The chain of islands which forms a natural breakwater to the coast of Dalmatia is broken into two groups by the Punta Planka, the ancient Promontorium Syrtis, south of Sebenico. To the northern group belong Veglia, Cherso, Ossero, Arbe, Pago, and a number of smaller and less important islands, including Ugljan, opposite Zara, and Pasman, a little farther south. Of these the first four have been described at length, and the others are mentioned briefly in the chapter dealing with Zara and its surroundings. The southern group lies south of the harbour of Spalato, and includes Solta, Brazza, Lesina, Curzola, Meleda, the more distant Lissa, Busi, and Lagosta, and a few small islands which belonged to the Republic of Ragusa. The interest of these varies a good deal, some containing much to delight the traveller, while others are scarcely worth a visit. Most of them have historical memories reaching from the dawn of history to times which are within the memory of many now living, and some of them are remarkable for their geological formation or luxuriant Southern vegetation. The planning of a tour among them requires the most careful comparison of the time-tables of the various shipping companies, and the scheme, once decided on, must be strictly adhered to under pain of the risk of being stranded in some little visited place for three or four days without any of the comforts which the average traveller now expects to find everywhere; for the weather cannot be relied on for twenty-four hours together in the seasons when travellers are most numerous, the sea frequently rising under an unfavourable wind so rapidly as to make escape by a fishing-boat a doubtful experiment.

The direct boats, on leaving Spalato, steer between Solta and Brazza, and round the point of Lesina, proceeding by the Canals of Curzola and Meleda towards Gravosa; and we cannot do better than visit the islands in much the same order.

Solta is the ancient Olinthia, celebrated for its honey; Olinthian honey was held to be superior to all other, except that of Hymettus. The bees are of a special kind, which work hard, and go out in wind and slight rain; but the excellence of the honey was probably due to the rosemary blossoms, on which they feed by preference, only visiting other flowers when these have been completely rifled. Of late years the inhabitants have cleared a great part of the land in order to cultivate vines or chrysanthemum, so the yield of honey is much reduced. Remains of mosaic pavements found here and there show the sites of Roman villas.

Brazza is the largest of the Dalmatian islands, the most populous, and the richest in wine and oil. The stone for Diocletian's palace came mainly from this island; and Professor Bulic has found abandoned fragments partially worked in the quarries, as well as inscriptions. The greater part of the stone with which Salona was built also came from Brazza. Its history commences with the destruction of Salona and Epetium in the seventh century, much of the population taking refuge in the island, though it is believed that Greeks inhabited it before the Romans. The legend that S. Helena, the mother of Constantine, was born here (though most historians regard her as English) probably arose from the name of Brettanide, which is said to have been the Greek name for the island, though Brattia is also met with. The most ancient document preserved is a privilege of 1077, given to the nobles by Demetrius Zvonimir; but the island belonged by turns to Byzantium, Venice, the Ostrogoth, Frank, Narentan, and Hungarian, becoming finally Venetian in 1420, except for the disturbed period which closed in 1815; since then it has been Austrian. In a convent of Dominicans at Bol, on the south coast, is a Gothic church, with a restored altar-piece representing the Marriage of S. Catherine, with SS. Mary Magdalene, Paul, and Dominic as witnesses. An entry in the convent register attests the authorship—"to Master Jacomo Tintoretto, painter, a further payment of 200 ducats for the high-altar piece." In the convent is a collection of coins and a Lombard lintel with ninth-century interlacings; and on the Casa Nisiteo a knocker resembling that at Curzola—a female figure with an anchor in the middle, a lion on each side with head turned up, a shell below and a shield with arms above, charged with a sun and dolphin one above the other; a crowned lion and an eagle as supporters.

In a hut at Birce, near Serip, Andrea, son of Salomon the exiled king of Hungary, lived as a shepherd and died.

