrounded the 
 village, the people of the place refused to deliver 
 him up ; but on being assured that the altar would 
 not be profaned, they dragged him out, delivered 
 him to the populace, and he was taken down to the 
 water-side and shot. 
 
 The principal citizens now seeing that their 
 lives and properties were menaced, met in council, 
 elected Barozzi the Venetian Count as the Rector, 
 and instead of the standard of St. Mark, hoisted 
 the flag of Austria ; and in a month afterwards, the 
 Austrian troops having arrived, Te Deiirn was sung 
 in the cathedral, and the Austrian general, Baron 
 
266 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Rukavina, ascending the choir, asked the assembled 
 throng if they would swear fealty and allegiance 
 to the Emperor Francis, to which the assembly 
 answered " Ochemo,'' We will. Thus did the flag 
 of Austria float till 1806, when, by the treaty of 
 Presburg, Dalmatia was handed over to Napoleon. 
 
 But the appearance of a Russian fleet in the 
 Adriatic, operating upon the Slaavic and anti- 
 Gallican feelings of the population, produced not 
 only the scenes which we have already described 
 at Cattaro and Eagusa, but a general rising of 
 the inhabitants of the district immediately to the 
 south-east of Spalato, and the coast of which we 
 saw on our voyage from Macarsca to that city. 
 The Poglitsa, as the territory is called, had a 
 constitution of its own, which, like that of Ma- 
 carsca, rendered it a small republic under Vene- 
 tian protection ; and although not having more 
 than four thousand inhabitants, they made a de- 
 termined stand against the French occupation ; 
 but being defeated, their villages were burned and 
 decimated with appalling rigour ; and an inquisi- 
 tion having been erected in Spalato, during two 
 months, monks, citizens, and peasants, were brought 
 in prisoners to the number of three hundred, and 
 confined in the lazaretto. Many were condemned 
 to death ; and a first batch of thirteen being ordered 
 for execution, with confiscation of their property, 
 were pardoned by Marmont, General-in-chief, who 
 thus at once established his popularity. Spalato 
 
HISTORY OF SPALATO. 
 
 ^67 
 
 was his favourite residence during the French 
 occupation; and having taken down a part of the 
 old Venetian fortifications, an open space next the 
 sea is pointed out, on which he proposed to erect 
 a palace or government house for the whole of Dal- 
 matia. But the subsequent well-known events ren- 
 dered his plans abortive; and since J 813 Spalato 
 has been the chief city of a circle of the Austrian 
 empire. 
 
CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 LITERATURE IN SPALATO. 
 
 The Abbate Carrara is the present ornament of 
 the literature of Dalmatia. An accomplished clas- 
 sical scholar, and profoundly erudite on all that 
 relates to Dalmatia, he is at the same time pro- 
 fessor of theology in the Episcopal Seminary of Spa- 
 lato. Animated by a noble ambition, he has been 
 most active in the excavation of the ruins of Spa- 
 lato ; and, to the great displeasure of the local an- 
 tiquaries, has been named Conservator of the An- 
 tiquities, and published a variety of works on the 
 history and topography of Dalmatia. A crowd of 
 jealous scribblers and pamphleteers have attempted 
 to write him down, and even some of the clergy, 
 envious of his success out of his profession, dislike 
 him ; but he is one of those bold, enterprising cha- 
 racters that no opposition can frighten or labour 
 deter. I had made his acquaintance, before leav- 
 ing Vienna, at the house of the accomplished 
 Baron Hugel, and, on arriving at Spalato, I felt 
 great pleasure in renewing it. During above two 
 months that I spent in Spalato, many of my even- 
 
LITERATURE IN SPALATO. 
 
 269 
 
 ings were passed at the Guvno, or Garret, a private 
 literary club, where a few wits used to assemble, 
 and discuss the books and styles of the day, but 
 without malice. 
 
 Signor C, a limb of the law, who succeeded to 
 a small estate a great many years ago, wisely gave 
 up being advocate, and devoted his whole time 
 to literature. He never wrote any poem himself, 
 comic, epic, or pastoral ; but he could not exist 
 except in the society of such books as the censor 
 of Zara allowed, and such critics and poetasters as 
 Spalato can produce. Our place of meeting was 
 the study of the worthy C, at the top of the house. 
 He is in the enjoyment of a green old age, and has 
 the heartiest and most good-natured laugh I ever 
 heard. The perpetual secretary of the club was 
 Signor M. ; and one would suppose that a club which 
 needed a secretary had transactions, but, to tell 
 the truth, the only transaction I ever saw was the 
 serving of coffee or the lighting of pipes ; for this 
 practice, so abhorred in England, is in general use 
 in Dalmatia. Being also poet and improvisatore, 
 however, the secretary was often in requisition. V., 
 the Maestro di Cappella of the cathedral, a native 
 of Padua, of sound musical attainments, with a pale 
 countenance and extremely modest manners, was a 
 most acute critic in the Italian school of music ; 
 and this gave a variety to the discussions and trans- 
 actions that proved agreeable. One or two others 
 were free of the club, but these were the leaders. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 A sharp discussion had just set all the town 
 by the ears. There are no politics at Spalato, 
 nor rage for democracy or agitation for nationality ; 
 but a sarcophagus in front of the temple of Escu- 
 lapius having been supposed to be the tomb of 
 Diocletian, and Carrara not subscribing to this 
 opinion, the town was straightway divided into 
 two factions. The Abbate has a cool and steady 
 judgment, but whenever this sarcophagus was men- 
 tioned, he could scarcely retain his temper. All 
 the members of the Garret Club were keen anti- 
 sarcophagites, and I was anxious to hear the ar- 
 guments of the opposite party ; but as they knew 
 that I went to the Guvno, they concluded me to 
 be a madly prejudiced anti-sarcophagite, and never 
 came near me. 
 
 It was on a dark cold night in February when 
 Carrara called at my lodgings to introduce me to 
 the Guvno. Spalato is much colder than Ragusa, 
 and for several days the thermometer was, in the 
 morning and evening, four degrees of Reaumur be- 
 low zero. Protected by the narrow streets, we got 
 to the gate of San Cypriano at the back of the 
 town ; and on passing a corner of the bastion, a 
 keen Bora, mingled with sleet, made me wrap my 
 cloak closely about me. Most of the fortifications 
 on the sea- side were taken down by Marshal Mar- 
 mont ; but those on the land -side still remain, the 
 large stones shewing that the ruins of the palace 
 must have supplied the materials for construction. 
 
LITERATURE IN SPALATO. ^71 
 
 Just where a small suburb ended and the country 
 began was a villa within a wall, the residence of 
 the president ; and being shewn up stairs to the 
 top of the house, we found ourselves in the study 
 of Signer C, a long room, with bookcases and a 
 confusion of manuscripts and papers. Two shining 
 brass lamps, about a foot high, lifted by a handle 
 at the top, and supplied with olive oil, lighted the 
 apartment ; but the charm of a blazing hearth, 
 which, in our own ruder clime, makes us as will- 
 ing for winter as for summer, is here unknown, 
 and all wore their cloaks and hats. From the heat 
 of summer, all windows and doors are open to the 
 drafts of wind, and, to prevent catching cold, al- 
 most all wear either a hat or cap within doors. 
 In paying visits, except ladies be present, you are 
 always begged to keep your hat on ; and I have 
 at least fifty times been obliged to say that I felt 
 a hat disagreeable in a room. 
 
 The president gave me a hearty shake of the 
 hand, and, after ordering coflPee and pipes, told 
 me that a fellow-citizen of mine was in the room, 
 who was dressed in the Italian fashion ; I looked 
 from face to face, not knowing who it could be ; 
 when, leading me up to a bookcase, he shewed 
 me an Italian translation of Robertson's works, 
 and, breaking out into eulogy, called him the 
 greatest master of historical narration in any lan- 
 guage. Every body,*' said he, " has been reading 
 Cesare Cantu's Universal History, but I lost my 
 
272 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 fancy for him when I found that he slighted Ro- 
 hertson." I expected Gibbon to stand high as he 
 deserved ; for, to say nothing of his astounding 
 variety of erudition, his grand, sonorous periods are 
 akin to the musical ampullation of Italian prose ; 
 but found that his weak point, — the treatment of 
 the countries between the Adriatic and the Black 
 Sea, — was too palpable to a learned Dalmatian.^ 
 
 ** But do not think the less of your great his- 
 torian/' said the president, with generous manly 
 emphasis ; " my objection is like that of a man 
 looking on a wonderful panorama, who should cavil 
 at the drawing of his own villa." 
 
