Corsicans

“ The Genoese sent troops to support their collector, and the Corsicans assembled in large bodies to defend themselves. The tumult encreased. A spark was sufficient to kindle the generous flame, in a people, who had so often glowed with the enthusiasm of liberty; and in a very short time, the whole island was in motion. ”

“ Decimated and discouraged, the Corsicans saw their six years of bloodshed and impoverishment wasted by the political selfishness of their stronger neighbours, and the independence for which they had so willingly laid down life, and laid desolate home, toyed with as a plaything, and bartered by the monarch in whose good faith they had trusted. ”

“ Among the epigrams on Corsica ascribed to Seneca, there is one which says of the Corsicans: Their first law is to revenge themselves, their second to live by plunder, their third to lie, and their fourth to deny the gods. ”

“ In the north of Europe we know little more of Corsica than that Napoleon was born there, that Pasquale Paoli struggled heroically there for freedom, and that the Corsicans practise hospitality and the Vendetta, and are the most daring bandits. ”

“ Why, you Corsicans don't know a rose when you see it! You gather a few miserable little worm-eaten buds, and call them a bouquet of roses. There isn't a man in Corsica who understands how to make a garden."
The two Corsicans took this rebuke very meekly, perhaps owning its truth in their hearts; and presently the conversation diverged to the subject of bandits.
"Do you know, mesdemoiselles," said the General, "that you are now in the heart of the bandit country?" ”

“ On another, wider field, and under other conditions, the same men who house for years in caverns, and fight with sbirri in the bush, would become great soldiers like Sampiero and Gaffori. The nature of the Corsicans is the combative nature; and I can find no more fitting epithet for them than that which Plato applies to the race of men who are born for war, namely, "impassioned." [E] The Corsicans are impassioned natures; passionate in their jealousy and in their pursuit of fame; passionately [176] quick in honour, passionately prone to revenge. ”

“ I have heard it said again and again, and in all parts of the country—"We Corsicans would gladly be Italian—for we are in reality Italians, if Italy were only united and strong; as she is at present, we must be French, for we need the support of a great power; by ourselves we are too poor."
The Government does all it can to dislodge the Italian language, and replace it with the French. All educated Corsicans speak French, and, it is said, well; fashion, necessity, the prospect of office, force it upon many. ”

“ Before me walked numbers of men returning from labour in the fields; I joined them, and learned that they were not Corsicans, but Italians from the Continent. More than five thousand labourers come every year from Italy, particularly from Leghorn, and the country about Lucca and Piombino, to execute the field labour for the lazy Corsicans. Up to the present day the Corsicans have maintained a well-founded reputation for indolence, and in this they are thoroughly unlike other brave mountaineers, as, for example, the Samnites. ”

“ His relatives go armed to their labour in the field, and station sentinels; their lives are in danger at every step. I have been told of instances in which Corsicans did not leave their intrenched dwellings for ten, and even for fifteen years, spending all this period of their lives besieged, and in deadly fear; for Corsican revenge never sleeps, and the Corsican never forgets. ”

“ For a long period the history of the Corsicans presents nothing but a bloody picture of the tyranny of the barons over the lower orders, and the quarrels of these nobles with each other. The coasts became desolate, the old cities of Aleria and Mariana were gradually forsaken; the inhabitants of the maritime districts fled from the Saracens higher up into the hills, where they built villages, strengthened by nature and art so as to resist the corsairs and the barons. In few countries [15] can the feudal nobility have been so fierce and cruel as in Corsica. ”

“ It is the custom to separate the men from the women, more especially at table. The wives and daughters fetch the water from the well; for the Corsicans have almost no menials. The Corsican women are industrious: you may see them, as they go to the fountain, bearing the pitcher on their head, leading the horse, if they have one, by a halter over their arm, and at the same time turning the spindle. ”

“ Such are the sentiments and language of the young Corsican, Napoleon—the revolutionary democrat and scholar of Plutarch. In his History of the Corsicans, he says in one place: "When his country is no more, a high-spirited citizen should die." ”

“ The Corsicans are of all men the most hospitable. Their own wives cook their victuals for the highest men in the land. They are by nature inclined to silence—made rather for acting than for speaking. They are also the most religious of mortals. ”

“ That fragment contains the earliest record of Roman conquest in Corsica. But the conquest was incomplete, and for upwards of a century the Corsicans maintained an unequal struggle against the Roman legions, strong in their mountain fastnesses, while the Roman armies appear to [69] have seldom advanced beyond the plains. The natives held their ground with such obstinacy that, on one occasion, after a bloody battle, a consular army, under Caius Papirius, was so nearly defeated, when rashly entangled in the gorges of the mountains, that the Corsicans obtained honourable terms of peace. ”

“ What were the Corsicans to do with a theory, when they had already given themselves a constitution of practical efficiency, thoroughly popular, because formed on the material basis of their traditions and necessities? ”

“ Though subdued by the Romans, the Corsicans were continually rising anew, already exhibiting that patriotism and love of freedom which in much later times drew the eyes of the world on this little isolated people. ”

“ Since the expulsion of the English, the French have remained in undisturbed possession of Corsica. The English occupation lasted from 1794 to 1796.
Character.
The Corsicans look to the Government for the improvement of their island far more than to their own efforts, for they themselves are neither industrious nor enterprising. The roads, railways, bridges and other public works are constructed chiefly by Italian labourers. The women do the drudgery both in their homes and on the fields, carrying great loads on their heads, as the mules do on their backs ”

“ Many superstitious beliefs of the Corsicans, with a great deal of poetic fancy in them, relate to death—the true genius of the Corsican popular poetry; since on this island of the Vendetta, death has so peculiarly his mythic abode; Corsica might be called the Island of Death, as other islands were called of Apollo, of Venus, or of Jupiter. When any one is about to die, a pale light upon the house-top frequently announces what is to happen. ”