Lesina was once a Venetian arsenal and station of the fleet. The vegetation is sub-tropical. Rosemary fills the air with its aromatic scent, oleanders, lemons, lofty palms, carob and bay trees are continually met with, and aloes are often used for hedges. It was the island Pharos of the Greeks, a colony from the Ægean Paros, founded in 385 B.C., and a free republic. Coins which have been found are similar to the most ancient ones of Greece and Asia Minor, and the remains of walls appear to be Pelasgic. From 221 B.C. it belonged to the Roman province of Dalmatia, and shared the fate of its neighbour Brazza. The Illyrian pirates mastered it, and under their lordship the celebrated Demetrios was born, who was like a condottiere of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and whose treachery led to the destruction of the Greek city. Many Christian martyrs were buried here, and it became known as "the Holy." The population is Slav, and the Greek name "Pharia" is preserved to some extent in the Slav name "Hvar." It is the longest of the Dalmatian islands, being 70 kilometres long by 10 broad.

The town of Lesina lies on the south-west coast, and still retains a great part of its crenellated walls. It is decayed, and there are many ruined palaces of the Venetian period, some of which are fine. The piazza is the largest in Dalmatia, and beyond it the houses form a semicircle interspersed with gardens. On the east is the cathedral, Lombardesque in style; on the south a large building, the so-called Venetian arsenal. The present ground floor, with broad-arched door opening on the water, was arranged to house the galleys belonging to the Republic, and was used till 1776, when the arsenal was transferred to Curzola. The upper floor, divided into two, was the theatre and communal hall. The Loggia of Sanmichele is to the north, close to the remains of the palace of the count. It has seven rather narrow arches on piers with columns, and a whole order attached in front, a balustrade between the pedestals and above the frieze, with obelisks supported on balls as crowning features. The door is in the centre; above it a panel with the lion of S. Mark replaces the balusters. It is now the hall of a sanatorium which has been erected behind it, thus destroying two of the towers of the palace of the count, and spoiling a very picturesque composition. The "Fondachi" are used for military purposes; other Gothic palaces remain along the side of the piazza. Above the town is Fort Spagnuolo, which probably occupies the site of an older castle besieged by the Hungarians and their allies in 1358; an inscription states that the present building is due to the Spaniards, and was built in 1551 under Charles V., when he was allied to Venice against the Turks. Higher still to the east is Fort S. NicolÒ, constructed after the Russian attack in 1807.

The cathedral is not remarkable for its architecture. The faÇade has a semicircular termination, quadrants above the aisles, and an early Renaissance doorway. The stalls are carved and pierced like those at Arbe and Zara, but have lost the tops and the carved divisions. At each side is an ambo of stone supported on four columns, but with an octagonal body above, arcaded, with shafts at the angles. The arches are all round, but the change in the plan produces a curious pointed appearance in perspective in the lower arcade. On the high-altar is a picture by the younger Palma, a Madonna and the Child in the clouds, with S. Stephen vested as pope below, and SS. Jerome and Carlo Borromeo. There is also a more ancient picture by Antonio Gradinelli, a dead Christ supported by angels. Near the west end is a carved reredos of Venetian-Gothic style; S. Luke in the centre with his ox, and S. John the Baptist are recognisable among the well-carved figures of saints beneath pointed arches with shell-heads to the niches. Two Venetian lions have closed books with the date 1475. The sacristy contains some fine embroidered vestments and several interesting pieces of metal-work—a ciborium of the fifteenth century of silver, with a pyramidal roof, a large silver chalice of Venetian late fifteenth-century work in repoussÉ, a monstrance with round upper part and an angel with a scroll and the inscription "O Salutaris," &c., decorated with translucent enamel.

There is also a very curious sixteenth-century crozier of gilded copper enriched with silver bands and rosettes, which repeats and enlarges on the idea of Bishop Valaresso's crozier at Zara. Inside the crook (which is a complete circle) is the Coronation of the Virgin, above whose head is a dove, and beneath her feet the head of the serpent, which terminates it. She is crowned by a half-figure emerging from a flower, wearing the kind of high mitre which is frequently given to God the Father; behind her is a similar half-figure of Moses bearing a scroll, and with his shoes on the ground before him. On the outside are busts of Christ and six Apostles, right and left in profile, also springing from flowers, all with nimbi; lower down are the twelve prophets, holding labels with their names, and set close one above the other. At the top of the stem are six figures, four Evangelists, S. John the Baptist, and Elijah. Below are twelve little busts of patriarchs named on labels. The knop has twisted colonnettes at the angles, with swags hanging from the lower parts, and half-length figures above a canopy with one arch and two half-arches on each face; on the flat surfaces between are miscellaneous saints; below are three bishops and three other saints, and below them are representations of the six days of creation; the words "Opvs· Presbyteri· Pavli· Silvii· Tivnio· lavs· Deo" can be deciphered. The stem is sheathed with silver plates with stamped patterns.