 Our discourse fell on the great distress in the 
 mountains. A house high up having been snowed 
 in, and their provisions exhausted, three persons 
 had died ; and various schemes were fallen on for 
 getting up a subscription. At length an accademia 
 had been determined on, or concert by the mem- 
 bers of the Casino, and we came to talk of music ; 
 on which V., with the pale face and modest man- 
 ners, made some observations which led to a musi- 
 cal conversation, for the president was also a vio- 
 linist. Rossini was considered to be healthy^ with 
 a boiling over of animal spirits, — like a Scott or 
 a Paul Veronese, gushing with irresistible sponta- 
 neity ; Bellini, fragile in mind and body, but with 
 
 1 The Chronicles of Archbishop Daniel, and the works of 
 Brankovich Haitch, and others, were not in an accessible shape 
 when Gibbon composed his history. 
 
LITERATURE IN SPALATO. 
 
 gossamer nerves of the most delicate texture ; and 
 in his conduct of a piece, with such a conception 
 of grace and tenderness as never was excelled. 
 The French music of Auber and others was ob- 
 jected to for want of that long period (lu7igJio 
 periodo) which characterises the Italian manner. 
 But this is evidently all custom ; for Beethoven 
 has the most unaccountably strange transitions, but 
 full of a magic beauty all their own. The presi- 
 dent, as a violinist, knew and delighted in the 
 quartetts of Mozart, and others of the German 
 school ; but when I spoke of // Don Giovanni and 
 Robert le Diable, — those twin tapestries, which unite 
 the brightest colours of Italian melody with the 
 consummate weaver-craft of Germany, — I found no 
 resonance to my enthusiasm. 
 
 But most interesting of all were the discus- 
 sions on the lives and writings of the native au- 
 thors. Zara has been for centuries the political 
 capital of Dalmatia ; because, being an island for- 
 tress, the possession of this city has been considered 
 decisive of the fate of the rest of the kingdom ; but 
 Spalato is, and always has been, the moral capital 
 of Dalmatia ; and until 1829, the temple of Jupiter 
 was the archiepiscopal cathedral of the Primate of 
 this kingdom. In the cultivation of polite litera- 
 ture the Spalatine is much behind the Ragusan ; 
 but a certain robust vigour, congenial to the unruly 
 character of the Morlack, and contrasting with the 
 elegance of the Bagusan, is clearly discernible in 
 
 T 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 the lives and writings of the eminent men of Dal- 
 matia. 
 
 Of St. Jerome I say nothing, his biography 
 being so well known to every student of Church 
 history. The Herodotus of modern Dalmatia was 
 the Archdeacon Thomas, who wrote, in the twelfth 
 century, the first and fullest history and description 
 of his country, and rectified the numerous errors of 
 Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Then came Marcus 
 Marulus, the ancestor of our secretary, who was 
 born in 1450, studied at Padua, lived in Spalato, 
 and, with a European reputation, left more than 
 twenty works, in the Italian, Illyrian, and Latin 
 languages, on archaeology, history, morals, and 
 poetry. Carrara, in his Uomini lllustri di Spalato, 
 calls him the second glory of Dalmatia, St. Jerome 
 being the first. His principal work was a poem, 
 called the Davidiad ; and Ariosto, with the exag- 
 geration of Italian imagination, subsequently called 
 him " il divino Marulo but for myself, having 
 no relish for Catholic dogmatic theology of the 
 fifteenth century, with which all his works are 
 strongly tinctured, I take his fame on credit. His 
 temporal circumstances must have been easy, and 
 even opulent, to judge from his house, which has 
 descended to our secretary by inheritance ; but it 
 is dilapidated and uninhabited. 
 
 The most eccentric genius in the literary his- 
 tory of Dalmatia was Mark Antonio de Dominis, 
 whose life and death make a romantic drama. He 
 
LITERATURE IN SPALATO. 
 
 was Archbishop of Spalato from 160^ to I616 ; and 
 in the plague of I6O7 distinguished himself by a 
 humanity and courage worthy of Carlo Borromeo. 
 Full of original genius, he was the first to discover 
 the colours of the iris ; and Newton, in his Optics, 
 admits him to have been the discoverer. Thus 
 Marino Ghetaldi preceded Des Cartes in the ap- 
 plication of algebra to geometry, and a Dalmatian 
 in the optical discoveries claimed for him. But 
 De Dominis was hot and violent in his temper ; and 
 the altar of the cathedral of Spalato is to this day 
 a curious monument of his spiritual pride and me- 
 chanical genius : it shews the singular optical de- 
 lusion of the tabernacle above the altar being held 
 by two angels on the points of their fingers. Un- 
 able to understand how the points of the fingers of 
 two statues could support so enormous a weight, it 
 was explained to me, that the centre of gravity was, 
 by a certain inclination, reposed in the bodies of the 
 angels. And what circumstances had induced this 
 elevation of the tabernacle ? Being at war with his 
 own chapter, they accused him of placing his epis- 
 copal chair several steps too high, being above the 
 level of the tabernacle. De Dominis, in order to 
 avoid yielding to his chapter by taking his chair 
 down a step, raised the tabernacle above the altar, 
 as it now stands. 
 
 His chapter subsequently accused him of he- 
 retical opinions, on which he went to Venice, and 
 thence, secretly, to London ; where the cathedral of 
 
S76 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 St. Paul's presented the extraordinary spectacle of 
 the Archbishop of Spalato renouncing the errors 
 of Popery, and embracing the reformed faith. Pie 
 then published in London his celebrated work, De 
 Repuhlica Ecclesiastica : but the results of his own 
 doctrines in the puritanical sectaries, and probabh 
 disappointment at not receiving a high dignity in 
 the English Church, disgusted him ; he therefore 
 negotiated his return to Italy and re-entry into the 
 Church of Kome, under the protection of Gregory 
 XY., who was his personal friend ; but on the death 
 of this Pope, De Dominis was accused by the In- 
 quisition of correspondence with the heretics, and 
 being thrown into the castle of St. Angelo, perished 
 there by poison in 1625. 
 
 Lucius of Trau, an excellent historian, and 
 author of De Regno DahnaticE et Croatice^ Am- 
 sterdam, 1668, then followed ; and was succeeded 
 by others, the last of whom was Cattalinich, who 
 died during my residence at Spalato, to the univer- 
 sal regret of his countrymen. His work, in four 
 volumes, is a history of Dalmatia from the earliest 
 times down to 1815; and is the only modern 
 book that pretends to the dignity and continuity 
 of that style of composition. 
 
 It would appear that some practical acquaint- 
 ance with public business is essential to a good 
 historian. Macchiavelli as secretary, Sarpi as con- 
 sultatore, and other Italian writers of this class, 
 were much employed in political affairs. Gibbon 
 
LITERATURE IN SPALATO. 
 
 ^77 
 
 learned his notions of war from militia soldiering, 
 and had, besides, parliamentary and official expe- 
 rience. Robertson, in the position of a minister 
 of the Kirk of Scotland, seems, at first sight, to 
 have had a less favourable chance of experience in 
 political motives and springs of action ; but during 
 all the latter part of his career, he was the acknow- 
 ledged leader of the moderate party in the assem- 
 blies and presbyteries of the Kirk, and had an op- 
 portunity of treating in miniature the same pas- 
 sions he would have had to deal with had he been 
 the first minister of a great monarchy. 
 
