THE DISCOVERY 



9 



els, glass, from Araby and India. The gla- 

 mour of the East and the religious fervor of 

 the West got into the brain and long files of 

 crusaders, knights, warriors, adventurers came 

 trooping to the Italian shores demanding trans- 

 portation to the land of the Infidel. When 

 that mad struggle was over there came the 

 long quarrels between Venice and Constanti- 

 nople, the bloody encounters with Dalmatian 

 pirates, the sea fights between the Genoese and 

 the Venetians — all of them broken by many 

 years of comparative peace and prosperity. 

 Glorious days of sea triumph were those when 

 the Doge went forth in the gilded Bucentaur 

 to wed the Adriatic, when hundreds of argosies 

 were tossing on the Mediterranean, and Vene- 

 tian war galleys came and went in flocks 

 that covered the seas ! At its height the island 

 city floated over three thousand merchantmen; 

 Genoa was no mean second ; and Pisa, Eome, 

 Eavenna — all the coast towns of the peninsula 

 — had the': ships in the carrying trade. Wher- 

 ever a harbor offered and a town grew there 

 the fleets of Italy cast anchor. And one by 

 one each indentation in the coast came to be 

 known and found its way upon the maps. 



But, again, all this was skirting the shore or 

 following M'ell -traveled roads of the sea from 



TVwiVc at 

 its height 

 of power. 