The ruined church of S. Marco, now undergoing restoration, has a fine campanile, rather dilapidated, and sepulchral slabs of members of patrician families, and the Franciscan convent, S. Maria delle Grazie, has a similar campanile, both of which were probably rebuilt after the Turkish raid of 1571 under Uluz-Ali, the Calabrian renegade. The door in the western faÇade of this church resembles that of the cathedral at Ossero, and appears to belong to the original building of 1471. Within it are three interesting altar-pieces by Francesco da Santa Croce; one above the high-altar has two rows of panels with figures of the Madonna, SS. Helena, Lucy, Clara, Elizabeth, Stephen, Peter, Francis, Anthony, Bernardino of Siena, and Bonaventura; another shows seven prophets; and a third has the Madonna in the centre, with three little angels below, and S. Jerome on the left, and S. John on the right. The church also contains a S. Francis by Jacopo Palma, and a S. Diego and S. Francesco di Paola by Jacopo Bassano, restored. The principal treasure of the convent, however, is the great Last Supper by Matteo Rosselli, a very impressive picture, which fills the end wall of the refectory above the panelling, and contains his own portrait (1578-1650). The table at which the Apostles are seated is in the form of a horseshoe, with Judas on the near side. The story goes that Rosselli went to Ragusa to deliver some paintings commissioned from him, and on his way back fell ill, and was obliged to land at Lesina, where the Franciscans took care of him and nursed him back to health; in gratitude he painted this picture for them. The great cypress, which spreads almost like an oak, he may have sat under during his convalescence.

The other towns are Cittavecchia, Verbosca, and Gelsa. The first is the new Pharos, founded at the end of the third century B.C., and flourishing during the Roman period. It lies at the bottom of an inlet six miles long, and is a nourishing modern town with little antiquity visible. The campanile of S. Stefano, which appears to be of the fourteenth century, is on ancient foundations, and there are traces of Cyclopean walls here and there. In Verbosca is a fortified church with bastions, S. Lorenzo, which contains the fragments of a Titianesque painting, ascribed to the master on the strength of an entry in the archives of a payment of 1,000 ducats to the Master Titiano Vecelli. It is now in three portions, and shows S. Laurence with angels and the Virgin above, S. Roch, and S. Augustine. In another church, S. Maria, is a Birth of the Virgin, ascribed to Paolo Veronese. At Gelsa the church is also fortified, a memorial of the time when protection against Turkish raids was necessary.

Curzola lies due south of Lesina, separated from the long peninsula of Sabbioncello on the mainland by quite a narrow channel. It is the Corcyra Nigra or Melaina of antiquity, so called from its luxuriant pine forests, little of which now remain. Various origins are attributed to the settlement; one of them is commemorated in the inscription on the Porta Marina: "Hic AntenoridÆ CorcyrÆ prima MelanÆ fundamenta locant." The early Greek geographers include it in the territory of Narenta or Liburnia. From Augustus to Heraclius (642 A.D.) it was Roman or Byzantine, and from that date till 998 Narentine. From the victory of Orseolo II. till 1100 it was Venetian, when the Genoese possessed it for twenty-eight years. In 1128 the Venetians, under Popone Zorzi, took it again, and it remained Venetian on the whole till 1357; from that time till 1418 it was sometimes Hungarian, sometimes Genoese, Bosnian, or Ragusan. Two years later it finally gave itself to Venice, with which it was connected till the Napoleonic wars. The English occupied it from 1813-1815. It has suffered from raids; and the attack by Uluz-Ali after he had sacked Lesina is noticeable for the brave conduct of the women. The commandant of the island and fortress, Antonio Balbi, and a great many of the well-to-do inhabitants fled without fighting. The women and boys put on their uniforms and manned the walls, making the Turks think that the place was well garrisoned and too strong to be taken quickly with the force at their disposal. In one of the naval battles with the Genoese off the island, Marco Polo (who has been claimed as a Curzolan) and Andrea Dandolo were taken prisoners. Dandolo dashed his brains out against the side of the galley; but Marco Polo occupied his four years of captivity in writing his travels, and, according to legend, earned his freedom by the pleasure which his work gave to the Genoese.

