ed and sent into the interior by caravans. Ships went
to India and America, France, Spain, England, and Holland. A document
addressed by Cromwell to the Senate is extant, granting privileges in
all English harbours to Ragusans, and they were as daring sailors as
the Bocchesi, as many as 300 serving as captains in the navies of
Charles V. and his successors.

The earliest law of Ragusa relating to the coinage is one of 1327
imposing penalties for falsification of money. This shows that it had a
mint before that time. At this date the "grosso" is the only silver coin
of the town known, but the fines are all calculated in "iperperi." The
word "zecha" occurs for the first time in a law of 1338. A few years
afterwards all importers of silver had to present themselves at the mint
within three days of their arrival, the tenth part of their silver being
liable to purchase at "14 iperp: and 2 grossi" the pound. If they did
not do so the tenth part was confiscated, half going to the informer. In
1420 the price was half as much again, and in 1161 it was worth 38
iperperi the pound. In 1748 the mint had ceased issuing money, but was
at work again from 1791 till 1806. The iperpero was worth 12 grossi, and
3 of them went to a scudo. The earliest known is of 1683. In Ralph of
Coggeshall's time it was worth 3 sous of silver--that is to say, about
10s. At Ragusa this coin still passes, according to a writer in the
_Bullettino di Storia Dalmata_.

Six miles beyond Ragusa is Ragusa Vecchia, the ancient Epidaurus, which
became a Roman colony in 10 A.D. under the Consul Cornelius Dolabella,
and was destroyed by the Avars. Near here is the grotto of AEsculapius,
on Mount Snienitza, thought to be the Mons Cadmaeus of antiquity, entered
by a hole 8 ft. across in the living rock. The cave is in the form of a
cross, 92 ft. long and 164 ft. broad, with stalactites and stalagmites.
In the middle is a pond called "The Nymph's Bath," with slightly
acidulated and intensely cold water. A legend, which goes back to the
tenth century, says that a dragon lived here, going out at night and
slaughtering men and women. The hermit S. Hilarion attacked and burnt
it, calling on the people to thank God, and declaring that it was the
Devil. According to one tradition AEsculapius was born in Epidaurus of a
beautiful Dalmatian, Jupiter being his father. His statue, in the form
of a serpent, was erected there, but was taken to Rome in 393 B.C.,
during a visitation