Corsica: picturesque, historical, and social. With a sketch of the early life of Napoleon and an account of the Bonaparte, Paoli, Pozzo di Borgo, and other principal families. Suggested by a tour in the island in 1852. Translated ... by E. J. Morris

Front matter

C OK SIC A: |)ittasqner pstorital anir Starial WITH A SKETCH OF THE EARLY LIFE OF NAPOLEON, AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE BONAPARTE, PAOLI, POZZO DI BORGO, AND OTHER PRINCIPAL FAMILIES. Sittggcsiei) 6y q loqlin % UW if) '35?. i TRANSLATED EROH THE GERMAN OF FERDINAND GREGOROTIES, BT EDWARD JOY MORRIS. PHILADELPHIA: PARRY & M'MILLAN, SUCCESSORS TO A. HART. 18 5 5. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by PARRY & M'MILLAN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for th Eastern District of Pennsylvania. PHILADELPHIA I STEREOTYPE!) BY GEORGE CHARLES. PRINTED BY T. K. & P. G. COLLINS. CONTENTS. PAOE Historical Sketch or Corsica, 9-116 Tour in the Island in 1862, 117 Bastia, 125 Environs of Bastia, 132 Geology of Corsica, 135 Botany of Corsica, 140 Learned Men, 145 Statistics, 148 Braciamozzo the Bandit, 155 The Vendetta, 158 Bandit Life, 165 The Neighborhood of Cape Corso, 177 From Brando to Luri, 182 The Tower of Seneca 190 Seneca Morale, 195 Seneca Birbone, 201 Seneca Eroe, 206 A Corsican Bride, 209 Popular Superstitions, 214 Vescovato and the Corsican Historians, 218 Rousseau and the Corsicans, 225 Corsican Weapon Dance, 228 Joachim Murat, 233 Christian Ruins, 243 Domestic Life in Oreto, . 247 Pasquale Paoli, 261 CONTENTS.

IV PAGE Birth-place of Paoli, 271 Clemens Paoli, 278 The Old Hermit, • • 281 The Battle Field of Pontenuovo, 284 Through the Land of Nebbio to Isola Eossa, .... 288 Strand Idyl of Isola Rossa, 293 Vittoria Malaspina, • • 2"" From Isola Rossa to Calvi, 305 Calvi and its Men, 310 The Corsican Death Songs, 318 Through Balagna to Corte, . 331 Among the Goatherds of Monte Rotondo, 343 The Mountain Summit, 354 Vendetta or not ? 360 Ajaccio, 367 The Bonaparte House, 374 The Bonaparte Family, 378 Napoleon's Boyhood, > • 384 Napoleon as a zealous Democrat, ....... 392 Napoleon's latter Actions in Corsica, . . . . . 406 The Mother of Napoleon, 419 Pozzo di Borgo, • 421 The Environs of Ajaccio, 428 From Ajaccio to the Valley of Ornano 436 From Ornano to Sartene, ........ 441 Two Stories of Corsican Life 449 Environs of Sartene ; 459 The City of Bonifacio, 460 The Siege of Bonifacio, 466 The Straits, 481 The Caves of Bonifacio, 486 The East Coast, 491 Aleria, the Colony of Sylla 494 Theodore of Neuhoff, 498 Mariana and Return to Bastia, . . . . . . .617 Farewell to Corsica, . .

BY THE TRANSLATOR. The following work has excited much attention in Germany and Eng land, from the new light it throws on the political history, natural fea tures, and social condition of one ofthe least known and most interesting countries of Europe. The historical portion of it, in a brief and animated narrative, describes one of the most remarkable struggles for freedom and independence on record. The popular patriotism and devotion to liberty displayed, during the war with Genoa, and the succession of heroic leaders and statesmen to which it gave birth, from Sambuccio to Sampiero and Paoli, may challenge comparison with the noblest epochs of the Spartan and Athenian republics. The striking similitude of the character of Napoleon with that of other martial chiefs of Corsica, and the ineradicable influence which the national traits exercised on his life and actions, are clearly illustrated in these pages.

Preface

OF THE AUTHOR. In the summer of last year, I made a journey to the island of Corsica, to which I was attracted as much by its unexplored solitudes, and the grandeur of its scenery, as by the original character of its people. I had not proposed to myself the extensive tour which I subsequently made, but like the traveller in the fable, I was lured on by some fasci nating spell, from step to step, into its beautiful mountains and valleys. The fruit of my summer's wanderings is the following book, which I hope may be kindly received. The history of the Corsicans, as sternly rugged as their mountains, and as wondrous as their own natures, has an entirely exclusive charac ter ; it may therefore be described in an abridged or detailed form, and in either it will awaken an interest like that of a man of extraordinary organization.

