INTERNAL CONDITIONS 277
making money, and they are so proud that they think there is no other nobility than their own,1 but I do not say that of all, for I have known some who were very urbane and courteous. And they deserve, indeed, much praise, for being placed in a most narrow and rocky situation they have obtained access to every commodity by means' of their own virtue and industry alone, in despite of nature. . . . They pay tribute to the Sultan, to whom they send orators (ambassadors) every year with
12,000	ducats. The city is not very strong, especially on the land side towards the mountains, and as it is not well provided with walls and fosses it could be defeated.”2
 1	This characteristic is alluded to by Pouqueville (Voyage de la Grece), who wrote 250 years later (see infra, chap. xii.).
   2	This last statement is probably an instance of the wish being father to the thought, for there is no doubt that in the sixteenth century Ragusa was a first-class fortress, almost impregnable for those times. But Rambuti, being a Venetian, hoped to see the city one day fall under the power of the Lion of St. Mark.