The tribe of the Uzcoques, or Scochi, derived their name from _scoco_, a
refugee or fugitive, a word bearing reference to their origin. Towards the
commencement of the sixteenth century, a band of hardy and warlike men
abandoned the the provinces of Southern Hungary, Bulgaria, and Servia, and
took refuge in Dalmatia from the tyranny and ill usage of the Turks, who
had overrun the first-named provinces. Accompanied by their wives and
families, and recruiting their numbers as they went along, they at last
reached the fortress of Clissa, situated in the mountains, a few miles
from the old Roman town of Spalatro. There, with the permission of its
owner, Pietro Crosichio, they established themselves, forming one of the
outposts of Christendom, and thence carried on a war of extermination
against the Turks, to whom they did a degree of injury that would appear
quite incommensurate with the smallness of their numbers. The name of
Uzcoque soon became known throughout the Adriatic as the synonyme of a
gallant warrior, till at length the Turks, driven nearly frantic by the
exploits of this handful of brave men, fitted out a strong expedition and
laid siege to Clissa, with the double object of getting rid of a
troublesome foe, and of advancing another step into Christian Europe.

The different powers who had benefited greatly, although indirectly, by
the enterprising valour of the Uzcoques, neglected to give them the
smallest assistance in their hour of peril. After an heroic defence,
Clissa fell into the hands of the Turks, and a scanty and disheartened
remnant of its brave defenders fled northward to seek some new place of
refuge. This they found in the fortress of Segna, then belonging to a
Count Frangipani, who allowed them to occupy it; and, at the same time,
Ferdinand the First of Austria bethought himself, although somewhat
tardily, that the Uzcoques had deserved better at his hands, and at those