Corsica would still be worthy of the admiration of the world though it had not produced a Napoleon, for its insular annals abound in striking illustrations of human excellence, and actions of the loftiest valour and virtue. Its history will explain much that seems mysterious in the character of Napoleon, and will contribute to a better understanding of the nature of that great man. I am under many obligations to kind friends in Corsica, but more par ticularly to Signor Benedetto Viale, the learned Corsican, professor of chemistry in the Roman University ; to the exiled Florentine geographer Marmocchi ; and to Signor Camillo Friess, the keeper of the archives in Ajaccio. CORSICA. BOOK FIRST.

Chapter I

The earliest accounts of Corsica are to be found in the geo graphical and historical writings of the Greeks and Romans. They do not positively inform us whether the Phœnicians, Etruscans, Spaniards, or Ligurians were the original colonists of the island. All these old races had visited Corsica, before the Carthaginians, Phocian Greeks, and Romans settled in it. The position of Corsica and Sardinia, in the great western gulf of the Mediterranean, made them a rallying point for all the surrounding people of the continent, who were engaged in commerce, or in colonization. Gaul lay but one days sail to the north, Spain three days voyage to the west ; the coast of Etru ria was quite near on the east, and Africa on the south could be reached in a few days. The people on the continent, thus meeting on these islands, interchanged ideas and left impressions of their residence.

The variety and difference of national characteristics, as well as of people, are to be traced in the structures, sculptures, coins, language, and customs, which. like strata, gradually fixed the ethnographical form of the island, and made Sardinia, in particular, one of the mosf remarkable countries of Europe. Both islands lay upon the boundary line which separated this part of the Mediterranean into Spanish and Italian divisions. After the influences of the oriental and Greek emigrations were politically as well as phy sically obliterated, both these nations exercised a controlling influence over the islands. In Sardinia the Spanish element predominated, and in Corsica, the Italian. This is clearly to be seen at the present day, in the language. In later times the French element also entered into Corsica, but this was only in a political sense.

In the remotest periods the Gallic- Celtic, or Ligurian people, had crossed over to the island. The Spanish traits, which struck the philosopher Seneca so forcibly in his time, have disappeared, and are now only to be seen in the grave and melancho-choleric disposition of the inhabitants. The original name of the island was Corsica, and the subsequent designation, Cyrnus. The former was derived from Corsus, a son of Hercules, and brother of Sardus, who'introduced colonies into the islands named after them. Some suppose Corsus to have been a Trojan, who carried off Sica, a niece of Dido, and that the name of Corsica thus arose. This is the story of John della Grossa, the most ancient Corsican chronicler. The Greeks made use of the name Cyrnus. Pausanius, in his Phocian Geography, says, "The adjacent island to Sardinia is called Corsica by the native Libyans, and Cyrnus by the Greeks."

The term Libyans was universally employed for Phœnicians, and Pausanius scarcely thought of aboriginal inhabitants. They were emigrants from the mainland, as in Sardinia. In the same book, indeed, he says, that Libyans first came to Sardinia, where they already found inhabitants, and that they were followed by Greeks and Spaniards. The word Cyrnus itself is derived from the Phœnician Kir (promontory). These, however, are all mere hypotheses and vague con jectures. It appears from the sources whence Pausanius derived his information, that the Phœnicians certainly founded colonies on both islands at a very remote epoch, and that they found a population, which was either Ligurian or Etruscan-Pelasgic, and that Spaniards also came over at a later period. Seneca, who lived eight years in exile in Corsica, in one of his consolatory letters to his mother, Helcia, in the eighth chapter writes as follows : " This island has also frequently changed its culti vators.

Passing over the deep veiled obscurity of the primitive ages, I know only that the Greeks, who now inhabit Massilia (Marseilles), after leaving Phocis, first established themselves on this island. It is uncertain whether they were driven away by the unhealthy climate, the spectacle of the increasing power of Italy, or the harbourless coast : that it was not on account of the savageness of the inhabitants, we may infer from the fact that they took up their residence among the then extremely rough and barbarous people of Gaul. Ligurians afterwards repaired to the island, and also Spaniards, as may be inferred from the similarity of their customs, for the same head and foot coverings are to be found as among the Cantabrians, as well as numerous words ; but the whole language has lost its original character, from intercourse with Greeks and Ligurians."

