Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1875 — Early History of the Herzegovina Rebels. [ARTICLE]

Early History of the Herzegovina Rebels.

In the reports on the insurrection in the Herzegovina it has sometimes been mentioned that after the invaders from Montenegro, Dalmatia and Groatia the Uskoks furnished the strongest contingent to the insurgent forces. The word “Uskok” signifies fugitive or outlaw, and during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was a term of th* greatest reproach among all sea-farers, especially the Venetians. The Uskoks came originally from Bosnia and the Herzegovina; they "fled before the invading Turks, and at first took refuge in the fortress of Clissa, in Dalmatia, at that time considered impregnable. From here they made raids into the Turkish territory, till, in 1537, the Turks conquered Clissa and destroyed it. The LsKoks then passed over into Austria, part of them going to the district of Sichelburg, on the frontiers of Carniola and Croatia, and jiart to Zeugg, on the Croatian coast, where they were protected, on the land side by vast forests and steep mountains, and on the coast by the stormy Gulf of Quarnerolia. The plundering raids of the .Uskoks often extended into the interior of the Balkan peninsula; for instance, in 1613 Trebinje was destroyed. And as their wealth and power increased the dregs of all other countries joined them; thus among the Uskoks beheaded at Venice, Aug. 14, 1615, were nine Englishmen. In Zengg and its suburbs the women lived, and such luxury reigned here that they constantly drove the men to undertake fresh piracies to supply their extravagant demands. The utter brutalization of men and women increased with every generation. Their unfortunate enemies were not safe even after death; their bodies were mutilated, leather made from their skins, and the Uskoks drank their blood and ate their hearts. Often, too, these savages would dip their bread, before eating it, in the life-blood of a wounded foe,"for a superstition reigns among the Illyrians that all who partake of such bread at the same time will be friends forever. What is related of the women is still more horrible ; for when Rabatta, the Austrian commander in the Fort of Zengg, was murdered by the inhabitants of the town, his headless corpse was placed upright in the church, and the women, worse than {logs, licked the blood from his wounds. After the Friulian war, however, Austria was compelled by the treaty of Madrid to take measures against the pirates; their ships were destroyed and they themselves made to emigrate to the district of Sichelburg, between Laibach and Karlstadt.— Cor. London Standard.