diffidence o f uncivilized men, in a vaft trail o f country thinly
inhabited, and far from Italian politenefs. I may venture to fay,
that the days, thus indifpenfably loft, made up more than half
o f the ten months, which I fpent in both my tours in Dalmatia;
and ftilU ihould probably have made amends for this lofs, if,
after having furmounted a great part o f the difficulties, the oc-
caiion of my returning thither had not ceaied.. At any rate, as
DO:body hitherto has given any minute account o f that large
country, I flatter myfelf, that the little which I have obferv-
ed, will afford fome pleafure to the lovers o f natural hiftory.
O f the Iflands L i s sa,, and P e l a g o s a .
T h e ifland, that in our days is tailed Liffa, was known by
the ancients under the name o f Ir<f«, Iffa. Both the Greek and
Latin geographers make honourable mention o f it, as a colony
o f the Syracuians; and almoft unanimoufly give it the fifft place
among the iftancs’In the Illyric fea; thotigh it is' not oiie of the
largeft. Scimnus o f Chio, treating o f the Illyric iflands, begins
with Liffa, though it lies the fartheft from the Continent; Strabo
counts it with diftin&ion among the mod noted ; and Aga-
thererus places it at the head o f the m'oft noble iflands * nor is
there any geographer who does not name it in a diflibguiihed
manner. Among the Greek poets, Apollonius, the Rhodian,1
in the Argonaut tea, mentions it with the epithet o f
noify, or ill-founding, and joins to it the defreable Pythica,
which ihould not be Lefina, as fome o f the beft geographers
have fuppofedV but the fmall ifland o f S. Andrea, which is ftill
Covered with wood in our days, whence a refinous juice is extracted
by inciiion. We learn from Lycophron, in his Caffan-
dra, that Cadmus lived for fome time in Liffa, and begot a fon
there.
there, Almoft all the Greek and Latin hiftorkns o f the fifft
order treat fully o f this ifland, which; from the remoteft times, ’
was confiderable for its maritime force, and its commerce. O f
the Liburni,- and their allies the Hetrufei o f Adriaf whftj aftef
they had'fettled themïèîVés there, “gavé the" law to all the' Adri- "
atiek, there areno1 very diftinft accounts preferred in uh'iftorÿ ;
and we begin to know fometfring about-the Liffani in tb e1 ¿Cui
Olympiad ; that ià, at the timc wheti D’ibnyffdsV'thè ÓÌdér^imadS*1
hirtifelf mafter of tile ifland, and fenf a-Colony ó f Syraàufiïhé '
thither«; which, - in the cOurfe o f time, bècame indépèbdëhi: ori1''
the mother-country,. and formidable by the extent o f its dominions,
and the number o f its fliips;. The Leffani hid frequent
wars with the5kingst-9^IUyriuro, and,were allies.of the,I&prpfjrp,
by whom they were held in fuch pile,cm, that, pfi
count-, .they fent an embaflÿ to Queen. Tenta, tQ.defire.thatffie ;
wòpld ceafe to moleft them. The.bloody confequenqe,,of ,thiss„
legation iirved as a pretext for th e . fcrft Illyric war, .-jQiich'.
brought on all the other-, and ended in the conqueft qf that yait .
country., During, thefe commotions,* the commerce and navi-,
gation o f the Liffapi began to decline,, and. o f eonfcquepce their
power was reduced,almoft to nothing afjge the, enti of.the iftéiisÀt
wars,, Hiftprians mentign, them à.Wfs-jOfnj
ages ; , and, we ,find only ¡in the middle times, t^aç, they ^belonged ..
to the pirates-, o f ., Narenta,. In fubTequent times, the, ifland o f
Liffa became,dependant oir that o f Lefina ; . and never,.after was.
in’ a condition tp form a feparatebody pfytjfçliv , 1ft is ,qnly, thirty,
mile£ in circumference.; - is,, mountainous., though not without j
cultivable plains'; the temperature of. the air is,remarkably .happy,
and .it wants nothing hut plenty o f fre(ly water to make ip a
perfeftly agreeable fp,Qt.‘,
’ • ' . ! i \ o « .’ VLLj ( H Vl.
T t In