10

HISTORY OF MALTA

dowment in favour of Malta in Poland, which had been sanc-tioned by several different diets in the seventeenth century;notwithstanding which, it had been seized upon, to the greatdetriment of the order. The bailli di Sagramoso, of the Italianlanguage, was therefore appointed minister for the order inPoland; and in 1772 he was empowered to lay claim to thedetained possessions. His negotiation was not fruitless; andin 1780 he returned to the convent to announce his success.

This Polish property consisted, in the first place, of twocommanderies, which the order had always preserved, though ithad ceased to receive the responsions for forty-two years; se-condly, of a grand priory; thirdly, of six commanderies situatedin the ordinatie of Ostrog, paying a yearly sum of 24,000Polish florins, or nearly 6000 Maltese crowns; fourthly, ofeight commanderies of juspatronat, otherwise called patronales,taxed at 6700 florins: which sums altogether Avould have madethe Polish responsions amount to about 7740 crowns, withoutreckoning the passages, effects of the dead, mortuaries, and va-cancies.

Whilst the Christian powers, by these donations, provedhow much they were interested in the preservation and aggran-disement of Malta, it is but just to say, that the order, on theother side, gave convincing proof how worthy it was of suchfavours; for, independently of the frigates sent to the assist-ance of the emperor, in his war against the Turks, the Maltesesquadrons in 1775, 1782, and 1783,like wise accompanied those