Die digitale Landesbibliothek Oberösterreich

75 
At the head of the gulf are about a hundred little islands, 
formed of mud and sand swept down by the rivers which drain 
the plains of Northern Italy. These islands are surrounded by 
shallow water, and protected from the waves by long bars of 
sand, between which by varions narrow channels vessels pass 
out and in. Upon these islands the Veneti driven from the main¬ 
land established themselves, and there founded a city in the midst 
of the waters. 
In their new home they missed the vines and the olives 
which clad their native slopes, as well as the bees and the cattle 
which they used to tend. The waste of wild sea-moor on which 
they now dwelt offered only a few patches of soil fit for culti¬ 
vation, and these yielded but a scanty crop of stunted vegetables. 
The only supplies which Nature furnished were the fish which 
swarmed in the waters, and the salt which encrusted the beds 
of the lagoons. 
A more miserable, hopeless plight than that of the inhabi¬ 
tants of these little islands, it would be hard to conceive; and 
yet out of their slender resources they built up Venice! The 
sand-banks which they contested with the sea-fowl became the 
site of a great and wealthy city; and their fish and salt formed 
the original basis of a world-wide commerce. Their progress, 
however, was slow and laborious. Seventy years after the settle¬ 
ment was formed, they were still obliged to toil hard for a bare 
subsistence. 
Some distinctions of rank — a tradition of their former 
condition — were maintained amongst them, but all were reduced 
to an equality of poverty. Fish was the common, almost the 
only food of all classes. None could boast a better dwelling than 
a rude hut of mud and osiers. Their only treasure consisted of 
salt, which they transported to the mainland, receiving in exchange 
various articles of food and clothing; and, not less important, 
wood for boat-building. The security in which they pursued these 
humble occupations was, however, envied by Italians who were 
groaning under the tyranny and rapine of the barbarians, and 
the island-colony received accessions of population. 
The Venetians, who could scarcely stir from one spot to 
another except by water, became the most expert of seamen, 
Their vessels not only threaded the tortnous courses of the rivers 
and canals into the heart of the peninsula, but visited all the