The statute is the oldest in Dalmatia (1214), and is noticeable for its provisions against the slave trade, which are among the earliest in history. A curious survival of mediÆval festivity still exists in the "Moresca," a kind of Pyrrhic dance, danced on national festas, which is a reminiscence of the days of Algerian piracy. There are twenty-four dancers, and the leaders, the standard-bearer, and the "bula," who is the spouse of the Moorish king. The performers are divided into two bands, one representing Christians (in Spanish costume), and the other Moors, from which the name comes. The whites, led by the king of Spain, conquer in the combat, and the "bula" is taken and freed amid general rejoicing. At the beginning and end, the Christians declaim a kind of prologue or introduction in accordance with the object of the festa, and a salutation and thanks to those assisting at the end. The costumes are rich, each dancer carries sword and dagger, and the performances (which are enthusiastically received) take place in the open air upon a raised platform. In one or two places there are also survivals of mediÆval mystery-plays.

The town is on an oval peninsula on the north-east coast, united to the mass of the island by a low isthmus. The main street runs along the ridge from the land gate to the cathedral piazza. From the sea the walls appear almost perfect, but there is a wide quay all round the town, and the houses stretch a long way along the shore. There is not a street within the walls through which a vehicle could pass, all the thoroughfares (which are mainly alleys and staircases) rising steeply to the cathedral. The buildings remain much as when the Morosini and Faliero ruled, but comparatively few of the three hundred or so of houses within the walls are inhabited; most of the ruined palaces are of the period of the Ducal Palace, Venice, and some of them have been architecturally remarkable. The walls and towers are in the main of 1420, but were strengthened by the Venetians. The towers which remain are the Merlata Barbarigo of 1485, Merlata Tiepolo of about the same date, Merlata dell' Aspello, erected as a defence against the Turks in 1570, the gate-tower on the Piazzetta of 1649, and the Gothic Torre Lombardo of 1448, near the land gate. The walls can be walked round in a quarter of an hour, and are dominated by the Fort S. Biagio, erected by the English.

The cathedral has a fine west doorway with twisted and knotted colonnettes and a pointed arch with tracery in the tympanum, and a modern figure of a bishop in front of it. Enormous brackets supporting couchant lions rest upon the knotted columns, with curious figures of Adam and Eve on their lower faces. A circular hood mould, with ogee finial, springs from them. In the gable is a traceried rose, above which is an elaborate cornice with beasts' heads projecting at the angles, shell niches, and floral finial, and at the meeting-point of the ramps a bust of an elderly woman in the costume of the fourteenth century, with hair in curls at each side of the face, a jewelled circlet, pleated gown with tightly fitting sleeves slashed and embroidered, and a border round the neck above a laced under-garment. There are two other doors at the ends of the aisles. The tower appears to have been added above the north aisle about 1463; it finishes with a shafted parapet and two open octagons with domical roofs, one above the other. Along the aisle roof a carved cornice runs, and above the trefoiled pointed clerestory windows is an arched corbelled cornice. The nave and aisles terminate in semicircular apses. The nave and choir together are of five bays, with a pointed arcade on monolithic pillars. The aisles are cross-vaulted without ribs, but with pointed arches between the bays. The roof of the nave is of wood. The triforium is of two round arches to each bay, with short coupled columns, now built up, and with wooden figures of the Apostles set in each arch. The tower occupies one bay of the north aisle, and encroaches on the next arch. Four of the caps have the symbols of the Evangelists; those of the columns of the south aisle bear flowing late Gothic foliage resembling two at Sebenico, and the doorway illustrated at TraÙ; those of the north arcade are of the seventeenth century. A fourth aisle was added to the north in 1532 as a burial chapel. The ciborium has three octagonal stages pierced with quatrefoils, above long architrave blocks, the carving of all the lower part being Renaissance in style. The interior of the church was sadly modernised in 1804, but the curious sacristy door still remains. It has a tympanum with S. Michael weighing souls and trampling on the Devil, and, below the lintel, two brackets with musicians, the hood mould running up in ogee-shape to a finial. The high-altar-piece is a Tintoretto—S. Mark vested as a bishop and blessing, with a lion at his feet between SS. Bartholomew and Jerome, who are nearer the spectator. On a side altar is a picture representing the Trinity, by Giacomo da Ponte (1510-1592). The treasury possesses some good embroideries and two or three chalices, one of which, with a half-figure of Christ in the tomb, is set before the baldacchino on Good Friday, to show symbolically that the Body of Christ is in the Sacrament.