 The opportunities of Cattalinich were as varied 
 as his provincial opportunities allowed. Born in 
 the memorable year I769, at Castel Nuovo di 
 Trau, and being destined for the clerical profes- 
 sion, he studied theology, first at Spalato, and then 
 at Rome ; but the prospects of advancement in that 
 profession being very doubtful after the French 
 Revolution and the invasion of Italy, he turned 
 from theology to law ; and, in I8O6, was made 
 judice," or justice of the peace. Another change, 
 however, took place three years afterwards in his 
 destiny, and he entered on his military career, dur- 
 ing which he was, in 1812, chef d'escadron of 
 Napoleon's French-Illyrian cavalry ; in 1813 he 
 was in France with his regiment, and on the Aus- 
 trian occupation in 1814, when Illyria and Dal- 
 matia fell away from France, was advanced to the 
 rank of major j but a few years afterwards he was 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 pensioned, in consequence of a mental malady, 
 and after a restoration of his reason, being in 
 want of occupation, he undertook the history of his 
 country, being a good classical and Illyrian scholar. 
 But Cattalinich, although, upon the whole, trust- 
 worthy, is utterly unacquainted with the art of 
 narration, and that sort of perspective, which, pre- 
 serving a due proportion between the principal 
 transactions and the background of the canvass, 
 produces an attractive picture of each period. 
 There they are, — kings, queens, and warriors, with 
 their deeds and dates ; but you discover no fa- 
 vourite of the historian ; and no hero around whom 
 he could have grouped the subordinate characters, 
 wearing the moral costumes of each age. But I 
 should be ungrateful, if I were to deny the general 
 utilitv of the work, and even its interest to a native 
 Dalmatian, who would find attraction in names, 
 topics, and events, not likely to fix the attention 
 of a stranger. 
 
 It was not long after my introduction to the 
 Guvno, that, at the corner of a street in Spalato, 
 I heard the words, "Poor Cattalinich is dead!" 
 The same evening, I heard at the club that his 
 funeral was to be a national solemnity of interest ; 
 and 1 resolved to be a spectator. 
 
 " You are a member of the Guvno, and must 
 be a mourner," said the President. " You are the 
 only Englishman in Spalato, and you must repre- 
 sent the literature of your country at the grave of 
 
LITERATURE IN SPALATO. 
 
 ^79 
 
 Cattalinich." In vain I protested that, if any of 
 our critics heard of such a thing, I should be 
 quizzed unmercifully ; but the President having 
 put it to the vote in his own funny way, a minute 
 to this effect was made by the secretary ; and I 
 had no escape. 
 
 On the morning of the funeral, a loud rap was 
 heard at my room-door, with the words " Otto botti, 
 8 o'clock 5" and our gaunt old Meg Merrilies-look- 
 ing servant, who, from the first moment, had as- 
 sumed a mastery over all my domestic affairs, open- 
 ing the door, cried out, " Che poltroneria, get up ; 
 what a shame for an Englishman to be in bed at 
 this time of the morning !" and, after a loud and 
 hearty laugh at my expense, shut the door; the 
 ricketty window-casements trembling from the elec- 
 tric shock, and the word poltroneria dying away 
 in the passage as she receded. It was indeed high 
 time to be on foot ; and when I had dressed, I went 
 to breakfast to the Cafe del Duomo, to the left of 
 the steps leading up to the cathedral, which is fre- 
 quented by the clergy, where I hear all the gossip, 
 and many an instructive hint. The other cafe, 
 on the Piazza dei Signori, is frequented by the 
 officers, and is the more fashionable hole of the 
 two ; but the officers, although very good fellows, 
 are here to-day and away to-morrow ; I therefore 
 prefer the clergy, for they know the country better 
 than any other class. Scarce had I been seated, 
 when one of the priests brought in a Morlack wo- 
 
280 
 
 CHAPTER XXIT. 
 
 man almost famishing and fainting with hunger, 
 and ordered her a glass of sweet wine, while each 
 gave her a kreutzer or two. " Immense misery 
 this year," said the clergyman ; " these poor peo- 
 ple have sold all their heasts ; the Lord knows 
 where they are to get seed from for the next har- 
 vest, and the Turks have forbid the export of 
 grain from Bosnia, Carestia, cospetto di Dio, ca- 
 restia,'' 
 
 " We are not much better in our own country," 
 said I ; " the potato-crop has failed in Ireland 
 this year. Carestia, cospetto della Madonna'* 
 
 " Come, come, no irreverence," said the priest, 
 taking oflP his broad-brimmed hat ; " cospetto della 
 Madonna (visage of the Madonna) is an expression 
 not to be used." 
 
 " I confess myself in the wrong," said I ; " for 
 the Bible says. Swear not at all ; but you yourself 
 led the way with ' cospetto di Did (visage of God). 
 Come, fair play is a jewel, reverendissimo." 
 
 The priest abruptly took out his snuff-box to 
 offer me a pinch ; and as we changed the conver- 
 sation to some other topic, I could not help think- 
 ing on the force of habit which should make the 
 " visage of the Virgin" a greater oath than the 
 visage of God." 
 
 The Piazza began gradually to fill with com- 
 pany ; and as our talk turned on literature, two 
 windows on the opposite side of the square were 
 pointed out to me, as those of a room inhabited by 
 
LITERATURE IN SPALATO. 
 
 281 
 
 another of those strange geniuses at war with so- 
 ciety, Ugo Foscolo, who, although born in Zante, 
 studied in the episcopal seminary in Spalato, in 
 1787. 
 
 At length the coflfin appeared, covered with a 
 black velvet pall ; the arms and chako were placed 
 above the bier, and the chaplet of laurel and ele- 
 gies, some printed and some written, were fastened 
 by Carrara to the skirts of the pall, and marked 
 the mixed character of soldier and historian. I 
 like these symbols of modern southern life, frivo- 
 lous though they appear to our northern phlegm ; 
 they remind one of the departed grace of classic 
 antiquity. 
 
 The procession now started, and was very bril- 
 liant, for all the officers were in full uniform ; 
 those of the Hungarian regiment with bright blue, 
 trimmed somewhat too profusely with silver, and the 
 band playing the melancholy air by which Ninetta 
 is led to execution in the Gazza Ladra, When we 
 got down to the quay, we found ourselves in the 
 clear sunshine, with a fresh breeze blowing, and 
 the water all in motion, each green wave with a 
 silver crest. The Morlacks, in order to see the 
 sight, and do honour to the national historian, 
 were close ranged up along the quay, in their red 
 caps and picturesque dresses. All the windows 
 of the front of the palace, from tower to tower, 
 were crowded with females; and as the hum of 
 attention shot with almost electric rapidity through 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 the forest of broken pilasters, I saw the shadow of 
 the public life of Eome, the majesty of architecture, 
 and the thrill of assembled humanity, alas ! too 
 often of inhumanity. 
 
 "And here the buzz of eager nations ran, 
 In murmur' d pity or loud-roar' d applause." 
 
 The cemetery was out on a point of land beyond 
 the bay ; and the way was long, and so windy, that 
 our cloaks blew like pennons, and one after another 
 of the odes was disengaged off the pall. When we 
 got out to the cemetery, service was read, the vol- 
 leys were fired, military honours were paid, and 
 then ended the bodily career of Cattalinich. 
 
CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 LENT AND HOLY WEEK. 
 
 Spalato, i?i March 1847. — The distress continues, 
 and the poor creatures continue to flock down to 
 the town from the villages, where the provisions 
 are all consumed. Every day at two o'clock, 
 which is the dinner-hour, the doors of the prin- 
 cipal inhabitants are crowded with miserable fa- 
 mished figures, waiting for the remnants of the 
 servants' meals. The Bishop and clergy are most 
 active ; Carrara drew up a most touching state- 
 ment, to be transmitted to Vienna ; and charity 
 sermons were preached in the cathedral by a Ca- 
 puchin monk, which drew a large congregation 
 and collection. 
 
 At the hour of eleven, the bell of the cathedral 
 summoned the Spalatines to hear the priest, and 
 I accompanied the Abbate to the gateway. In 
 order to have a better hearing of the sermon, I 
 ascended to a wooden gallery just under the Co- 
 rinthian capitals of the temple, which support the 
 solid dome ; and while I was gazing on the has- 
 
284 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 reliefs of the frieze, which represents chuhby in- 
 fants gambolling with lions, and leading war-cha- 
 riots to battle, a buzz was heard, and a Capuchin 
 friar, of about forty years of age, with mild, regular 
 features, and dressed in the coarse brown habit of 
 his order, with his cowl hanging over his back and 
 a white rope round his waist, was seen ascending 
 a marble pulpit, elevated above the pavement by 
 tiny columns, of that light fantastic order which 
 may be called Goto- Venetian ; the little capitals 
 having more of the intricate arts of a perriwig, 
 than the simple nature of an acanthus. The 
 church was now crammed full ; and as the reader 
 may have some curiosity about the sermon, I noted 
 a paragraph of it, not as containing any thing re- 
 markable, but as a fair sample of the whole. 
 
