HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.
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had not only entered the Adriatic, but caused considerable alarm in Veniceitself, having taken a considerable number of vessels, and ravaged the coastof Istria. The contest was short, and ended in the total discomfiture ofthe latter, the greater part of whose fleet was either sunk, burnt, or de-stroyed.
Three years after the event just mentioned, the same Genoese admiral hadhis complete revenge, having defeated Pisani, his former adversary, who washimself, according to Sabellicus, taken prisoner, together with five thousand ofhis seamen, and a proportionate number of gallies, exclusive of twenty whichwere sunk in the action. So dreadful and apparently decisive of the fate ofthe war, was this disaster, that all Venice, on receiving the first intelligence,was in the utmost consternation, nothing less being apprehended from the vic-tory than either an immediate siege, or at least an attempt towards formingone; but these fears were soon dispelled by the agreeable information thatDoria had returned home. Assiduity and exertion then took place of despair :a formidable fleet was built and armed with almost incredible dispatch ; besideswhich, they contrived to draw off the attention of the Duke of Milan, by en-tering into a treaty with the King of Bohemia, who immediately marched apowerful army into the heart of Visconti’s dominions. Internal feuds andconspiracies, added to the experience that war, however successful in its event,proved injurious even to the victors, inclined the Venetians to embrace termsof accommodation, which their rivals, still more distressed than themselves,thought it expedient to propose. The mutual release of prisoners took place,and the utmost joy was manifested on both sides at the return of tran-quillity. Still, however, the animosity was not removed, though the meansof continuing it were weakened, and friendship could not be said to be re-stored, although the contest, after a furious continuance of many years, appearedto have in great measure abated.
A war with Candia, which had rebelled, commenced about the year 1362,and stands as the next subsequent proof of the necessity, under which the republiclaboured, of equipping a fleet. It amounted to forty sail, including gallies andships; but notwithstanding the force of this armament, four years elapsed erethe revolters were completely quelled, and the island again returned to itsallegiance. This disturbance was scarcely compromised, ere a second commo-tion of a similar nature took place in Istria. The facts which led to it standas the strongest proof of that height to which the state of Venice carried its
R r a pretensions