On the way to the church of Ognissanti the Palazzo Arneri is passed; it has a fine knocker in the manner of John of Bologna—Neptune standing and controlling two lions, a design of which there are examples in Padua and elsewhere. The church of All Saints was built in 1303. It has been modernised, but still retains a ciborium with quatrefoil piercings and angle pinnacles, bearing much resemblance to that in the cathedral. A stair leads to a Greek church, in which are several painted wood crucifixes and Byzantine pictures.

Some forty minutes away, on a small island to the east, is the Franciscan convent, La Badia, a building of the fifteenth century for the most part, containing a rather pretty cloister of white marble erected in 1477. The arches are stilted, pointed, and trefoiled, arranged in groups of three, with wider slightly segmental openings with cuspings for entrances. The spandrils are filled with Gothic leafage, the bases and caps to the columns are early Renaissance, and the frieze is quite plain, with a dentilled cornice. The church is not interesting architecturally; the western faÇade is imitated from the cathedral, but it contains a crucifix brought from Bosnia by refugees after the battle of Kossovo.

The plague of 1558 smote Curzola very heavily, and as years went by it sank lower and lower. The convenience of the neighbouring pine-woods, the two ports between which the town lies, and the existence of Porto Pedocchio caused the Venetians to move their arsenal hither from Lesina in 1776; and during the last century it has recovered to some extent, but the population remains poor.

The island of Lissa lies to the north-east of Curzola, much farther away from the mainland. The climate is very mild; palms, cactus, aloes, and myrtle flourish; and a wine known as Opollo is as much sought after as that made from Lissan grape-juice, praised in antiquity by Agatharchides. It is cut into by two large bays, to the west the Valle di Comisa, and to the north-east the harbour of Lissa. There are some small remains of antiquity. The foundations of the Roman theatre are partly in the sea, and other Roman ruins are round about the harbour, though the ancient Issa occupied the site of Gradina, 300 ft. above the sea. One statue at least which was found here has been taken to Vienna. Lago says that under the building of the Blessed Virgin "delle Graticelle" there are caverns said to contain the graves of Diomede and his companions. Apollonius of Rhodes says that the original colonists came from Issa in Lesbos, and were Pelasgic Liburnians; but Polybius tells of a Greek colonisation in 392 B.C. under Dionysios the Elder, of Syracuse. It is certain, from gems and inscriptions found, that a free state existed here about 340 B.C. It was through Issa seeking protection from Rome that the commencement of the conquest of Illyria sprang. Their being able to help the Romans with twenty ships in their war with Philip of Macedon, and their founding such cities as Tragurium and Epetium show their importance in antiquity. The Goths of Ravenna destroyed the town in 535 A.D., on their way to Salona. It was destroyed a second time by the Narentans, and a third time, in 1483, by the Aragonese. The great battle for which Lissa is celebrated took place on March 13, 1811, when the French were beaten by the English, who destroyed all their ships but three, the commander Dubourdieu being killed, after which Lissa was made a kind of Adriatic Malta. The Austrians strengthened the fortifications of the English, making it an arsenal, and in 1866 Tegethoff beat the Italian fleet here. Some interest attaches to the fortifications, monuments, and graveyards of the island, on account of the British occupation. The monument recording the English victory is in the English cemetery; in the other is a memorial to those who died in the Italo-Austrian fight. At Busi, a few miles away, is a blue grotto, discovered in 1884, claimed to be even more remarkable than the celebrated grotto at Capri.