It is to be regretted that Seneca did not deem it worth the trouble to make further investigations into the condition of the island. If for him the primitive history of the Corsicans is veiled in darkness, how much more so must it be for us. But Seneca is certainly in error in stating that the Ligurians and Spaniards were the immediate successors of the Phocians. I have no doubt that their Celtic races were the first and oldest inhabitants of Corsica ; even the physiognomy of the present Corsicans is of a Celtic-Ligurian type.

Chapter II

The first historically recorded event touching Corsica, is the arrival of the fugitive Phocians, so clearly described by Hero dotus. It is known that these Asia Minor Greeks had resolved to leave their native country, rather than sumbit to the intolera ble yoke of Cyrus, and that, after a solemn adjuration to the gods, they took to their ships, with all their treasure. They first treated with the Chiotes for the cession of the Oenusian Islands ; after the rejection of this offer they sailed to Corsica, not by chance, but because they had there built the town of Alalia, twenty years before. They found their own colonists, and remained with them five years, building temples, as Hero dotus says : " But, because of their robbery and plunder of the neighbouring people, the Tyrrhenians and the Carthaginians armed a fleet of sixty sail.

The Phocians, on their side, fitted out a like number of vessels, and they proceeded to the sea before Sardinia, to meet them. They gained the victory, but it cost them dear ; for they lost forty vessels, and the remainder were rendered unfit for service, from their shattered beaks. After their return to Alalia, they left the island, with their wives, and children, and property, and sailed to Rhegium." It is known that they subsequently built Massilia, the present Marseilles. Alalia, the Aleria of to-day, was unquestionably a Greek colony, and afterwards fell into the power of the Etruscans. That they must have sent colonies to Corsica before the Pho cians, may be inferred from the history of this commercial and enterprising nation. For the powerful Populonia, lying nearly opposite to Corsica, had some time before made an attempt to take possession of the east coast of the island, after having acquired Elba.

Diodorus, in his fifth book, says, " The two chief cities of Corsica are Calaris and Nicæa. Calaris (corrupted for Alalia or Aleria) was founded by the Pho cians. After having dwelt in the island for some time, they were driven out by the Tyrrhenians. The latter built Nicæa, when they had become masters of the sea." Nicæa is probably Mariana, situated on the same coast plain. We may suppose that this colony ranked next to Nicæa, and that in consequence of the jealousy and fear excited among the Tyrrhenians by the emigration of the Phocian community, a conflict arose between the Tyrrhenians and the latter. It is not certain.that the Car thaginians had possessions in Corsica ; but they had colonies, at the same period, in the neighbouring Sardinia. Pausanius informs us that they subdued the Libyans and Spaniards in this island, and built two cities, Caralis (Cagliari) and Sulchos (Palma di Solo).

The threatened danger from the Greeks induced them to make common cause with the Tyrrhenians, who had also settled in Sardinia, against the Phocian invaders. The ancient historians likewise make mention of an emigration of Corsicans to Sardinia, where they are said to have planted twelve cities. For a long time after, we. hear nothing farther of the affairs of Corsica from which the Etruscans continued to export honey, wax, ship timber and slaves. Their gradually declining power yielded to the Carthaginians, who appear to have obtained full possession of both islands, that is to say, of their harbours and commercial cities, for the people of the interior were yet un subdued. In the Punic wars, the grasping ambition of Rome dispossessed the Carthaginians of both islands. Corsica is not particularly mentioned, either in the Punic treaty of the Romans in the time of Tarquinius, or in the treaty of peace of the first Punic war.

Sardinia was surrendered to the Romans. The vicinity of Corsica must also have attracted them to the con quest of that island. Central points in the sea that washed the shores of Spain, Gaul, Italy and Africa, they presented excellent stations for the fleets that the Romans sent out for the conquest of the coasts of those countries. It is related that in 260, b. c, the consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio sailed over to Corsica, and destroyed the city of Aleria, while at the same time, he conquered the Corsicans and Sardinians, and Hanno, the Carthaginian. The mutilated epitaph of Scipio contains these words ; Hec Cepit Corsica Aleriaque VRBE. But the subjection of the wild Corsicans was no easy task. They made as obstinate and heroic a resistance as the Samnites. The Romans were defeated on several occasions, and the Corsicans frequently rebelled.