 " Wealth and poverty are essential elements in 
 our social state, and the gradations of society are 
 necessary to the beauty of the whole edifice. Let 
 not the rich exult, let not the poor repine ; the only 
 real wealth is virtue. (O thou holy and blessed 
 Virgin Maria," continued the monk, joining his 
 hands, and looking upwards, " may thy interces- 
 sions procure us that wealth that passeth not 
 away.) The mysterious, but doubtless deserved 
 castigation of the Almighty has fallen on Dal- 
 matia, and afflicted us with famine and poverty ; 
 and I here present myself to you, rich people, as 
 the advocate of the poorer members of our human 
 family. Open your ears and purses, you men of 
 
LENT AND HOLY WEEK. 
 
 285 
 
 lands, houses, and strong boxes ; remember that 
 the interests of the poor are inseparable from those 
 of the rich. Let the sufferings of the poor be 
 ever present to your mind. When you daily see 
 the rags hanging about the emaciated members, 
 remember the cause, and think of the remedy. 
 Remember that the charitable hand in the hour 
 of need cures the diseases of a body to which he 
 belongs ; that the whole machinery of society goes 
 easier for it ; and that every obolo given is an in- 
 vestment that brings a rich return in this world, 
 and a richer in the next. 
 
 " What emotion of the soul is nobler than the 
 spontaneous effusion of charity ? (O thou Charity, 
 most sublime of human qualities ; thou bright 
 pearl in the crown of virtue ! — inestimable mar- 
 garita, do fill our hearts to overflowing in this 
 dread hour.) I shall be told that much of the 
 unhappiness of the poor has been from their own 
 disorders : true ; but, nevertheless, let the balm of 
 charity heal the wound. Open your stores, you 
 rich ; if you hesitate, look here" (pointing to a 
 crucifix of wood that slanted three or four feet 
 above the pulpit). " There was the greatest sa- 
 crifice ; Christ shed his own blood to save sin- 
 ners : what were all the sacrifices ever made com- 
 pared to this ! And you, poor, do not torment or 
 annoy the rich with your solicitations. Having 
 received the alms given you, rest content. Never 
 despair, never neglect labour until the last moment. 
 
286 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 (And now, thou blessed Virgin, most holy Mary, 
 abandon us not in the hour of need, and let our 
 humble prayers and supplications ascend to the 
 Almighty, &c.)" 
 
 The lottery and the accademia for the poor 
 now became the talk of the town ; and the first 
 young ladies of Spalato came forward to sing, as 
 only the families of the members of the Casino 
 were to be admitted. The management enrolled 
 me in their list, and I felt some doubt about sing- 
 ing before 200 people ; but on an occasion like 
 this, every one must contribute his little, be it ever 
 so little. 
 
 Accompanying Carrara to the Calle C, we 
 stopped at the palace of Count C, after whose 
 family the street is named. It had the noble 
 dimensions and solidity of a Venetian palace ; but 
 being built in the eighteenth century, the want of 
 the taste and elegance of the elder period was 
 visible. But how such a good house should be 
 built in a narrow street, about twelve feet wide, 
 one could with difficulty comprehend, if it were 
 not dictated by the heat of the climate, and as a 
 preservation against the glare of the sun. When 
 we got up stairs, we were shewn into a grand pala- 
 tial hall, with one of those superb old Venetian 
 mirrors, which really do more for the appearance 
 of a drawing-room than any thing else (unfaded 
 tapestry and pietra commessa always excepted) ; 
 and off this was the study of the Count, who is a 
 
LENT AND HOLY WEEK. 
 
 287 
 
 very able political economist, and gave me a great 
 deal of valuable information on the condition of 
 Dalmatia, which I need not repeat now, but which 
 assisted me in making up my mind on many points 
 that the reader will find discussed before I have 
 done with him. 
 
 From the account he gave of the spendthrift 
 and vindictive character of the peasant, the posi- 
 tion of the landed proprietor in Dalmatia is any 
 thing but enviable. There need be no misery in 
 Dalmatia, even in bad years, if the cultivation of 
 the mulberry were promoted, the soil and climate 
 adapting themselves so admirably to that plant ; 
 and the Count gave me a description of an at- 
 tempt to introduce it on his property with every 
 prospect of success ; but the peasantry soon set 
 their faces against it, and the experiment ended 
 by several hundred young trees being cut down 
 or plucked up in one night. 
 
 The worthy Count now took me with him to the 
 dwelling of his niece, who was the prima donna 
 assoluta of the dilettanti of Spalato, with whom 
 it was arranged that I should sing a duet at the 
 accademia. There was some idea of having a 
 complete performance of Ernani, but, for want of 
 the accessories, it was found impossible. We then 
 proceeded to the Calle dei Gesuiti, the houses of 
 which are built in the thick Roman wall that looks 
 to the landward side of the town ; and the long, 
 dark, and dismal vaulted passages of which look 
 
^88 
 
 CHAPTER XXIIT. 
 
 like the streets of an Eastern city. Here the 
 Count knocked, and, on the door being opened, 
 we were shewn up stairs into a drawing-room, 
 which, instead of looking into the Calle dei Ge- 
 suiti, opened on a garden with the country beyond 
 it. The tender green herbage of early spring was 
 spread out before us, but the high peaks of Ca- 
 prarius had still a pure white crown of snow. The 
 family then appeared, to whom it is not necessary 
 that I should introduce the reader. A Venetian 
 education does not confer blue-stocking erudition ; 
 but in the generous emotions of justice and pity, 
 in good sense and unaffected happy wit, whom 
 shall we put before them ? 
 
 The duet Donna, chi sei was pitched upon ; and 
 our first rehearsals were at the house of the ac- 
 complished Count Leonardo D., who has cele- 
 brated the annual jousting at Sign, in the moun- 
 tains, by a graceful poem. Here I found, one 
 evening, a large party assembled, the two drawing- 
 rooms being thrown into one, at the end of which 
 was the Maestro V., presiding at the pianoforte ; 
 and I saw, in miniature, the worrying that a mu- 
 sical director or theatrical manager is subject to. 
 One found his part too high for his tessitura ; 
 another too low ; a third wished to keep his piece, 
 but needed certain notes pointed to avoid a shrill- 
 ness ; and there was no small degree of amusing 
 jealousy, as to who should have the most effective 
 pieces to sing. The Maestro being accustomed to 
 
LENT AND HOLY WEEK. 
 
 289 
 
 deal with various tempers, was just like a minister 
 at a levee, who grants nothing, yet sends the so- 
 licitors away in good humour. To one who ob- 
 jected to a piece, he replied, " You are mistaken 
 in supposing that you will not be effective. It is 
 
 a capo d'opera of " (naming a celebrated 
 
 singer), *'and your voice is of precisely the same 
 compass." A smile of content played upon the 
 features of the person, who made no more objec- 
 tions ; and V. gave me a wink, as much as to say, 
 that objection is settled for ever. 
 
 The rehearsal was then proceeded with, and 
 consisted mostly of pieces of Verdi ; for the Ita- 
 lians take the last operas, as the mass of our 
 readers in a circulating library take the last ro- 
 mances, of the season. No people are so unac- 
 quainted with the old established standards as 
 those who go nightly to the opera in Italy or the 
 Italianised provinces ; to hear the productions of 
 Cimarosa, Paer, Spontini, and many of the best 
 of Rossini, one must go to the north of the Alps. 
 Novelty, then, good or bad, is the first condition, 
 — a condition fulfilled too frequently only in ap- 
 pearance ; for how often can one say of these 
 ephemera that die in Italy, and can't live out of 
 it, ^^Quel h nuovo non h buono, e quel cH b huono 
 non e nuovo,^^ But Yerdi has some happy mo- 
 ments. What a noble chorus in the Lombardi! 
 the duet of Attila (^Fin che d'Ezio), how grand 
 and martial I in spite of the unison of the caba- 
 
 u 
 
290 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 letta ; the air of the barytone in Ernani, how grace- 
 ful ! and almost all Nahuchodonosor, how well in- 
 strumented ! in spite of the abuse of the syncope. 
 
