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The introduction of the steamboat has reduced the employment of sailing craft, and the Bocchesi have become poor, but they provided the best sailors for the Venetian fleet, and their seamanship has not decayed. There were certain variations among the Bocchesi from the religious customs of the Morlacchi, which are perhaps worth noting.
The Bocchesi and Montenegrins determined rather to give themselves to Russia, and, with the help of a squadron sent from Corfu, took the Bocche from Austria as far as Castelnuovo. The French moved towards Ragusa, meaning to occupy Cattaro.
The news reached Cattaro, and the Bocchesi, Montenegrins, and Russians invaded the territory of the Republic, beating the French near Ragusa Vecchia, and besieging them in Ragusa. On July 6, 1806, Gravosa was burnt, with the shipping and stores. In 1808 Marmont declared the Republic dead and buried, and the French retained Ragusa till 1814.
Their origin is variously ascribed to Colchis, Troy, and to Sicilian colonies sent by Dionysius of Syracuse. The Bocchesi prefer a Sicilian origin; but the Greeks called all this part of the continent Illyris Barbara. Livy mentions the Rizuniti among the peoples of the kingdom between the fall of Teuta and the ruin of Genzius.
In Cattaro, till the beginning of the nineteenth century, churches and convents occupied a third of the area within the walls, and each nobleman had his private chapel in his villa. The Bocchesi were noted for their honourable fidelity to their word once given, and this probity is still recognised in their commercial dealings.
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.
For many years the Bocchesi brought shiploads of stone to increase the size of the island, and still, on July 22 of each year, a stone-laden boat goes from Perasto to the rock. There are two festivals celebrated here, of which the more important is that of the Assumption, August 15. The other, the Birth of the Virgin, on September 8, is less so.
Success crowned the effort, and on June 19, 1166, Bishop Malone consecrated the altars, amid the rejoicings of the Bocchesi. The head of S. Trifone, stolen in 968, was brought from Constantinople in 1227 by Matteo Bonascio. At first deposited in S. Pietro, it was brought to the cathedral on December 20, with great pomp.
But the forms and costume of Bocchesi and Montenegrins, the men of the gulf, with their arms in their girdles, no less than the men of the black mountain, banish all thought that we are anywhere but where we really are, at one of the border points of Christian and civilized Europe.
The Bocchesi enrolled themselves voluntarily as sailors, and formed the finest portion of the personnel of the Venetian navy. Under the Byzantines the prior was first in the state, though there is mention of a Catapan in 1163. Till 1398 he was elected annually; after that time he bore office for a month.
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