M. Claudius led an army against the Corsicans in 240. Vanquished, and in a desperate condition, he offered them a favourable treaty, which they accepted ; the Senate, however, did not confirm it. That body ordered the consul C. Licinius Yarus to severely chastise the Corsicans, but it delivered Claudius to them, to do with him as they pleased. This was a politic proceeding on the part of the Romans, which they several times resorted to, when they had religious scruples against the violation of an oath. The Corsicans acted as the Samnites and Spaniards, in a similar case. They refused to receive the innocent general, and they sent him back, unharmed. He was strangled at Rome and thrown down the Tarpeian rock. Though overcome by the Romans, the Corsicans were con tinually in a state of insurrection, and at that period displayed the same patriotic spirit, and love of liberty, which has since drawn the eyes of the world to their sequestered home in the midst of the waters.

They rose in arms with the Sardinians ; but after the subjection of the latter, they also suffered a bloody defeat at the battle of Myrthe. They nevertheless maintained a firm stand in their mountain fastnesses, and it seems that they compelled the Roman general to an advantageous peace. They were again in insurrection in 181, b. c. Marcus Pinarius, Prætor of Sardinia, immediately sailed over to Corsica, with an army, and slew more than two thousand of the islanders in a sanguinary battle, of which mention is made by Livy. The people laid down their arms, gave hostages, and a tribute of one hundred thousand pounds of wax. Seven years later there was another rising and another bloody contest. Seven thousand Corsicans were left on the field, and two thousand taken prisoners, and the tribute was increased to two hundred thousand pounds of wax.

Ten years subsequently, this gallant people again took up arms, and obliged the Romans to send a consular army against them. Juventius Thalea, and Scipio Nasica after him, completely subdued the island. The Romans had thus to wage a war of more than a hundred years against these brave islanders, before they could reduce them to submission. They governed Corsica, in common with Sardinia, by a prætor, who resided in Cagliari, and sent a lieutenant or legate to Corsica. But it was only in the first civil war that the Romans seriously thought of colonizing it. The celebrated Marius founded the colony of Mariana upon the beautiful plain on the eastern coast, and Sylla, at a later period built Aleria on the same plain, restoring the former Alalia of the Phocians. Corsica now began to be Romanized, the Celtic- Spanish language to change, and Roman customs to prevail.

We hear of no more insurrections by the Corsicans against their rulers, and the island is only once again historically mentioned, when Sextus Pompeius, in defiance of the Triumvirs, established his supremacy over the Mediterranean, seized Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily. His kingdom was not of long duration.

Chapter III

That the island, under the long domination of the Romans was by no means so flourishing as we might expect, may be inferred from the condition of the interior, which the Romans had, probably, never subdued. They satisfied themselves with the two colonies, and some harbour settlements. The beautiful coast fronting the opposite shores of Italy was preferred for habitation. According to the itinerary of Antoninus, a Roman road ran from Mariana along the coast, southwardly, to Aleria, Præsidium, Portas Favonius Pallæ, to the present Bonifacio on the straits. This was the crossing point to Portus Tibula, (cartio Aragonese,) a considerable place, whence a road led to Caralis, the Cagliari of to-day. Pliny speaks of thirty-three cities in Corsica, but gives the names of only the two Roman colonies.

Strabo, however, who wrote not long before him, says, on the contrary, of Corsica : " There are some small towns, such as Blessina, Charax Eniconiæ, and Vapenes." These names no longer exist. Pliny may have considered every castle as a town. Ptolemy, on the contrary, particularly mentions byname the various divisions of Corsica, and the tribes which inhabited them. Many of the terms he makes use of, are more or less distinctly preserved to this day in Corsica. , We are indebted to the ancient historians also, for some notices of the customs and character of the Corsicans of that period. I cite them here, for it is curious to compare their descriptions with those made of them in the middle ages and by recent writers. Strabo says of Corsica : " It is poorly inhabited, as it is very rugged, and, in many parts, entirely impenetrable.

