ponderantly Italian
character, I believe that she is prepared to abandon her original claims
to Dalmatia, which is, when all is said and done, almost purely
Slavonian, Jugoslavia thus obtaining nearly 550 miles of coast. Now I
will be quite frank and say that when I went to Dalmatia I was strongly
opposed to the extension of Italian rule over that region. And I still
believe that it would be a political mistake. But, after seeing the
country from end to end and talking with the Italian officials who have
been temporarily charged with its administration, I have become
convinced that they have the best interests of the people genuinely at
heart and that the Dalmatians might do worse, so far as justice and
progress are concerned, than to intrust their future to the guidance of
such men.

It had been our original intention to steam straight south from Spalato
to the Bocche di Cattaro and Montenegro, but, being foot-loose and free
and having plenty of coal in the _Sirio's_ bunkers, we decided to make a
detour in order to visit the Curzolane Islands. In case you cannot
recall its precise situation, I might remind you that the Curzolane
Archipelago, consisting of several good-sized islands--Brazza, Lesina,
Lissa, Melida, and Curzola--and a great number of smaller ones, lies off
the Dalmatian coast, almost opposite Ragusa. From Spalato we laid our
course due south, past Solta, famed for its honey produced from rosemary
and the cistus-rose; skirted the wooded shores of Brazza, the largest
island of the group, rounded Capo Pellegrino and entered the lovely
harbor of Lesina. We did not anchor but, slowing to half-speed, made
the circuit of the little port, running close enough to the shore to
obtain pictures of the famous Loggia built by Sanmicheli, the Fondazo,
the ancient Venetian arsenal, and the crumbling Spanish fort, perched
high on a crag above the town. Then south by west again, past Lissa, the
western-most island of the group, where an Italian fleet under Persano
was defeated and destroyed by an Austrian squadron under Tegetthof in
1866. A marble lion in the local cemetery commemorated the victory and
marked the resting-places of the Austrian dead, but when the Italians
took possession of the island after the Armistice they changed the
inscription on the monument so that it now commemorates their final
victory over Austria. It was not, I think, a very sportsmanlike
proceeding.

Leaving Lissa to starboard, we steamed thr