“ For, the Corsicans, the most savage race of the Italian blood, and accustomed to the use of weapons from their childhood, fought with the boldness of all men fighting for their property, and routed the troops of France in many a successive and desperate encounter. Still, the combat was too unequal; the whole force of a great monarchy was obviously too strong for the hope of successful resistance, and Corsica, after many a severe struggle, became a French territory. ”

“ The Corsican will never forget the disgraceful way in which France appropriated his country; and a high-spirited people never learns to love [169] its conquerors. When I heard the Corsicans, even of the present day, bitterly inveighing against Genoa, I said to them—"Leave the old Republic of Genoa alone; you have had your full Vendetta on her—Napoleon, a Corsican, annihilated her; France betrayed you, and bereft you of your nationality; you have had your full Vendetta on France, for you sent her your Corsican Napoleon, who enslaved her ”

“ If the ten thousand Greeks have gained immortal honour, because they were opposed to the armies of the Persian monarch, Shall not the Corsicans be found deserving of glory, who have let themselves against a republick, which has been aided at different times by the power of France, and by that of the empire of Germany? ”

“ The Corsican women, who sing such bloody songs of revenge, are capable of carrying pistol and fucile, and fighting with them too, when there is need. How often have they fought in the battles of their country, spite of their husbands! They say that the victory of the Corsicans over the French at Borgo, was, in a very great measure, owing to the heroic daring of the women. ”

“ By their industry and activity, they beautified and enriched their possessions, and built very good houses, doing every thing with a taste, altogether new in Corsica.
But their neighbours, the natives of the island, did not live in great harmony with them. Perhaps, in this, envy may have had some share; for their vines and their olives, their herds and their flocks, were, by care and skill, much superiour to those of the Corsicans. But besides, the islandders looked upon the Greeks as auxiliaries of the Genoese, to whom they, from time to time, swore fidelity ”

“ All these in turn invaded Corsica, and did their best to conquer the island.
Corsica was at one time in the hands of the Carthaginians, but between two and three hundred years before the birth of Christ it passed under the control of Rome, at that time the mistress of the6 world. The Romans had their chief settlement at Aleria, near that Lake of Diana of which we have already spoken. The Corsicans did not tamely submit to the Roman invaders. They never, in fact, tamely submitted to anyone. They fought with courage and cunning. Like true mountaineers, they were hardy and fearless. ”

“ The excellent edition (Paris, 1834) which we now possess we owe to the munificence of Pozzo di Borgo, and the literary ability of Gregori, who has added an Italian translation of the Latin text.
This author's estimate of the Corsicans is still more characteristic and intelligent than that of Filippini. Let us hear what he has to say, that we may see whether the present Corsicans have retained much or little of the nature of their forefathers who lived in those early times:—
"They are eager to avenge an injury, and it is reckoned disgraceful not to take vengeance. ”

“ The isolation of Corsica, want of means, and love of their native soil, prevent the outlawed Corsicans from leaving their island. In former times, Corsican bandits occasionally escaped to Greece, where they fought bravely; at present, many seek refuge in Italy, and still more in Sardinia, if they prefer to [186] leave their country. Flight from the law is nowhere in the world a simpler matter than in Corsica. The blood has scarcely been shed before the doer of the deed is in the hills, which are everywhere close at hand, and where he easily conceals himself in the impenetrable macchia. ”

“ Diodorus: "When the Tyrrhenians had the Corsican cities [10] in their possession, they demanded from the natives tribute of resin, wax, and honey, which are here produced in abundance. The Corsican slaves are of great excellence, and seem to be preferable to other slaves for the common purposes of life. The whole broad island is for the most part mountainous, rich in shady woods, watered by little rivers. The inhabitants live on milk, honey, and flesh, all which they have in plenty. The Corsicans are just towards each other, and live in a more civilized manner than all other barbarians. ”

“ With manifestoes, however, no kingdom can be rendered happy: but the king of Corsica did not do much more. He certainly sailed to the island, and landed ammunition and stores at Isola Rossa, but he did not leave his ship himself, and contented himself with cruising off the coast and preventing reinforcements arriving from Genoa. We have seen that our adventurer was not deficient in courage, and hence other motives must have restrained him from placing himself at the head of his faithful Corsicans. ”

“ A traveller may go from one end of Corsica to the other, and if he behave courteously himself, will probably never meet with a discourteous word, from the time he sets foot on the island until he leaves it.
At the same time, it cannot be denied that the Corsicans, though polite and even friendly to strangers, have a weakness for shooting one another. It is nonsense to suppose the vendetta is crushed out; it is as lively as ever in some parts. ”

“ Finding that is was difficult to keep the inhabitants in subjection, they ordered the whole of the vines and olives in the island to be pulled up, and forbid the Corsicans, under the pain of death, to sow their fields with any kind of grain, so that they might be kept in the most absolute dependance; and, though possessed of a very fertile territory, be obliged to resort to Africa, to seek the bare necessaries of life. So early was the cowardly and barbarous policy of a trading republick exercised against this people.
Corsica next passed under the dominion of Rome. ”

“ In the cities French is much spoken, but the common people speak nothing but Italian, even when they [171] have learned French at school, or by intercourse with Frenchmen. French has not at all penetrated into the mountainous districts of the interior, where the ancient, venerated customs of the elder Corsicans—their primitive innocence, single-heartedness, justice, generosity, and love of liberty—remain unimpaired. ”

“ The love of his friends is still to the Corsican what it was in the old heroic times—a religion; only the love of his country is with him a higher duty. Many examples from Corsican history show this. As among the ancient Hellenes, fraternal love ranked as love's highest and purest form, so it is ranked among the Corsicans. ”