 When the evening of the accademia came, 
 I dressed myself, proceeded to the Casino, and, 
 by the instructions of the conductor, went round 
 to the billiard-room, which served as a sort of 
 green-room, and in which the dilettanti were all 
 assembled. One practised a cadenza, another 
 hummed an air, a third mimicked the conductor, 
 with a roll of music for a baton, and the loud 
 buzz of the assembly awaiting the music came 
 through to us as a signal that the room was full. 
 There had been no adventure in my way for a 
 long time that I had enjoyed so much ; but when 
 my turn came for entering the brilliantly-illuminat- 
 ed hall, and I saw all those rows of benches with 
 the mammas and the misses in their fine clothes, 
 ready for criticism, and the gentlemen all thick 
 packed behind them, I began to feel a little 
 qualmish ; but seeing the president standing at a 
 doorway on my right, wearing a black skull-cap 
 to keep off the air, and his white locks hanging 
 down his temples and framing his good-humoured 
 joyous visage, I took courage, and, in the charac- 
 ter of Nabuchodonosor, shouted for my guards as 
 loudly as my rusty barytone voice would allow me. 
 So soon as my fair companion got to that grand 
 passage, Ah deW ambita gloria,^* I felt no more 
 fear ; the clear continuous volume of soprano voice 
 
LENT AND HOLY WEEK. 
 
 which she poured forth, and the animation with 
 which the whole was given, electrified the audience, 
 and drew down thunders of applause. Next to 
 the soprano, I most admired the contralto, a daugh- 
 ter of the comptroller of finance of the circle ; and 
 altogether, for the amateurs of a provincial capital, 
 it was a surprising performance. Then came the 
 tomhola, or lottery ; the proceeds of which were 
 added to the other charities, and distributed to the 
 poor. 
 
 Lent closed with the ceremonies of Holv Week 
 in the temple-cathedral ; its darkness illuminated 
 with so many wax tapers, that the sculptures, in- 
 tended by Diocletian's architect to be seen by twi- 
 light, looked rough and unshapen. One of the 
 evening sermons I attended was not preached by 
 the Capuchin monk, but by another priest. How- 
 ever, it was evident that the Thames stood in no 
 danger of combustion from his powers. The pith 
 of his sermon lay in a history of the parts of the 
 body of Mary Magdalene ; the eyes that had 
 allured men looked on the cross, the long hair 
 that had attracted their admiration dried our Sa- 
 viour's feet, and so on, with nose, ears, hands, 
 feet, &c., in such a dry catalogue style, that had 
 I not been in a place of worship, such a deliberate 
 passage from the sublime to the ridiculous must 
 have made me smile. 
 
 From the dome crown of the temple the music 
 had a grand effect ; and after the service, going 
 
292 
 
 CHAPTER XXIIT. 
 
 up the narrow winding back staircase to the choir, 
 I congratulated the Maestro V. on the beauty of the 
 choruses, and complimented him on his drilling ; 
 but he modestly declared that the sweet voices were 
 owing to a large platter of anchovies, and eleven 
 quartuccios of wine which had been discussed 
 by the singers before commencing ; deploring the 
 unfortunate circumstance of a horn lying by. A 
 mouse having formed a snug nest there, and 
 founded a numerous family of mouselings in the 
 hollow, fully accounted for the refusal of that in- 
 strument to give forth any sound until an action 
 of summons and ejectment had taken place. While 
 we were talking, a loud rustling and crackling 
 noise was heard, as if the choir was about to 
 tumble down. This was a beating of many sticks 
 against each other, called " the flogging of Ba- 
 rabbas," and is a relic of the mysteries of the 
 middle ages. Various efforts have been made to 
 abolish these symbolic acts, which are so contrary 
 to our Protestant notions ; but the populace is al- 
 ways discontented with their omission. 
 
 My intercourse with many persons here has 
 shewn me that religious duties are with them not 
 a mere series of blanks in the passport to that 
 undiscovered country from whose bourne no tra- 
 veller returns, which are to be filled according to 
 a mechanical routine, but an all-pervading prin- 
 ciple. With the poorer classes, however, there 
 are the most incontestable proofs of the contrary ; 
 
LENT AND HOLY WEEK. 
 
 293 
 
 instances are known of a man murdering another 
 on a fast-day, and loathing flesh as grossly sinful ; 
 and a procession, of which I was a witness, shewed 
 me instances of penance which one never sees ex- 
 cept in superstitious countries. 
 
 It was after sunset, on Good Friday, for dur- 
 ing all the Holy Week there were daily services 
 in the temple-cathedral, that I formed part of the 
 crowd in the Piazza del Tempio. The sky was 
 clear and star-stud ; all the windows overlooking 
 the Piazza were illuminated ; ranges of men, clad 
 in white, stood each with a thick wax torch in 
 hand ready to move in procession ; and the moon 
 shining through the Corinthian colonnade, athwart 
 the sphynx, glistened on the bayonets of the troops 
 which were to form part of the procession. At 
 length the Bishop, preceded by boys bearing cen- 
 sers, was seen to advance under a canopy borne 
 by four nobili, or gentlemen, and descend the 
 steps, after which the whole procession was put 
 in motion. The most remarkable sight was that 
 of the penitential sinners, who, dressed in black, 
 masked, and barefooted, carried on their shoulders 
 heavy wooden crosses, of such weight and thickness 
 of beam as might have been used in the time of 
 the Komans. All round the town went the pro- 
 cession, and returned to the same spot, some of 
 the penitents, with their hands tied to the ex- 
 tremities of the heavy cross-beams, bending and 
 groaning under their burdens ; but all so veiled 
 
S94 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 and masked, that no one could tell who or what 
 they were. 
 
 The festivities and hospitalities of Easter en- 
 abled me to see more of the domestic manners of 
 the nation. The Easter-lamb, roasted whole, is 
 served with wild asparagus of a peculiarly strong 
 and bitter flavour. The wines are all native Dal- 
 matian ; curious old family silver gear adorned the 
 table ; and toasts and anecdotes of days of yore and 
 time-honoured Dalmatian heroes, all seasoned with 
 native proverbs, had a strong national character 
 which delighted me. I found a collection of these 
 proverbs in a native magazine ; and I presume a 
 few may not be out of place. 
 
 He that is prodigal of thanks is avaricious of 
 gratitude." 
 
 "When the wolf is fatigued, even his tail is 
 heavy." 
 
 He that seeks to act gloriously must not act 
 dexterously." 
 
 " When you steal another man's hen, tie your 
 own by the leg." 
 
 " Every one praises the rose while it gives a 
 pleasant odour." 
 
 "When misfortunes come, pause not to weep, 
 but hasten to change." 
 
 ** The heads fullest of brains are often the most 
 liable to extravagance." 
 
 "Choose your wife by your ears rather than 
 your eyes." 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 SALONA. 
 
 Spring had now unfolded all her attractions. The 
 snow had melted away from Caprarius, the gardens 
 were covered with bloom and verdure, and the 
 whole prospect of land and sea had acquired that 
 warmth of tone, that brilliancy of colour, and per- 
 spicuity of the atmosphere, that belong only to 
 the south. When I took my walks, with a north- 
 west air that scarce deserved the name of wind, 
 and gently stirred the tender leaves, I used to hum 
 to myself some reminiscence of sweet Bellini, and, 
 looking up into the profound azure of the heavens, 
 felt a sort of inspiration, not creative, but intoxi- 
 cating, such as no poetry or painting ever produced 
 in me. 
 
 The ruins of Salona and its charming gulf now 
 engaged my attention. The remains of the once 
 flourishing capital of the Dalmatia of the Romans, 
 situated in the fairest portion of the whole land, 
 transported me again in imagination to the hours 
 I had passed at Tivoli, Pompeii, and all those de- 
 licious places which enable Italy to combine more 
 
296 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 instruction with pleasure than any other country. 
 Even Egypt herself must yield the palm to Italy ; 
 for however wonderful her ancient monuments and 
 Saracenic architecture, however singular her phy- 
 sical geography, and however strange the world of 
 Cairo, of which Mr. Lane may be called the Co- 
 lumbus, Egypt is seen with surprise, Italy is dwelt 
 in with delight. 
 