Hence it is, that those who live in the mountains sustain themselves by plunder, and are wilder than the very beasts. When the Roman generals made an expedition against the island, and assailed the fastnesses, they carried off a great number as slaves, whose barbarous habits and appearance astonished the people of Rome. For they either took their own lives, or tired out the patience of their masters by their pride and obstinacy, so that the purchasers found them a dear bargain, cheaply as they may have bought them." Diodorus says : "After the Tyrrhenians had possessed the Corsican cities for some time, they exacted from them, as tribute, rosin, wax, and honey, which were produced in great quantities. The Corsican slaves are of a peculiar character, and appear to be preferred to all others for domestic purposes.

Almost the entire island is mountainous, abounding in dense forests, aud watered by small streams. The inhabitants live on milk, honey and meat, of which they have a bountiful supply. The Corsicans are just among each other, and much more civilized in their manners than other barbarian people. The honey combs in the trees on the mountains belong to the first finder. The sheep are known by certain marks, and though they run at large, are recognized as the property of their owners. In every department of life, the same rules of justice prevail, and are enforced. Their customs touching the birth of children are very strange ; no care is taken of the mother, but the husband lies in bed, in place of the bearing wife, for several days, as if sick and in bodily pain. The great quantity of boxwood that grows on the island, of an uncommon kind, is supposed to be the cause of the extreme bitterness of the honey.

The island is inhabited by barbarians, whose speech is very confused, and difficult of understanding. Their number amounts to more than thirty thousand." Seneca says : "Where can one find such a naked and rugged region, as this rocky island ? Where is there one so scarce of productions, with such a rude population, inhospitable climate, and more horrible situation ? And yet it contains more strangers than natives." From all the statements of ancient writers, we may infer that Corsica was but inconsiderably inhabited, and poor in products, beyond those yielded by its primitive forests. Seneca's ex aggerations maybe ascribed to his position as an exile. Strabo and Diodorus differ in opinion as to the disposition of the Corsican slaves. History and the unchanged character of the Corsicans, who could never be rendered capable of slavery, are in favour of the former.

The experience of all ages confirms the truth of Diodorus's remarks, concerning their sense of justice. Among the epigrams on the Corsicans which are ascribed to Seneca, are the following : their first law is vengeance ; the second, to live by robbery; the third, to lie; the fourth, to deny the gods. 2* These are the most important accounts of Corsica by the Greeks and Romans.

Chapter IV

Corsica remained in the possession of the Romans, from whom, at a later period, it received Christianity. Down to the fall of Rome, the island again became the prey of roving adventurers by land and sea. It was overrun by various peo ple, and a heterogeneous mixture of nations, tongues, and customs arose, as in the more ancient times. Germans, Byzantine Greeks, Moors, and Romans, invaded the island. But the Roman influence, established by the long sway ofthe Romans in the island, and confirmed by multitudes of fugitive Italians, constituted the unshaken basis of the peo ple. The Vandals, under Genseric, landed in Corsica, and kept the island a long time, until they were finally driven out by Belisarius. After the Goths and Longobards had become masters of Corsica, it was taken by the Byzantines, and remained in their power for nearly two hundred years.

Many Greek names and roots of the present day are to be ascribed to this period. The rule of the Greeks was after the manner of the Turks. They appear to have looked upon the Corsicans as a mass of wild beasts : they oppressed them with insupportable taxes, and compelled them to sell their children to meet these burdens, From this epoch begins a series of incessant combats, and the history of the island for centuries was little else than a con tinual struggle in defence of life, and the freedom of their native country. In 713, the first swarms of Saracens made their appearance in Corsica. After Spain had submitted to the Moors, all the islands of the Mediterranean were ravaged by the Mohammed ans, and many durable governments were founded by them. The Greek emperors, employed in the East, abandoned the West, which found new protectors in the Franks.

The relations of Charles the Great with Corsica are derived from the historian Eginhard, who states that the emperor despatched Count Burkhard with a fleet to defend the island against the Saracens. His son Charles also totally defeated them at Mari ana. These combats with the Moors have been faithfully pre served in the traditions of the Corsican people. The rebel Roman nobleman, Hugo Colonna, whom the pope, Stephen IV., sent to Corsica, to get rid of, with his companions, Guido Savelli and Amondo Nasica, was particularly distinguished in this war. Colonna first took Aleria from the Moors, after a chivalrous combat between three Paladins and three Moors ; he next defeated the Moorish king Nugalon at Mariana, and obliged all the infidels to be baptized. The Corsican chronicle mentions Ganelon as companion to Hugo, a nephew of Ganelon of Mayence, and says that he went to Corsica to wash out the shame of his house in Moorish blood.

