474 ANNUAL REGISTER, 181:2. 



Venice, Trieste, and Ancona; it 

 produces corn and wine for the 

 supply of its inhabitants. 



Meleda is 50 miles in circum- 

 ference, but has only about 2,000 

 inhabitants, who live in a few 

 small villages, and have no consi- 

 derable town in the island : it has 

 three good harbours, and produces 

 corn sufficient for the support of 

 its own inhabitants, but nothing 

 of any value to the state except 

 firewood. 



It has been much disputed in 

 the Italian schools, whether this 

 island be not the same which is 

 called Melita in the New Testa- 

 ment, on which St. Paul and his 

 companions were shipwrecked ; 

 and many have been inclined to 

 give it the preference to Malta in 

 that respect ; not only from the 

 coincidence of its name (which in 

 Latin is Melita), but from the 

 great difficulty, if not impossibility, 

 of reconciling the account there 

 given of the wind, &c. with the 

 situation of Malta. — It abounds 

 with destructive serpents, by which 

 both the inhabitants and the cattle 

 frequently suffer : the bite of some 

 of them is so deadly, as to occasion 

 instant death without remedy ; but 

 others less noxious cause a tumour, 

 which by degrees spreads over the 

 whole frame, and produces the 

 death of the patient in two or 

 three days, unless chey take the 

 precaution of immediately cutting 

 out the part affected, when no 

 further inconvenience ensues. 



These serpents are also found in 

 Ragusa, but they are neither so 

 noxious nor so numerous as on this 

 island. 



This remarkable state has not 

 only preserved its independence in 



the mid^t of a powerful empire, 

 against the arms of which it pos- 

 sesses no means of defence, but 

 has enjoyed the most profound 

 tranquillity for the space of 1,000 

 years with only one small inter- 

 ruption, which happened about 22 

 years ago, when the Russians, be- 

 intj at war with the Turks, be^an 

 to commit depredations on the 

 Ragusean shipping, but the affair 

 was very soon made up. 



Having no internal commotions 

 nor external wars of their own, 

 nor any concern in those of their 

 neighbours, the state maintains 

 neither army, nor navy, nor any 

 thing which has the appearance of 

 hostile force, except about fifty 

 soldiers, who attend the doge on 

 special occasions, merely for the 

 purpose of pomp and parade. 



Although the continuance of 

 this happy state of peace and 

 tranquillity (so different from the 

 condition of all the more polished 

 nations of tlaiope) must no doubt 

 be attributed in a great measure to 

 the poverty and infertility of their 

 country, which affords little to 

 gratify the avarice or ambition of 

 an invader, yet it appears to have 

 been partly occasioned by the fol- 

 lowing circumstance : When the 

 Turks had overrun Greece and 

 conquered the provinces of Bosnia, 

 Servia, &c. the Raguseans sent de- 

 puties to congratulate the Sultan 

 on his success, and to solicit his 

 protection : as they were the first 

 and only people who had compli- 

 mented him in this manner, he 

 received them graciously, and en- 

 tered into a treaty to allow them 

 their independence, which has 

 been kept inviolable to the present 

 day ; and once every three years 



two 



