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The place for the bar which fastened the doors is still there, but in these peaceful times they appear to stand open day and night; at all events they were open when we reached the place about 7 a.m., having left Pola soon after 5. In the cathedral are a silver processional cross with figures of saints, and a tabernacle of 1543, rich of its kind, also a picture by Girolamo da S. Croce.
Once we spent a happy afternoon together in the forest picking up queer land-shells, bright berries and curious flowers, while Pola dug up a number of plants by the roots. I asked him the next day what he had done with the beautiful red flowers. His reply was beyond me, so I shook my head.
At the beginning of the fifteenth century Pola was surrounded by a number of carefully built polygonal towers. There were eight gates with machicolated defences above them, and the arms of fifteen rectors in different places showed that the walls had been long in building.
There was traffic in wines, wood, marble, and granite. Istrian acorns nourished a fine breed of pigs which were exported to Rome. The purple-dyeing factories of Cissa near Rovigno, the fulling works of Pola and Trieste, and the potteries of Aquileia were known far and wide. Nor were philanthropic works neglected.
Some portions of the ancient building remain on the right flank. It was the palace of the Margrave of Istria, and later of the Venetian rectors or counts of Pola. According to Kandler, the figure of a knight upon it represents Albert II., Count of Istria. The Genoese damaged the palace in 1390, but it was restored the next year.
Italy is well aware that her line of communication must remain more or less at the mercy of the Austrian fleet operating from Pola and the naval bases along the coast. She would need very material assistance from the allied fleets, and her part in the Balkan operations would appear therefore to depend on cohesive action among the allied admirals.
Near these is Maouna, with another little island at its north-east point. Forty-five miles further lies Ojalava, and ten miles and a half from it Pola, the largest, highest, and most westward of the group: connected with them are several other small islands, which I shall hereafter have occasion to mention.
The feeling against the Austrian service was not so strong, and I dare say there would have been no difficulty in finding my way into the Naval School at Pola. It would have meant six months' extra grinding at German, perhaps; but I was not past the age of admission, and in other respects I was well qualified. This expedient to palliate my folly was thought of but not by me.
The vessel remained afloat for several hours, and the remainder of her 110 officers and men were saved. She had no passengers aboard. An Austrian transport, name unknown, went down in the Adriatic, May 10, 1916, after a French submarine torpedoed her. She was believed to have had a heavy cargo of munitions, but few soldiers, and probably was bound for Durazzo, Albania, from Pola, the naval base.
The Trentino, Trieste, and Pola had been occupied by Italy, but the future of Dalmatia, Fiume, and the islands in the Adriatic was the greatest bone of contention at the Conference, and their disposal was almost indefinitely postponed.
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