In 833, the Tuscan Margrave Bonifacius, after having totally routed the Saracens in a great naval battle on the Afri can coast, near Utica, on his voyage home, landed on the south cape of Corsica, and built upon its chalk cliffs the fortress, which received from him the name of Bonifacio. St. Louis gave him Corsica as a feud. The Etrurian coast thus, a second time, asserted its supremacy over the island, and governed it down to Lambert, the last of the Tuscan margraves, who died in 951. After the domination of Berengar and Adalbert of Frioul, the emperor, Otto the Second, gave Corsica to his adherent, the Margrave Hugo of Tuscany. Its subsequent history is enveloped in obscurity, down to the time of the Pisans. From about this period, and clown to the beginning of the eleventh century, an arrogant and savage nobility grew up, which founded many families and baronies throughout the island.

Only a very small part of them were of Corsican origin. The Italian nobles and the Longobard, Gothic, or Frank vassals who fled before the barbarians, received land and feudal titles in return for military service against the Moors, and gradually created hereditary dynasties. The Corsican chronicler traces the descent of all the noble families from the Roman Hugo Colonna and his followers. He calls him Count of Corsica, and deduces the most distinguished Corsican family, the Cinar chesi, from his son Cinarco ; the Biancolacci, from Bianco, another son ; and the Pinaschi, from a son of Savelli ; and so on with the Amondasci, the Rollandini, who are said to be descended from Ganelon and others. From this multitude of petty tyrants some families afterwards rose to great power, such as the Gentili of Cape Corro, and the Da Mare : beyond the mountains were the lords of Leca, Istrea, Rocca, Ornano, and Bozio.

Chapter V

For a long course of time, Corsican history is nothing but the bloody picture of the tyranny of the barons and of their wars with each other. The coasts were deserted, and the ancient cities of Aleria and Mariana were gradually abandoned ; the people of the seashore, out of fear of the Saracens, fled up into the mountains, where they built strongly fortified towns among the natural fastnesses, to protect themselves against the corsairs and the barons. Few countries have produced such a brutal and cruel nobility as Corsica. Surrounded by a half savage and miserably poor population, in a rude wilderness of rock and forest, unchecked by the counteracting influences of civilized customs and industry ; free from the restraints of the church, and cut off from the world and its ameliorating intercourse, these wild feudal lords gave full vent to their lust of power and rapine.

In other countries the various classes united in frater nities and communities against the nobility; but it was much more difficult in Corsica, where neither commerce, industry, nor towns had formed a citizen class. It is the more remarka ble, under these circumstances, that a nation of rude peasants should have provided themselves with a purely democratic or patriarchal system of government. In continual war with the oppressed inhabitants of the villages, and with each other, for the supremacy, the barons at last submitted to the lord of Cinarca, who set himself up as the despot of the island. Scanty as our sources of information are, we can gather from them, that the people of the interior bad, hitherto, opposed an obstinate resistance to the barons. Through fear of falling under the yoke of Cinarca, the people assembled in a diet, at Morosaglia, which is the first popular parliament of which there is any record in Corsican history.

Sambuccio of Alando, a gallant man, was there chosen as the popular leader ; with him begins the long series of Corsican heroes, who have been distinguished for love of country, and the splendid courage of their actions. Sambuccio defeated the lord of Cinarca, and drove him back on his feudal estates. To secure success, he formed a confede racy, like that of the Swiss mountaineers, under similar circumstances, at a later period. All the country from Aleria to Calvi and Brando was united into a free community, under the name of Terra del Commune, which has been preserved to the most recent times. This community, formed according to the natural divisions of the country, was very simple in its charac ter, and purely democratic ; for the island, by its mountain system, is broken into valleys or sections, like a honeycomb.

All the population in a valley generally form one church parish, which is still designated, as in ancient times, by the Italian name pieve (plebs). Every pieve also embraces a certain number of communes or districts (paese). Each commune in their popular gathering before the church, elected a, podesta, or chief, and two or more padri del commune, fathers of the commune, probably for the term of a year, as was afterwards the custom. It was their duty, in a paternal spirit, to look after the interests of the commune, to settle disputes, and pro tect the weak. In joint meeting they selected one of their number as caporale, who seems to have exercised the authority of a popular tribune, aud was expressly appointed to defend the rights of the people in every manner. The podesta again met, and chose the dodici, the twelve men, the highest legislative council of the confederacy.