Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
On page 3, Cyrnos is a possible typo for Cyrnus.
CONSTABLE'S MISCELLANY
OF
FOREIGN LITERATURE.
VOL. V.
EDINBURGH: THOMAS CONSTABLE AND CO.
HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO., LONDON.
JAMES M'GLASHAN, DUBLIN.
MDCCCLV.
EDINBURGH: T. CONSTABLE, PRINTER TO HER MAJESTY.
[Illustration: ISLAND of CORSICA
Engraved & Printed in Colours by W. & A. K. Johnston, Edinburgh.
Edinburgh, T. Constable & Co.]
WANDERINGS IN CORSICA:
ITS HISTORY AND ITS HEROES.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF
FERDINAND GREGOROVIUS
BY ALEXANDER MUIR.
VOL. I.
EDINBURGH: THOMAS CONSTABLE AND CO.
HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO., LONDON.
JAMES M'GLASHAN, DUBLIN.
MDCCCLV.
PREFACE.
It was in the summer of the past year that I went over to the island
of Corsica. Its unknown solitudes, and the strange stories I had
heard of the country and its inhabitants, tempted me to make the
excursion. But I had no intention of entangling myself so deeply
in its impracticable labyrinths as I actually did. I fared like the
heroes of the fairy-tales, who are allured by a wondrous bird into
some mysterious forest, and follow it ever farther and farther into the
beautiful wilderness. At last I had wandered over most of the island.
The fruit of that summer is the present book, which I now send home
to my friends. May it not meet with an unsympathetic reception! It is
hoped that at least the history of the Corsicans, and their popular
poetry, entitles it to something better.
The history of the Corsicans, all granite like their mountains, and
singularly in harmony with their nature, is in itself an independent
whole; and is therefore capable of being presented, even briefly, with
completeness. It awakens the same interest of which we are sensible in
reading the biography of an unusually organized man, and would possess
valid claims to our attention even though Corsica could not boast
Napoleon as her offspring. But certainly the history of Napoleon's
native country ought to contribute its share of data to an accurate
estimate of his character; and as the great man is to be viewed as a
result of that history, its claims on our careful consideration are the
more authentic.
It is not the object of my book to communicate information in the
sphere of natural science; this is as much beyond its scope as beyond
the abilities of the author. The work has, however, been written with
an earnest purpose.
I am under many obligations for literary assistance to the learned
Corsican Benedetto Viale, Professor of Chemistry in the University
of Rome; and it would be difficult for me to say how helpful various
friends were to me in Corsica itself. My especial thanks are, however,
due to the exiled Florentine geographer, Francesco Marmocchi, and to
Camillo Friess, Archivarius in Ajaccio.
ROME, April 2, 1853.
The Translator begs to acknowledge his obligations to L. C. C. (the
translator of Grillparzer's _Sappho_), for the translation of the
Lullaby, pp. 240, 241, in the first volume; the Voceros which begin on
pp. 51, 52, and 54, in the second volume, and the poem which concludes
the work.
EDINBURGH, February 1855.
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.--HISTORY.
PAGE
CHAP. I.--Earliest Accounts, 1
II.--The Greeks, Etruscans, Carthaginians, and Romans in Corsica, 4
III.--State of the Island during the Roman Period, 8
IV.--Commencement of the Mediæval Period, 11
V.--Feudalism in Corsica, 14
VI.--The Pisans in Corsica, 17
VII.--Pisa or Genoa?--Giudice della Rocca, 20
VIII.--Commencement of Genoese Supremacy, 22
IX.--Struggles with Genoa--Arrigo della Rocca, 24
X.--Vincentello d'Istria, 27
XI.--The Bank of St. George of Genoa, 30
XII.--Patriotic Struggles--Giampolo da Leca--Renuccio della
Rocca, 34
XIII.--State of Corsica under the Bank of St. George, 38
XIV.--The Patriot Sampiero, 41
XV.--Sampiero--France and Corsica, 45
XVI.--Sampiero in Exile--His wife Vannina, 48
XVII.--Return of Sampiero--Stephen Doria, 52
XVIII.--The Death of Sampiero, 58
XIX.--Sampiero's Son, Alfonso--Treaty with Genoa, 62
BOOK II.--HISTORY.
CHAP. I.--State of Corsica in the Sixteenth Century--A Greek Colony
established on the Island, 66
II.--Insurrection against Genoa, 72
III.--Successes against Genoa, and German Mercenaries--Peace
concluded, 76
IV.--Recommencement of Hostilities--Declaration of
Independence--Democratic Constitution of Costa, 81
V.--Baron Theodore von Neuhoff, 85
VI.--Theodore I., King of Corsica, 90
VII.--Genoa in Difficulties--Aided by France--Theodore expelled, 94
VIII.--The French reduce Corsica--New Insurrection--The Patriot
Gaffori, 98
IX.--Pasquale Paoli, 105
X.--Paoli's Legislation, 111
XI.--Corsica under Paoli--Traffic in Nations--Victories over
the French, 119
XII.--The Dying Struggle, 124
BOOK III.--WANDERINGS IN THE SUMMER OF 1852.
CHAP. I.--Arrival in Corsica, 130
II.--The City of Bastia, 137
III.--Environs of Bastia, 144
IV.--Francesco Marmocchi of Florence--The Geology of Corsica, 149
V.--A Second Lesson, the Vegetation of Corsica, 154
VI.--Learned Men, 160
VII.--Corsican Statistics--Relation of Corsica to France, 164
VIII.--Bracciamozzo the Bandit, 172
IX.--The Vendetta, or Revenge to the Death! 176
X.--Bandit Life, 185
BOOK IV.
