On the Magistrates and Republic of Venice

to be supplied to the citizens, whether from the sea or from the mainland, and for carrying on trade in all kinds of merchandise with almost all nations. For it is situated in the recess and inner sanctum of the Adriatic sea, where, as far as the sea touches the mainland, great estuaries unfold, fortified by the wondrous artifice of nature. For at twelve thousand paces from the mainland, the sea begins to be shallow, and within the shallows and the shoals, the shore rises like a sort of rampart. These, resisting the waves and the roar of the sea, render that whole internal station, spread far and wide, so safe that not only can the force of the sea, when it rises even in a powerful storm, not penetrate to the interior except in a broken state, but also no free approach is open to arriving ships. Rather, it is necessary, unless they are very light, for them to halt at anchor in these places where they encounter the shallows upon approaching; then, having obtained calm weather and having been guided by skilled pilots, or rather explorers of the shallows, through a certain narrow and intricate path, where specifically