 On the destruction of Delminio by Cornelius 
 Scipio Nasica, in the second Dalmatian war, Sa- 
 lona became the chief city of the province ; and its 
 inhabitants enjoying the rights of Eoman citi- 
 zenship, its political and maritime importance as 
 capital and chief naval station, not less than the 
 amenity of its situation, rendered it the most de- 
 sirable residence of the coast, and there the arts 
 followed the arms of Rome as naturally as those 
 of Venice in subsequent times found an echo in 
 all the chief cities of Dalmatia. To Augustus and 
 Tiberius, Salona was indebted for those roads which 
 connected her with all the surrounding provinces, 
 and to Diocletian for the culmination of her splen- 
 dour. Constantine Porphyrogenitus, with his fond- 
 ness for sweeping assertion, states that the city was 
 entirely renewed by him, and that its size was half 
 that of Constantinople ; we may therefore conclude 
 that many of its edifices were rebuilt by Diocletian, 
 and that it was one of the most populous of the 
 Eoman provincial capitals. Wealth, ease, and 
 elegance, had their abode in this part of the 
 
SALONA. 
 
 Adriatic, which well earned the title of Dalmatia 
 Felix ; and though the city declined before its fall, 
 and an irruption of Slaavic hordes took place in 
 the fifth century, it lay out of the way of Attila 
 and the other destroyers of Eome. But in the fatal 
 year 639 it was taken and destroyed by the Avars, 
 and Spalato and the islands became the refuge of 
 the Salonitans. 
 
 When the arts revived in the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries, the zeal of exploration gra- 
 dually extended itself to Dalmatia, and the amphi- 
 theatre and other edifices being discovered, Gian 
 Giorgio Calergi made a plan of Salona by order 
 of the Venetian senate in I672 ; but it bore no 
 resemblance to the reality. In 1821 the late Em- 
 peror Francis, who took a great interest in Dal- 
 matia, ordered the excavation of Salona and Pola, 
 after his visit to this kingdom ; and laborious ex- 
 cavations were made in search of statues in many 
 places, which were filled up again if they promised 
 no result. This went on until Professor Carrara 
 perceived that it was putting the cart before the 
 horse, and that the only mode of getting at a satis- 
 factory result was the actual excavation of the base 
 of the circuit of the town, so that the gates as well 
 as the true perimeter being laid bare, no room 
 might be left for conjecture or speculation, but 
 the task of a plan reduced to the simple labour 
 of the geometer, while the gates that opened on 
 the principal streets were the proper starting-places 
 
298 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 for further excavations. In spite of a great deal 
 of opposition, he has succeeded in getting some 
 funds from the government ; and the whole circuit 
 of the town being now laid bare, what was taken 
 for a gate turns out to be a space between two 
 towers, and the true perimeter and gates being 
 ascertained, all further operations may be pro- 
 ceeded with satisfactorily. 
 
 On one of the beautiful mornings of spring, 
 while awaiting a more advanced season for my 
 mountain trip, I visited Salona, accompanied by 
 Professor Carrara, who had been all along my 
 obliging and instructive cicerone in Spalato. The 
 distance is about three miles ; and as the members 
 of the club were afterwards to dine and spend the 
 afternoon at Salona, we proceeded thither on foot, 
 as the road is good, and the country delightful. 
 After about half a mile of gentle ascent, we found 
 ourselves on the backbone of the peninsula, and 
 by a slow descent we gradually approached the 
 upper end of the gulf, which is here attenuated 
 to a narrow stripe of water, into which a river 
 flows ; and standing on a bridge not far from its 
 entrance into the gulf, the broad meadows, with 
 the flocks cropping the fresh luxuriant grass, con- 
 joined with the abundant wood and water, made 
 us forget the sterile and rocky character of Dal- 
 matia, and remember the spring. 
 
 Omnia tunc florent, tunc est nova temporis setas, 
 Et nova de gravido palmite gemma tumet, 
 
SALONA. 
 
 299 
 
 Et modo formatis amicitur vitibus arbos, 
 Prodit et in summum seminis herba solum, 
 
 Et tepidum volucris concentibus aera mulcent, 
 Ludit et in pratis luxuriatque pecus. 
 
 The river, clear and deep, passed rapidly under 
 the arch on which we stood, and mingled its waters 
 with the gulf a hundred yards below us ; the wide 
 expanse of which was seen stretching away to the 
 west, the high hill above Spalato shutting it out 
 from the Adriatic. As I leant my elbows on the 
 parapet, and looked down into the dark pools of 
 the river, with their eddies of fresh water, and 
 the subaqueous pennons of verdant weed which 
 trembled in the stream, I asked Carrara to spur 
 my lagging memory with a classical reminiscence, 
 and he at once gave the couplet of Lucan : 
 
 Qua maris Adriaci longas ferit unda Salonas, 
 Et tepidum in molles zephyros excurrit lader. 
 
 Crossing the bridge, we walked a few hundred 
 yards along a road bordered with poplars and 
 other trees, and entered the straggling modern 
 village of Salona. The inn of the place, where 
 we rested a brief quarter of an hour, and drank 
 a cup of Salonitan wine, had quite the modern 
 Roman air. In front of the door was a verandah 
 of dried leaves, through which flakes of sunlight 
 fell on a large marble senatorial -looking statue 
 lying on its face, the back of which formed the 
 bench, on which sat a maiden with a distafi*, and 
 
300 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 a peasant with sandals, closely resembling those 
 of the Roman citizen, whose reversed effigy re- 
 called the ancient world to the mind of the tra- 
 veller ; while a miserable little daub of a figure 
 firing at a covey of birds was the sign of the inn, 
 " Al famoso Cacciatore," or the famous huntsman. 
 
 Fragments of sculpture were irregularly im- 
 bedded in the walls of most of the old houses ; 
 and I was much pleased to see that Carrara had 
 induced the adoption of a more elegant colloca- 
 tion of those inserted in the new. For instance, 
 symmetrical fragments were disposed on each side 
 of a door, or formed the soles of a row of windows, 
 just like the pale bas-reliefs with which Mieris, 
 Gerhard Douw, and other Dutch painters, used 
 to bring out the hardy greens of vegetables or of 
 drapery. 
 
 The ancient city rises gradually upwards to a 
 considerable height, so that the northern wall is 
 very much higher than the southern part of the 
 city which skirts the river ; and the sea and the city 
 has something of the form of a truncated cone, the 
 wider base to the eastward being an extension of 
 the original city, which was connected by a large 
 internal gate. We first proceeded to the north- 
 east angle of the town, for the purpose of following 
 the excavation of the walls. Here are the remains 
 of the ancient gate leading by the Via Gabiniana 
 to Andetrium or Andertium ; and here we find all 
 the accustomed solidity of Roman masonry. Con- 
 
SALONA. 
 
 301 
 
 tinuing our circuit, we perceive that the city must 
 have been defended with rectangular towers of 
 unequal size, some with a front as narrow as twelve 
 feet, others forty or fifty, and one even ninety-eight 
 feet. One may wonder how a battering aries could 
 affect such a solid construction ; but a corner-stone 
 indented, and partly displaced, by an aries^ shews 
 that by extruding an important corner-stone the 
 whole superincumbent masonry easily falls ; hence 
 the value attached to the " corner-stone," as we 
 find in the Scriptures. The most of the Koman 
 towers are not in their original quadrangular state, 
 but pentagonal, a triangle being added to the rect- 
 angle, so as to present the rude embryo of the mo- 
 dern bastion, thus : 
 
 this addition being, from the inferiority of the ma- 
 sonry, evidently not Roman, but barbaric. The 
 older construction is all of large square blocks of 
 stone ; one that I saw in a tower was not less than 
 ten feet long. In the barbaric masonry, the shell 
 is regularly built of small stones, and the interior 
 filled up with unhewn stones and mortar. 
 
 One of the most interesting objects in the 
 
302 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 northern part of the city near the wall is the ex- 
 cavation of a bath, which shews that the modern 
 oriental bath is essentially the same as that of the 
 ancients. If I had not known that I was treading 
 the ruins of Salona, I could have supposed myself 
 to be standing in the remains of a Turkish or 
 Arab bath ; the reservoir in the centre had its 
 lead pipe for the conveyance of hot water, in which 
 the whole body could be plunged ; the floor was 
 of polished marble ; the pillars that supported the 
 roof of oriental alabaster ; and in one of the lateral 
 cabinets the mosaic was preserved as intact as when 
 laid down. 
 
