The provinces of Dalmatia and Istria were placed under the government
of Milan, in their towns were hoisted the Italian colours; but if to
Napoleon these lands were chiefly stepping-stones to India, he did not
long stay in ignorance regarding their inhabitants. His
representative, Vincenzo Dandolo, was a Venetian who, on account of
his democratic principles, had been expelled in 1799 and had sought
refuge in France. We will therefore not repeat the epithets he uses
when he writes about the late Venetian overseas regime. But Napoleon
had no cause to be prejudiced in favour of the Yugoslavs. His origin
was Italian. His daughter reigned in Italy. And if he had disapproved
of Dandolo starting at Zadar in 1806 an official newspaper--the _Regio
dalmato: Kraljski dalmatin_, written partly in Italian, partly in
Serbo-Croat--he would very soon have stopped the paper and Dandolo's
career. But, on the contrary, this paper (the first one to be written
at all in Serbo-Croat) was followed by the planning of secondary
schools at Zadar, [vS]ibenik, Trogir, Split, Makarska and the island
of Hvar, twenty-nine elementary schools for boys and fourteen for
girls, two academies at Zadar and Split, four seminaries for the
education of priests and eight industrial schools. And in these the
Serbo-Croatian language was to be largely employed.
Kara George had no leisure in which to learn to read and write.
Another Turkish army, formed in Bosnia, had to be encountered near
[vS]abac in 1806. It was routed, and on this occasion the Serbian
cavalry was led with great distinction by a priest, Luka Lazarevi['c].
Yet another Turkish army suffered the same fate.