INDEPENDENT OF HUNGARY 285
revival of the city’s trade, which now extended to America by means of the favour of Spain. But in 1566 Suleiman the Magnificent died, and his successor, Selim the Drunkard, at once began to cast covetous eyes on Cyprus, instigated, it is said, by a Jew named Nassi, who had given him a glowing description of the Cyprian vintages.1 War between the Turks and the Christian Powers was again imminent, and Ragusa began to fear that she might get into difficulties with either of the belligerents. She therefore applied to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, with whom she was then on excellent terms,2 and he recommended them to the King of Spain on the plea that if their trade failed so would the greater part of their income cease, and they would be unable to pay the tribute to the Sultan. The latter would seize on this as a pretext for occupying the city, to the great detriment of Christendom.3 The plea was successful, and, moreover, the same year Pius V. renewed the exemption to trade with the Infidel, because the city “ in faucis infi-delium et loco admodum periculoso sita est.” Ragusa now acted once more as intermediary between Christian and Turk, and obtained the liberation of many Venetians and Dalmatian prisoners captured by the Turkish pirate Ali-el-Uluj, or Occhiali as the Christians called him.4 In spite of the citizens’ not altogether undeserved reputation for double-dealing, they were also true to their better
   1	Horatio Brown, Venice, p. 364.
   2	Lorenzo Miniati was then Tuscan consul at Ragusa, and was entrusted with the duty of informing his Government of all the rumours as to the movements of the Turks which he might hear ; Makushev, op. tit., p. 495.	3 Ibid., 501, 1566.
   4	Engel, § 45.