 Not far from the bath is the great gate which 
 connected the old with the new town, excavated 
 and laid bare down to the pavement ; which latter, 
 as at Pompeii, is marked with the parallel wheel- 
 ruts ; the flags being larger and much more di- 
 lapidated. This shews that Pompeii was covered 
 when the cities of the empire were still prosperous, 
 Salona when in decadence. The aqueduct that 
 supplied the town with water passed over the gate ; 
 and a curious phenomenon is here visible. A leak 
 in the channel of the aqueduct has in course of 
 time formed a stalactite as thick as the trunk of 
 an old oak. 
 
 The amphitheatre, in the form of an ellipse, one 
 hundred and twenty-six feet long, is at the extreme 
 north-west angle of the town, and is in good pre- 
 servation ; the entrance is paved with stones ten 
 
SALONA. 
 
 303 
 
 feet by four, and a diamond-formed stone grate still 
 remains on a level with the arena, which afforded 
 a view of the amphitheatre without danger of jux- 
 taposition with the animals. It appears to have 
 been climate that dictated to the ancients their ex- 
 tensive use of stone ; the rude temperature accom- 
 panying the civilisation of the north of Europe ap- 
 pears to have brought iron into more extensive use. 
 Nothing can be fitter for resisting heat than their 
 solid walls ; but the nice shutting of doors and 
 windows, so essential to the north, was probably as 
 unknown to the Romans as to the modern Dal- 
 matians. In Spalato or Ragusa you see a house 
 with masonry worthy of a handsome fortune, and 
 not a latch on a door or window which would not 
 be unworthy of a hovel in the north of Europe. 
 
 The vomitories and gradations still shew dis- 
 tinctly what the amphitheatre was ; but the circum- 
 stance of the greater part of the wall being at the 
 same time the wall of the town, may account for 
 no particular architectural ornament in the eleva- 
 tion. 
 
 To the westward of Salona is a remnant of an 
 immense construction, the origin or destination of 
 which is quite unknown to the local antiquaries; 
 a Cyclopean wall of regular quadrilateral stones, 
 each from eight to sixteen feet in length. At first 
 sight I imagined that it must have been the foun- 
 dation of a temple ; but as it extends five hundred 
 and eighty paces in length, I soon saw the fallacy 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 of this opinion. Little doubt that the erudition 
 and perseverance of Abbate Carrara will solve 
 this riddle, as well as the others ! 
 
 On our return to the village we found the 
 secretary and music - master, but no president, 
 although the time of meeting had arrived ; so we 
 sauntered along the road towards the bridge, and 
 saw the rotund form and good-humoured face of 
 the worthy old man descending slowly to the bridge, 
 with his broad -brimmed hat off, and wiping his 
 brow with his handkerchief. This was the longest 
 walk he had indulged in for some time. He had 
 sat down to rest, a Morlack maiden had given 
 him a glass of water, and we joked him on Venus 
 making him forget his allegiance to Bacchus ; so 
 he gave us a Latin quotation, which I have for- 
 gotten (for he was an excellent classical scholar), 
 and we retraced our steps to the upper chamber 
 of the " Famous Fowler," where, with an ample 
 repast, more than one amphora of good Salonitan 
 wine was drunk, and the hours passed delightfully 
 in society endeared to me by so many qualities of 
 the head and heart. 
 
 A leisurely walk back to the town amid the 
 shades of evening terminated my trip to Salona; 
 and next day I went with fresh zest to the new 
 museum of antiquities, for the most part dug out 
 of the ruins I had seen, which is situated in 
 Spalato, close to the Porta -^nea, or Gate of 
 Brass. It was begun by a Dr. Lanza j but has 
 
SALONA. 
 
 S05 
 
 been for some time under the care of Professor 
 Carrara, and is gradually acquiring extent and 
 importance. The collection of domestic utensils 
 is varied and curious. The lamination of crystal 
 vases, supposed to be a Venetian invention, is shewn 
 to have been familiar to the Eomans. Playing- 
 dice closely resembling those now in use. 
 
 Si damnosa senem juvat alea, ludit et hseres 
 BuUatus 
 
 distaves of ivory, and numerous other domestic 
 utensils of the same character as those to be seen 
 in the museum of Naples, are visible. Much of 
 the sculpture is mediocre, shewing the decline or 
 provincial rudeness of art, though an Apollo and 
 a Venus Victrix are worthy of a place in any 
 European collection ; but from some of the other 
 fragments it is evident that a camera oscena wil^ 
 be needed in Spalato, as well as in Naples. 
 
 The Government grants the small sum of eighty 
 pounds per annum for the excavations ; but, with 
 more pacific times, I should like to see a more 
 liberal gift ; and with the erudition of so distin- 
 guished a classical antiquary as Professor Carrara, 
 little doubt would exist of much additional light 
 being thrown on the public monuments and private 
 life of the Eoman Dalmatians. 
 
 x 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 COMMERCE AND PUBLIC WORKS. 
 
 Dalmatia has had three governments within little 
 more than the last half century, each distinguished 
 by advantages and defects peculiar to itself. The 
 Venetian government partook of the nature of the 
 metropolitan institutions ; political discussions were 
 carefully prohibited, but the extreme courtesy of the 
 men she sent to Dalmatia took off the edge of this 
 rigour. The public works were distinguished by 
 great elegance ; the full reins were given to amuse- 
 ments ; and all local influence was in the hands of 
 the privileged classes. In 1770, every seventy-fifth 
 soul was a monk or priest, every ninety -first a 
 noble, ^ and the Morlack was ruled with a rod of 
 iron. 
 
 There is nothing to remark in the Austrian 
 government from 1797, when the Venetian Repub- 
 lic fell, to 1806, when Dalmatia became French. 
 Incessantly occupied with the great European strug- 
 
 1 When I was in Dalmatia, there were only 303 persons, with 
 a population of above 400,000, who had patents of nobility or 
 gentility. 
 
COMMERCE AND PUBLIC WORKS. 307 
 
 gle in Germany and Italy, no feature of the period 
 stands out for particular observation. The French 
 occupation from that time to 1813 was a military 
 despotism of great energy and intelligence, but par- 
 took more of the superhuman efforts of febrile de- 
 lirium, than of cool healthy strength. A public 
 work was constructed, or a village decimated, with 
 equal celerity. Marmont was individually popular, 
 but the French system was the object of general 
 execration. 
 
 The spirit of Austria in Dalmatia is curiously 
 distinct from that of the previous governments ; 
 her public works are greatly inferior in artistic 
 elegance to those of the Venetian period, but they 
 are of a very useful character. Roads of the most 
 admirable construction are gradually intersecting 
 the province in all directions ; a comprehensive 
 scheme of national education has been introduced, 
 which, in spite of the indifference of the Morlack, 
 must produce valuable results a generation hence. 
 The government, although absolute in theory dur- 
 ing my stay, was in practice very mild and stu- 
 dious of public opinion. The great mass of the 
 people is sincerely attached to the house of Aus- 
 tria ; and the late changes in Vienna will add 
 nothing to the liberty of speech which they pre- 
 viously possessed. The laws were administered 
 with justice and impartiality ; but there was an 
 unnecessary amount of formality in every procedure, 
 which caused a greater number of civilians to be 
 
308 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 employed in the public offices than the wants of 
 the country demanded. The province being well 
 affected, the legion of police -spies that flourished 
 in Milan and other cities indisposed to Austria 
 was here unknown ; but the censorship of the press 
 was behind the spirit of the age. Constituted as 
 Austria was with such a diversity of nationalities, 
 I have never believed that Lombards would be 
 content to sit in a Vienna parliament ; but with 
 free trade, and municipal institutions, such as I 
 recommended at the close of my work on Servia, I 
 am firmly persuaded that she would have withstood 
 the shock of revolution. 
 
 Dalmatia is under a system of customs-duties 
 distinct from that of Austria, and possessing a more 
 moderate tariff, but still with unwisely high duties, 
 as the very small revenue she draws from them 
 clearly proves. The principal imports are colonials 
 from Trieste, manufactures of England and Ger- 
 many from the same port, grain and cattle mostly 
 from Bosnia, and salt from Sicily. The exports 
 are oil, the best of which is made at Ragusa (for 
 the ordinary Dalmatian oil is of poor quality), wine, 
 mostly from the islands, and brandy from Spalato, 
 sent to Venice and Croatia, anchovies to the fair 
 of Sinigaglia, Turkish hides to Trieste, besides 
 smaller articles, such as fine woods from Curzola, 
 and almonds from Zara ; the total declared imports 
 being, in round numbers, four millions of florins, 
 and the total declared exports not quite five mil- 
 
COMMERCE AND PUBLIC WORKS. 
 
