THE TRADE OF RAGUSA 123
  The dangers of navigation, even in the Adriatic, were by no means trifling. The storms of that narrow sea, the sudden gusts of bora or scirocco which sweep down among the countless islands, channels, and promontories of the east coast with terrific violence, are considered dangerous for small ships even to-day. In the Middle Ages the light sailing-craft ran much greater risks. But piracy was then the chief source of anxiety. We have already spoken of the Narentan corsairs in a previous chapter, but even after Venice had broken their power, piratical communities still survived. Almissa, between Stagno and the Narenta, was their chief centre, and its inhabitants were almost exclusively devoted to piracy. The Ragusan statutes contain numerous provisions forbidding all intercourse with them. A Ragusan who sold a ship to the Almissans was fined 100 ipperperi besides the price of the vessel itself; nor could he buy one from them, as it was presumed to be stolen property.1 Occasionally some arrangement was made with this community of freebooters, and in 1235 a treaty of perpetual peace was signed with Koloman, Count of Almissa.2 But it proved to be of little avail, and the Ragusan annals are full of entries concerning the depredations of the pirates. The Almissans were not finally subdued by the Venetians until after they regained Dalmatia in X409. Other piratical communities were found in Northern Dalmatia and Croatia—the district formerly known as the Kraina 3—and from the ports of Apulia,4 Sicily, and
   1 Lib. Stat., vi. cap. 21 and 22.	2 Mon. Slav. Mer., i. 78.
    3	Lib. Re/., i. 1325, July 18, p. 176.
   4	A complaint was made to King Robert of Naples because of the acts of piracy committed by the people of Manfredonia, Lib. Ref., ¡., 1325, Oct. 17, p. 184.