Lagosta lies due south of Curzola. It belonged to Ragusa, and the islanders are still very proud of the connection. Uros I. (the Great) gave it to Ragusa in the second half of the thirteenth century. In the cathedral is a Titian signed on the back.

Meleda is east of Lagosta, and south of Sabbioncello. It also belonged to Ragusa, given to the Republic by a Servian prince in the twelfth century. It has historical memories of Julius CÆsar, Octavian, Septimius Severus, and Caracalla, and was used in antiquity as a place of banishment, like Bua opposite TraÙ. In the town of Porto Palazzo ruins of the palace built by the Cilician Agesilaus of Anazarba, governor of Cilicia under Nero, and sent here by Septimius Severus, still exist. In the ninth century the island was part of the Narentan dominions. The building, formerly a convent, traditionally said to have been founded before 1000 on the little island of S. Maria del Lago, is like a mediÆval castle with battlemented walls and a tower. The cloister is picturesque with ancient date-palms, and there are several monuments in the church. The island is prettily situated near the shore of the Lago Grande, one of two lagoons reached by a pleasant road from Porto Palazzo.

Nearer to Gravosa is Mezzo, the ancient Delaphodia, which also belonged to Ragusa. The mother church is away from the town, and is known as S. Maria del Biscione, a building of the fifteenth century. It contains an altar-piece with gilt arabesques on a blue ground, and large painted and gilt wooden figures of Apostles and the subject of the Assumption. A predella contains carvings of the Last Supper and the Washing of the Disciples' Feet. It was made in the seventeenth century, though the style is earlier. There are also two pictures—a Madonna and Saints, of the earlier Venetian school, and an enthroned Madonna and Child with four panels of saints at the sides, both restored. In the sacristy are a Venetian lavabo, some embroideries, and a fine fifteenth-century processional cross. An iron grille round a side altar bears the Visconti arms, which are also those of Mezzo. The "biscione" (serpent) in these arms gives its name to the bay, and so to the church. The church of the deserted Franciscan convent is now used as the parish church. It is a building of the latter part of the fifteenth century, and contains some fine carved stalls of the usual type, and a fine altar-piece by Nicolaus Raguseus, 9 ft. high, and with an arched top. God the Father is enthroned above, surrounded by angels with the instruments of the Passion. The five panels in the upper row show the Angel of the Annunciation, S. Blaise, Christ with the Cross, and half-figures of S. Anthony and the Virgin. The centre subject is rather broader. Below it is a later painted wood carving of the Madonna and Child. The panels at the sides have figures of SS. Roch and John the Baptist, Francis and Catherine. The frame is carved and painted blue, and gilded. There is another picture by the same artist in S. Nicholas, which was the Dominican church—an Annunciation, dated March 16, 1513, with a predella of five subjects, a praying Dominican, a Nativity of Christ, a galley in the harbour of Mezzo, the Adoration of the Magi, and the entrance of the Dominicans into the cloister. A good campanile still remains, though the cloister is ruined. There are several chapels in the place, also roofless and in ruins, and two ruined castles.

A Captain Pracat, who left 200,000 ducats to the Republic of Ragusa, and who was honoured with a half-length figure set up in the court of the Rector's Palace in 1638, was a native of Mezzo. A towel given him by the Emperor Charles V. is preserved at Mezzo, together with some church plate of unusual design. The chalice is a mixture of late Gothic and early Renaissance in character, with two little angels, now wingless, holding to its edge, and treading with one foot on the knop, thus forming handles. It is so large as to recall the ancient ministerial chalices. Medallions with the Evangelists' symbols ornament the bowl, with scroll-work between; the knop is covered with similar ornament, and on the foot is a full-length figure of S. Blaise. An ostensory has the same detail of the flying angels, and there is also a large paten with Christ as the Man of Sorrows on a blue enamel ground.

The island of Lacroma is beyond Ragusa, and can be easily visited from that place. It is the last Austrian island of any importance, and will be described in the next chapter.