 309 
 
 lions of florins, or half a million sterling ; a miser- 
 able sum for a country with such a position and 
 with such resources. 
 
 As in military fortification the levelling theo- 
 ries of Yauban have given way to the utilisation 
 of positions of natural strength, so in political 
 economy, the physical geography of a country 
 ought to be carefully kept in view in framing the 
 tariff. Dalmatia is a long narrow stripe of land 
 stretching from Albania to the Gulf of Quarnero, 
 three hundred miles in length, but without ade- 
 quate breadth. As Thebes was called a city of a 
 hundred gates, Illyria, in the songs of the bards, 
 is called a city of a hundred ports. If we divide 
 this number by four, the poetry becomes prose, 
 and it may be said that Dalmatia has not less than 
 from twenty to thirty good harbours ; it is clear, 
 therefore, that, in framing her financial laws, the 
 claims of her maritime interests ought to prepon- 
 derate over all others. Does the tarifiP of Dalma- 
 tia correspond to the splendid part assigned her in 
 the territorial division of labour ? 
 
 In colonials, for instance, refined sugars and 
 cofice pay each a duty of six florins forty kreutzers 
 per hundredweight ; and, one article in quality 
 taken with another, it may be said that the duties 
 are forty per cent. A few years ago this would 
 not have been considered a heavy duty in any coun- 
 ti^' in Europe ; but the palpable proof of its unfit- 
 ness for Dalmatia lies in the fact, that the registers 
 
310 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 of the customs of this country shew an entry of only 
 93,000 florins for colonial wares, while the actual 
 importations, in spite of the coast-guard, are cal- 
 culated at at least 400,000 florins. In the densely 
 populated and well-rounded hereditary provinces, 
 it is not easy to prevent smuggling ; but where 
 you have a rocky coast, often without population, 
 and creeks and sounds innumerable, prevention is 
 physically impossible with ten times the present 
 coast-guard. The shipmaster takes the risk on 
 his own shoulders, and receives for each hundred 
 pounds of colonials, the half of the duty from the 
 merchant ; thus commerce is carried on in illicit 
 channels, to the detriment not only of morality, but 
 of the public revenue. Many more instances could 
 be mentioned, if I had less fear of rendering this 
 chapter unpalatable to the general reader. I, how- 
 ever, mention one more, — that of manufactures. 
 Three braccios of cotton longcloths weigh a pound 
 of Vienna, which, valued at five kreutzers, make 
 fifteen kreutzers for a pound, the duty on which 
 is ten kreutzers, or sixty-six and two-thirds per 
 cent ; the natural consequence is, that not quite a 
 hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling worth 
 are entered in the books of the customs, while the 
 value of the real importations is known to be con- 
 siderably above the double of that sum. Thus, a 
 man who does not smuggle being undersold in the 
 market, every merchant in Dalmatia is compelled 
 to be a smuggler to avoid being bankrupt. In 
 
COMMERCE AND PUBLIC WORKS. 
 
 311 
 
 order to render the system apparently more effi- 
 cient, domiciliary visits are from time to time made 
 at shops and warehouses, where note is taken of 
 the increase or diminution of commodities ; but 
 on such occasions the one lends the other his per- 
 mits, and thus the fisc is in every way evaded. 
 All these facts are public and notorious, and there 
 is not a single merchant in Dalmatia who is not 
 the ally of smugglers. 
 
 The tobacco monopoly is also most injudicious, 
 as regards the peculiar geographical circumstances 
 of Dalmatia. I have no observation to make on 
 this monopoly in Austria Proper, for there is not 
 a more proper and legitimate object of taxation 
 than tobacco ; but while its cultivation is allowed 
 in Hungary, it is prohibited in Dalmatia, although 
 the district of Imoschi is most suitable for the 
 growth of tobacco for smoking, and Puglizza for 
 that of snuff. But apart from the unfairness is 
 the unfitness of the system : the Dutch-imported 
 tobacco, manufactured at Venice, is that sold in 
 Dalmatia ; but, from the impossibility of guarding 
 the frontier, as well as the cheapness and excel- 
 lence of Turkish tobacco, it is calculated that the 
 consumption of the smuggled article is at least 
 ten times that which is purchased in a legal 
 manner. 
 
 Thus, if ever there was a country in which 
 two and two do not make four in the arithmetic 
 of customs, it is Dalmatia. The whole revenue, 
 
312 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 after payment of expense of collection, is, in round 
 numbers, twenty-three thousand pounds sterling ; 
 and a frontier-guard exists to effect an object 
 rendered impossible by the easy access which 
 Dalmatia presents to the smuggler on both the 
 land and sea side. If there were any domestic 
 material interests at peril from a change, I could 
 easily imagine a reluctance to abandon the pro- 
 tective system ; but as the only vested interests 
 that could put forth a claim to compensation for 
 loss are those of the smuggler, the retaining of the 
 present system savours of such a hallucination in 
 an otherwise clear-headed government as is per- 
 fectly astonishing. In a detailed article on this 
 subject which I contributed to the Augsburg Ga- 
 zette, as the best vehicle for moving the Vienna 
 bureaucracy in the matter, I proposed an indiscri- 
 minate duty of seven and a half per cent ; but, on 
 mature consideration, I think that a total aban- 
 donment of all customs-duties in Dalmatia would 
 be the best policy, and its deficiency of the miser- 
 able twenty thousand a year could be made up by 
 some direct assessment. 
 
 All the other branches of the revenue must 
 infallibly gain by whatever may cause an influx of 
 capital into the kingdom. One great want of the 
 province is the non-existence of some money mar- 
 ket or bank, at which capital could be borrowed, 
 on good security, for the drainage or cultivation 
 of waste lands. By the present laws, all interest 
 
COMMERCE AND PUBLIC WORKS. 313 
 
 above five per cent is illegal ; but the real market 
 value of capital in Dalmatia is not less than eight 
 or ten per cent ; the consequence is, that this most 
 valuable of all the levers of national improvement is 
 in the hands of a set of low usurers. This is an un- 
 happy instance of the desire of uniformity with the 
 rest of the empire, where the conditions of material 
 existence are so different. An individual willing 
 to pay the fair market worth of capital, for either 
 trading or agricultural purposes, cannot get it, be- 
 cause he must pay not only the eight or ten per 
 cent, but a surplusage, to insure the lender against 
 the consequences of the irregularity of the trans- 
 action. 
 
 Commerce and agriculture are inseparably con- 
 nected ; whoever has travelled through this pro- 
 vince must feel that free-trade is the readiest lever 
 of prosperity, and that its effect in raising the 
 ports of the coasts would be immediate ; and it 
 is probable that Spalato, with its noble harbour, 
 or the Gulf of Salona, and its position at the point 
 where the caravan-roads abut on the Adriatic, would 
 become the emporium of the manufactures and co- 
 lonials of the countries inland, instead of being 
 merely, as at present, the landing-place of goods 
 brought in luggers from Trieste, to be sent in tran- 
 sit to the interior. The principal merchants are at 
 Seraievo and Travnik ; and Trieste being so far dis- 
 tant, they would prefer coming more frequently to 
 Spalato, if they could serve their turn there, and 
 
 Y 
 
314 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 supply themselves to their content j for, although 
 Fiume cannot vegetate as an emporium, from its 
 vicinity to Trieste, Spalato is so much farther 
 down the Adriatic, and has so distinct a destiny, 
 that the Bosniacs would desire nothing better than 
 to have an emporium in their vicinity. The es- 
 tablishment of a couple of annual fairs, in the first 
 instance, would be an encouragement at once to 
 parties at a distance to make up cargoes direct for 
 Spalato, and would draw down the resources of the 
 interior to a ready market. If the countries be- 
 hind were poor, like Dalmatia, I should feel less 
 sanguine ; but they are overflowing with milk and 
 honey. Austria holds the ports : let Dalmatia 
 have her full swing of trade and navigation, and 
 let the laws be framed in unison with the palpable 
 designs and intentions of the Almighty in this 
 part of his creation ; and instead of being, as she 
 has hitherto been, a burden on the Austrian trea- 
 sury, Dalmatia might become a flourishing pro- 
 vince. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
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