ho ANNUAL RE 
the skill of its seamen, who form 
the chief part of its population. 
This province was one of those trans- 
ferred to France by the peace of Pres- 
burg, by the articles of which it was 
stipulated that France should take 
possession of Cattaro within six 
weeks after the exchange of the ratifi- 
cation of the treaty. At the expira- 
tion of that period, the’ French 
officers’ appointed to receive the 
province from the Austrians had 
not arrived at Cattato. An agent 
of the court of Russia at Cattaro 
took advantage of this delay, and 
succeeded in persuading the inha- 
bitants, who are chiefly “Greeks, 
that France having failed to take 
possession of the place at ‘the time 
appointed, Austria was released 
from the obligation of maintaining 
it, and justified i in withdrawing her 
troops and leaving it to the first 
occupant. This reasoning, though 
Satisfactory to the inhabitants of 
Cattaro, made no impression on the 
Austrian commandant, who occupied 
the forts with a garrison of 1500 
meu, till supported by the irrup- 
tion of a band of Montcnegrins 
from the mountains, and by the are 
rival of a Russian line of battle 
ship from Corfu. The marquis de 
Ghisilieri, commissary-gencral of the 
Austrian army, appointed to deliver 
~ up Dalmatia and Cattaro to the 
French, happencd at that moment to 
arrive at Cattaro, whither he had pre- 
ceded the French generals, on hear- 
ing of the mutinous spirit of the in- 
habitants ; but, instead of resisting 
the Russians and their allies, as with 
the garrison in the forts he might 
easily have done till the arrival 
ef the French, he consented, after a 
short negociation, to evacuate the 
: 
Li Haig oa) * May 26th. 
GISTER, 1806. 
place, which was immediately occite 
pied by the natives, and by them 
transferred to’ the Russians, © This 
strange transaction took place on thé 
4th of March, when the French weré 
within a few days march of the 
place. The Austrian officers in gdr- 
rison at Cattaro ‘were scandalized 
at this proceeding, and so indignant 
with Ghisilieri, that they made a 
formal protest against the evacuation 
of the forts; and whew the conduct 
of that officer came atterwards to be 
enquired into at Vienna, the reasons 
he assigned for giving up the place 
appeared so unsatisfactory to the 
tribunal before which he was tried, 
that he was dismissed from the im. 
perial service, and sentenced to be 
imprisoned for life in @ fortress of 
Transylvania. There can be no 
doubt, froma review of hisconduct in 
this affair, that he was either bribed 
by the Russians, or actuated by a 
false persuasion, that he ‘should 
render an acceptable serviee to his 
court, by frastrating the expecta- 
tions of the French, without impli- 
cating its charaeter or honour in the 
transaction. 
The French, disappointed of Cat- 
taro, with that profligate contempt 
of the rights of independent states, 
which so strongly characterizes the 
trausactions of the present day, 
took possession of Ragusa*, to 
which they had no claim, on pretence 
of securing it against the incursions 
of the Montenegrins, who had not 
even threattned to'violate its terri- 
tory. The Montenegrins are'a 
barbarous tribe of freebooters, inha- 
biting the chain of motntains ads 
joining to Cattaro, from one of 
which, called Monténegro, they 
derive their name. They Were at 
this 
