316 THE REPUBLIC OF RAGUSA
redeem Christian lands from the Infidel, and he took up his residence in Vienna to prepare his plan. But in his old age he retired to Ragusa once more, and spent his last days in studying the city archives, reconstructing the history of his own family. He too tried to revive the practice of inducing his countrymen to enter the Spanish service, and wished to enrol numbers of experienced Ragusan officers and sailors to man the navies of Spain, saying that they were far better fighters than the Neapolitans. “Ten Ragusans,” he wrote, “ are worth more than a hundred Lazzaroni.” 1 But it was now too late, and decadence had gone too far. The large number of Ragusan vessels lost in the service of Spain discouraged the citizens, while the population and wealth of Ragusa was greatly reduced by the earthquake. The Republic was now suffering from the vexatious attitude of the Venetians and the Turks, who were conspiring together for the destruction of the last “ Antemurale Christiani-tatis ” in the Balkan peninsula, and the citizens actually proposed to ask for a Spanish-Neapolitan “ Governatore delle Armi.” Don Antonio’s scheme having fallen through, he returned to his historical studies, and collected a mass of more or less unreliable information, chiefly culled from local traditions and native historians.
1 Gelcich, Tuhelj, 128.