CHAP. I.--Southern Part of Cape Corso, 198
II.--From Brando to Luri, 203
III.--Pino, 208
IV.--The Tower of Seneca, 212
V.--Seneca Morale, 218
VI.--Seneca Birbone, 225
VII.--Seneca Eroe, 234
VIII.--Thoughts of a Bride, 236
IX.--Corsican Superstitions, 242
BOOK V.
CHAP. I.--Vescovato and the Corsican Historians, 246
II.--Rousseau and the Corsicans, 256
III.--The Moresca--Armed Dance of the Corsicans, 259
IV.--Joachim Murat, 264
V.--Venzolasca--Casabianca--The Old Cloisters, 275
VI.--Hospitality and Family Life in Oreto--The Corsican
Antigone, 277
VII.--A Ride through the District of Orezza to Morosaglia, 288
VIII.--Pasquale Paoli, 293
IX.--Paoli's Birthplace, 305
X.--Clemens Paoli, 314
XI.--The Old Hermit, 317
XII.--The Battle-field of Ponte Nuovo, 321
WANDERINGS IN CORSICA.
BOOK I.--HISTORY.
CHAP. I.--EARLIEST ACCOUNTS.
The oldest notices of Corsica we have, are to be found in the Greek
and Roman historians and geographers. They do not furnish us with any
precise information as to what races originally colonized the island,
whether Phœnicians, Etruscans, or Ligurians. All these ancient races
had been occupants of Corsica before the Carthaginians, the Phocæan
Greeks, and the Romans planted their colonies upon it.
The position of the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, in the great
western basin of the Mediterranean, made them points of convergence
for the commerce and colonization of the surrounding nations of the
two continents. To the north, at the distance of a day's journey, lies
Gaul; three days' journey westwards, Spain; Etruria is close at hand
upon the east; and Africa is but a few days' voyage to the south. The
continental nations necessarily, therefore, came into contact in these
islands, and one after the other left their stamp upon them. This was
particularly the case in Sardinia, a country entitled to be considered
one of the most remarkable in Europe, from the variety and complexity
of the national characteristics, and from the multifarious traces left
upon it by so many different races, in buildings, sculptures, coins,
language, and customs, which, deposited, so to speak, in successive
strata, have gradually determined the present ethnographic conformation
of the island. Both Corsica and Sardinia lie upon the boundary-line
which separates the western basin of the Mediterranean into a Spanish
and an Italian half; and as soon as the influences of Oriental and
Greek colonization had been eradicated politically, if not physically,
these two nations began to exercise their determining power upon the
islands. In Sardinia, the Spanish element predominated; in Corsica, the
Italian. This is very evident at the present day from the languages.
In later times, a third determining element, but a purely political
one--the French, was added in the case of Corsica. At a period of the
remotest antiquity, both Spanish and Gallo-Celtic or Ligurian tribes
had passed over to Corsica; but the Spanish characteristics which
struck the philosopher Seneca so forcibly in the Corsicans of his time,
disappeared, except in so far as they are still visible in the somewhat
gloomy and taciturn, and withal choleric disposition of the present
islanders.
The most ancient name of the island is Corsica--a later, Cyrnus.
The former is said to be derived from Corsus, a son of Hercules, and
brother of Sardus, who founded colonies on the islands, to which they
gave their names. Others say that Corsus was a Trojan, who carried off
Sica, a niece of Dido, and that in honour of her the island received
its appellation. Such is the fable of the oldest Corsican chronicler,
Johann della Grossa.
Cyrnus was a name in use among the Greeks. Pausanias says, in his
geography of Phocis: "The island near Sardinia (Ichnusa) is called by
the native Libyans, Corsica; by the Greeks, Cyrnus." The designation
Libyans, is very generally applied to the Phœnicians, and it is
highly improbable that Pausanias was thinking of an aboriginal race.
He viewed them as immigrated colonists, like those in Sardinia. He
says, in the same book, that the Libyans were the first who came to
Sardinia, which they found already inhabited, and that after them came
the Greeks and Hispanians. The word Cyrnos itself has been derived from
the Phœnician, _Kir_--horn, promontory. In short, these matters are
vague, traditionary, hypothetical.
So much seems to be certain, from the ancient sources which supplied
Pausanias with his information, that in very early times the
Phœnicians founded colonies on both islands, that they found them
already inhabited, and that afterwards an immigration from Spain took
place. Seneca, who spent eight years of exile in Corsica, in his book
_De Consolatione_, addressed to his mother Helvia, and written from
that island, has the following passage (cap. viii.):--"This island
has frequently changed its inhabitants. Omitting all that is involved
in the darkness of antiquity, I shall only say that the Greeks,
who at present inhabit Massilia (Marseilles), after they had left
Phocæa, settled at first at Corsica. It is uncertain what drove them
away--perhaps the unhealthy climate, the growing power of Italy, or
the scarcity of havens; for, that the savage character of the natives
was not the reason, we learn from their betaking themselves to the then
wild and uncivilized tribes of Gaul. Afterwards, Ligurians crossed over
to the island; and also Hispanians, as may be seen from the similarity
of the modes of life; for the same kinds of covering for the head and
the feet are found here, as among the Cantabrians--and there are many
resemblances in words; but the entire language has lost its original
character, through intercourse with the Greeks and Ligurians." It is
to be lamented that Seneca did not consider it worth the pains to make
more detailed inquiry into the condition of the island. Even for him
its earliest history was involved in obscurity; how much more so must
it be for us?
Seneca is probably mistaken, however, in not making the Ligurians and
Hispanians arrive on the island till after the Phocæans. I have no
doubt that the Celtic races were the first and oldest inhabitants of
Corsica. The Corsican physiognomy, even of the present time, appears as
a Celtic-Ligurian.