The Cruise of the Branwen

CRUISE OF THE BRANWEN most beautiful in Europe, a magnificent edition of the view from the road along the Riviera between Mentone and Monte Carlo ; and there was every sign of wealth and cultivation in the valley as we drew near the towers and bastions of Ragusa's city walls. This fortress of the seas and hills has an appear– ance so ancient that its very name has been imagined to be the root from which "Ragosy" or " Argosy" is derived. But we are far enough here from Jason and his Golden Fleece, though it is quite true that from the little haven which is now deserted for Gravosa you might have seen for many a century the Centaur-carven caravels And galleons big with ore, Dromonds and mountain'd argosies That sack the globe no more ... The origin of Ragusa smacks only of the early years of modern Europe. Hellas, as I said, is far behind. Refugees from those ancient Latin towns, sacked by Barbarian invaders in the Balkans, founded the first "Rausium" at the decline of the Roman Empire; and, in a Slav country, Rausium, remaining Roman, was suc– coured by Byzantine troops and enabled to with– stand a Saracen siege for fifteen months in 867. About a hundred years afterwards the Queenship of Venice was admitted by this sturdy little Adriatic city, which kept all the autonomy it could, until the attempted despotism of its own rulers compelled the acceptance of a Venetian 158