CHAPTER lY. 



THE ADRIATIC PROVINCES, 



(GoRiziA, Trieste, Istkia, Dalmatia.) 



GE^"ERAL Aspects. — Mountaiks. 



IIE basin of the Isonzo, the peninsula of Istria, the Dalmatian coast 

 land and its islands, form part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 

 in spite of watersheds and nationality. The German and the 

 Magyar are strangers in these Adriatic regions, from which they 

 are separated by the ramifications of the Alps — 



" Che Italia cliiude c i suoi tei'inini bagna." — Dame, Inferno, canto ix. 



Istria and the basin of the Isonzo belong to Cisleithan Austria ; the coasts of 

 Quarnero and of Fiume, as far as the ridge of Yellebic, or Velebit, are subject to 

 Hungary. The possession of harbours on the Adriatic is of paramount importance 

 to the great Danubian empire. Trieste enables German Austria to freely com- 

 municate with the oviter world and to threaten Italy, Fiume affords similar 

 advantages to Hungary. 



But Dalmatia, which stretches far south along the eastern shore of the 

 Adriatic, is almost beyond 'the sphere of Austrian or Hungarian influence. Its 

 boundaries have been fixed in the most arbitrary manner. Geographically as well 

 as ethnographically it forms part of the peninsula of the Balkans ; and if its 

 inhabitants declined to throw in their lot with the Slavs, they would naturally 

 turn towards Italy. The same sea washes the coasts of both, while frequent and 

 long-continued intercourse has brought about a partial assimilation in manners 

 and language. For a long time the Venetians held possession of a great part of 

 Dalmatia, and republican Ragusa became almost Italian. The chances of war 

 threw Dalmatia into the hands of France, and later into those of Austria. The 

 reasons which prevented Dalmatia from asserting its independence lie on the 

 surface. No material bonds ever united the Slavs of this strip of coast land in 

 defence of their independence, and they found no support amongst their kinsmen 

 in the interior, from whom they are separated by arid mountains. The Illyrian 

 Republic of Ragusa never enjoyed a period of repose, and ever led a troubled 

 life. 



