The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1880-10-08
Dulclgno.

HISTORY tells us two things In par.
ticular of Dulcigno. At the beginning
of the sixteenth century and for more
than century afterwards it was the
most famous den of pirates in the
Adriatic; and later on, when Charles
II. was King of England. the place har-
bored q man on whom the eyes of al
the Jewish and great part of the Mo
hammedan world had once been turned.
This was Sabbath Zewi. Smyrnese
Jew, who gave himself out for the Mes
siah. In what proportions Sabbath
was an enthusiast, aud in what an inn
poster. it would be hard to say. He
was deeply read in Talmudic literature,
and appeared to believe in his mission.
At the same time he used the wealth
which his father had left him to excel
lent purpose in securing adherents; and
the care he took of such details as his
dress, always austere but always be-
coming, and his beautiful face and
beard, have q suspicious air. His
name spread all over the world, and
in Germany in particular his adherents
were counted by thousands. By 1866
his fame had reached such height
that it was necessary for him to do
something definite to prove his claims.
He therefore set out for Constantine
pie to ,depose the Sultan through the
power of his word. The Sultan tenn
ported with him at first, but was event
ually able to drive him into a corner;
and under threat of execution Sabbath
went over to Islam. He was then
banished to Dulcigno, as a remote cor
ner of the Empire, where there were
no Jews to be found; and there he died
in 1876. Curiously enough, the rene
gade was far from losing all his follow
ers. Rabbis learned in the Cabala
soon found out that the Messiah had
to adopt the faith of Mahommed, so
as to draw the Moslems after him. and
there were thousands of good Moham-
medans who now believed in him as
ardently as did the Jews. After his
death his tomb. at Dulcigno became q
shrine sought by pilgrims from all parts
of the world.
The harbor of Old Dulcigno is one of
the oldest on the Adriatic and the best
that exists on that harborless coast be-
tween the southern point of Dalmatia
and the mouth of the Drin. The haven
is a sure safeguard from the south
wind-the fierce sirocco-but is exposed
on its northern side. There are about
a dozen huts now on the beach, making
a little settlement, exclusively Alba
MAN, and called Limani. In the be-
ginning of the sixteenth century the
appearance of the harbor was very diff
ferent. The town fell into Turkish
hands very late In 1871, and the Turk
ish Governor of Skutari, who was re-
sponsible for the district, proved in
competent or unwilling to check the
piracy which gave Dulcigno an evil
name in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. The light Dulcignote
barques descended on the Italian, Al
bantam, even Greek coasts. The Porte
undertook to put them down, but the
Governor of Skutari, himself always
chosen from q particular North Al
bantam family, was not inaccessible,
and moreover the Porte had no particu-
lar objection to seeing Austrian and
italian commerce damaged. An UNI
manageable Pasha at last made his ap-
pearance in the person of Suleiman,
and the whole Dulcignote feet, num-
bering no fewer than 500 vessels, was
burned to the waters edge in its own
harbor. This blow ruined Old Dull
cigno, and the present town was plant
ed a little further inland to take its
place. In 1922 the town was occupied
BY the Venetians, but only for a brief
period. In 1873 the Montenegrins took