government, and give a false representation of the history of the Uscocs at Segna.

"However, in 1613, the Emperor, perceiving that the Venetians were determined never to open the ports, until measures had been taken to put an effectual stop to piracy, after various conferences and deliberations, conveyed to the Venetian ambassador his resolution to satisfy all demands, if the Republic would correspond, by raising the blockade of the maritime towns, and surrender the prisoners; giving his written promise in Italian to that effect.

"The intelligence was gladly received at Venice, and the Venetian Senate proceeded faithfully to execute their part of the treaty; but vainly waited in expectation of its fulfilment on the other side.

"Money to pay the garrison being, as usual, not forthcoming, the Uscocs began by degrees to return to their predatory habits; fugitives gradually dropped in, one by one; and at last, emboldened by various small forays, they combined to make a grand sortie in the holy week; and, according to custom, even the old men and widows, the monks and nuns, contributed stores of gunpowder, provisions, and money. They accordingly sallied forth, on the 7th of April, the day of our Saviour's resurrection, to the number of 400, in ten boats.

"Sailing one hundred and eighty miles along the coast, they landed at Crepano, in the district of Sebenico, which they crossed to the Turkish territory, carrying off men, animals, and money, and spreading the rumour, as they went, that they were in league with the Venetians, to spoil the Turks.

"After that, they descended upon Macarsca and Narenta, and penetrating through the country of the Ragu

sans, sacked the town of Trebigne*, the largest and richest in the environs of Castel Novo; in which foray, lasting as it did several days, they reaped immense booty ; because, owing to the treaty, and the general belief that no more danger was to be apprehended from the Uscocs, the Turks were off their guard.

"Nothing could persuade the Osmanlis, that the Venetians were not accomplices in the attack; and the Pasha of Bosnia having come to high words with the Venetian General, great fears were entertained, that this occurrence would bring on an open rupture with the Porte.

"The General, accordingly, having ordered eleven armed gallies of Albanians to scour the seas, in search of the pirates, it so happened that they fell in with some of the Uscoc barks, conveying booty and prisoners to Segna, off the Cape of Liesina; when a fierce combat took place, which lasted till night. The Uscocs were worsted, with two of their barques taken, and sixty men killed, and among them their great chief Nicolo Craglianovich, while the Albanians had only eight killed, and nineteen wounded.

"The remainder of the pirates fled, full of rage, and breathing vengeance.

"Shortly afterwards, Christofero Veniero, on his way from Istria, to join the General, having no intimation of the recent battle at the Cape of Liesina, anchored at night in the port of Mandre, in the island of Pago; which being immediately made known to the Uscocs, by their spies, they collected in large numbers, on the mountain above the harbour, and next morning six of their boats attacked his galley by sea, while those on

* See above, Vol. I. p. 340.

land poured down a murderous fire from the rocks above; and, having speedily succeeded in obtaining possession of the ship, they forced those of the crew who survived, with cruel blows, to walk the plank into the sea. Then sailing the galley to Segna, during the voyage, they hewed off with a hatchet the heads of the Cavalier Lucretio Gravise, a gentleman of Capo d'Istria, and his brother, and nephew, passengers in the vessel, and despoiled of their jewels and vestments Paula Strasolde, his wife, and her attendants; reserving Veniero alive, till they got under the Morlacca, a little way from Segna, where they sealed their barbarities by beheading him also with a hatchet; and after mutilating his body, threw it into the sea. His head they then served up for dinner, together with his heart; in the warm blood of which they all dipped their bread, according to the belief among them, that such participation in an enemy's blood is a sure pledge of mutual fidelity, and a spell binding them together in one common fate.

Having completed their fiend-like rites, they brought the galley to Segna, divided the booty and ammunition, released the galley slaves, and planted the artillery on the walls of the city."

*

This brutal outrage roused the indignation of the Venetians; and the Austrians having listened coldly to their demands for vengeance, a war ensued in Friuli; which lasted three years, and was at last terminated, through the mediation of France, by a treaty, ratified at Madrid; which stipulated the final dispersion of the Uscocs, and the destruction of their flotilla.

They were therefore removed from Segna, into the interior of Croatia; where the Archduke Ferdinand gave them a new abode, in the neighbourhood of Carlstadt.

431

APPENDIX.

(A.)

HISTORY OF DALMATIA UNDER THE ROMANS.

I HAVE already given an account of the Slavonians, and of their settlement in Dalmatia, in the seventh century. From that period the history of the modern Dalmatians and Illyrians properly begins; but though not immediately related to the ancient inhabitants of the country, the events that preceded their arrival ought not to be omitted; and the monuments that remain require some notice of the people who possessed Illyria, when it was first conquered by the Romans, and during the subsequent period when it formed part of the empire.

The Liburnians, who occupied the northern part, were a very ancient people. They had, at a most remote period, many possessions, even in Italy; and Livy says that, in his time, the town of Truentum still belonged to them.* They were always renowned for their naval skill; they possessed the islands of Dalmatia, and had numerous colonies on the Adriatic coast; and the excellence of the Liburnian light gallies was acknowledged by the Romans and the Greeks. It was with ships of that construction, that, at Actium, Augustus defeated the large vessels of Antony†;

Amice, propugnacula.-HOR. Epod. i. 1. 1.

and Dalmatian writers have conjectured, not without some show of probability, that the Romans were indebted to the aid of the Liburnians, for their first naval victory over the Carthaginians. The mention of Liburnian ships, by a Roman historian, has been thought to strengthen this conjecture; and though the remark of Eutropius* may only refer to their form, it is not too much to suppose that both the Liburnian gallies, and sailors, may have aided the nautical inexperience of the Romans, on that occasion; and the employment of the ships of Issat by the Romans, in the second Macedonian war ‡, shows how probable it is that they were also used against the Carthaginians, when the Roman fleet was in its infancy. For of all the fabrications which have led to the suggestion of Roma Mendacior, for the "Græcia Mendax" of Juvenal, none is more striking than that, which attributes the creation of the Roman fleet to the accidental capture of a stranded Punic ship, that served as a model for their quinqueremes, and to the inland training of the crews adopted by Duilius §; and there is little doubt that the Romans were indebted to others, more skilled in naval tactics, for their first successes against the Carthaginian fleets.

Some suppose the Liburnians to have been a colony from Asia; who obtained possession of that portion of Illyria, which from them borrowed the name of Liburnia ; and many conjectures have been offered respecting their origin.

* "Primum Romani C. Duillio et Cn. Cornelio Asina Coss. in mari dimicarunt, paratis navibus rostratis, quas Liburnas vocant."-EUTR. lib. ii.

† Now Lissa.

§ See Polybius.

‡ Liv. Dec. iv. lib. i.