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inns in the smaller islands, though lodgings may be procured in all of them.

There are Theatres at Corfu and at Cephalonia, where Italian operas are given during the winter, and plays and amateur representations at other

seasons.

British subjects will have no trouble about their luggage or passports on landing in the Ionian Islands.

ROUTES

AND

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SEVERAL ISLANDS.

fleet-so long the scourge and terror of Europe-a blow from which it has never recovered." But our space will glories of Corfu-the seat of governallow us to draw only an outline of the ment in these regions under both the Venetians and the English-and for and one of the main outposts of Chrisso many ages the key of the Adriatic, tendom.

1. CORFU (CORCYRA, Képкupa).* It may safely be asserted, without prejudice to the poetical fame of Ithaca, that of all the Ionian Islands, Corcyra, or Corfu (an Italian corruption of Kopup, the Byzantine name for the island, derived from the two peaks, Οι κορυφαί, on which the citadel is now The ancients universally regarded built), is the one which in all ages has Corcyra as identical with the Homeric played the most important part on the Scheria (derived, perhaps, from the stage of history. From the peculiar Phoenician schara, commerce), where character of its beautiful scenery and the enterprising and sea-loving Phæadelightful climate, it forms a connect- cians dwelt. governed by their King ing link between the East and the Alcinous. The island is said also to West, like Madeira between the Old have been called from its shape DreWorld and the New. Its geographical pane (Aperάvn), or the Sickle; it position on the high road of naviga-describes a curve, the convexity of tion between Greece and Italy has made Corcyra a possession of great importance both in ancient and in modern times. "Here (Thucydides, vi. 42) was passed in review that splendid armament which was destined to perish at Syracuse-the Moscow of Athenian ambition. Here-400 years later the waters of Actium saw a world lost and won. Here again, after the lapse of sixteen centuries, met together those Christian Powers which off Lepanto dealt to the Turkish

* For an account of the hotels, shops, &c., of

Corfu, see INTRODUCTION.

which is towards the W.; its length
from N.W. to S.E. is about 40 miles;
the breadth is greatest in the N.,
where it is nearly 20 miles, but it
gradually tapers towards its S. ex-
tremity. The historical name of Cor-
About B.C. 734 a colony was planted
cyra appears first in 'Herodotus.'
here by the Corinthians; and that
maritime activity for which the Cor-
cyræans were afterwards celebrated

fusion of the Dorians with the ori-
have partly arisen from the
may
ginal inhabitants. Homer states that
the Phæacians had come from Sicily;

but it seems probable that they were were various. Though it appears never a branch of the Liburnians, that to have recovered its former political enterprising and sea-faring people consequence, a gorgeous picture of the who long continued to occupy the fertility and opulence of the island in more northernly islands in the Adriatic | B.C. 373 has been drawn by Xenophon along the Dalmatian and Illyrian (Hellen., vi. 2). When it was invaded shores. Corcyra soon became rich in that year by the Spartans under and powerful by its extensive com- Mnasippus, it is represented as being merce, and founded many colonies on in the highest state of cultivation and the neighbouring mainland, such as full of the richest produce; with fields Epidamnus, Apollonia, Leucas, and admirably tilled, and vineyards in Anactorium. So rapid was their pro- surpassing condition; with splendid sperity that the colonists soon became farm-buildings, well-appointed wineformidable rivals of their mother- cellars, and abundance of cattle. The country; and about B.C. 665 a battle hostile soldiers, we are told, while enwas fought between their fleets, which riching themselves by their depredais memorable as the most ancient sea- tions, became so pampered with the fight on record. Corcyra appears to plenty around them that they refused have been subjugated by Periander to drink any wine that was not of (Herod., iii. 49, seq.), but to have the first quality. At a later period the recovered its independence. During island was alternately seized by the the Persian war the Corcyræans are Spartans, the Athenians, and the Macestated by Herodotus (vii. 168) to have donians. King Pyrrhus, of Epirus, played false to the national cause, and occupied it during his Italian wars; their names did not appear on the and it finally fell under the Roman muster-roll of Salamis. At a later dominion B.C. 229. From its situation period Corcyra, by invoking the aid near Brundisium and Dyrrachium— of Athens against the Corinthians, the Dover and Calais of the ancients became one of the proximate causes-Corcyra was frequently visited by of the Peloponnesian war. During illustrious Romans. Here Augustus the progress of that contest her poli-assembled his fleet before the battle tical power and importance were irre- of Actium, and we have notices of the trievably ruined, in consequence of the fierce factions and civil dissensions which agitated the island, and in which both the aristocratical and popular parties were guilty of the most horrible atrocities. It has been truly observed, that "it was the state of parties and of politics at Corcyra that the greatest of ancient historians made the subject of a solemn disqui-peror Nero, on his way to Greece, sition, considering that they were a sang and danced before the altar of type of the general condition of Greece Jupiter at Cassiope. at the period of the Peloponnesian war, and that the picture which he then drew of his countrymen belongs, in its main outlines, to all ages and nations. He who would discuss that most interesting problem, the state and prospects of the Modern Greeks, can hardly do wrong in adopting for his observations the same basis as Thucydides."

presence of Tibullus, Cato, and of Cicero, whose friend Atticus possessed large estates on the opposite coast of Epirus-probably in the plain of Butrinto, now so much resorted to by English shooting-parties. The last mention of Corcyra in the ancient authors seems to have been that by Suetonius, who relates that the Em

Henceforward there is little notice of Corfu until the times of the Crusades, when its geographical position caused it to be greatly frequented. Robert Guiscard seized the island in A.D. 1081, during his wars with the Eastern Empire; and another great Norman Chief, Richard I. of England, landed here on his return from the Holy Land in A.D. 1193. After reFor some generations after the Pelo-maining in the island for some time, ponnesian war the fortunes of Corcyra he continued his voyage to Ragusa,

whence proceeding by land towards his dominions, he was made captive by the Duke of Austria.

the Capitan-Pasha or Lord High Admiral of the Empire in person; while the Seraskier or General-in-Chief led During the decline of the Empire, the army of 30,000 picked troops, Corfu underwent many changes of which was ferried across by the boats of fortune, being sometimes in the hands the fleet from Butrinto to Govino. On of the Greek Emperors, sometimes in July 8, the Venetian fleet entered the those of various Latin princes, par- northern channel, and by saluting the ticularly of the House of Anjou, then | Virgin of Cassópo gave notice of their governing Naples, and always exposed approach to the Turks, who might to the incursions of freebooters and otherwise have been taken at a dispirates. At length, A.D. 1386, the in- advantage. During the subsequent habitants sent a deputation to Venice siege, neither party felt sufficiently to implore the protection of that Re- strong to force on a sea-fight, but public, under whose sovereignity they stood, as it were, at bay, the Ottoremained until its downfall in A.D. man vessels stretching across from 1797. We have already drawn an out- Butrinto to Govino, and the Veneline of the political condition of the tians from Vido to Sayáda. Ionians under Venetian rule, and of their subsequent fortunes until united to the Kingdom of Greece. Venice made Corfu her principal arsenal and point d'appui in Greece, and surrounded the town with extensive and massive fortifications, which set at defiance the whole power of the Ottomans in the assaults of 1537 and 1570, and, above all, in the celebrated siege of 1716, remarkable as the last great attempt of the Turks to extend their conquests in Christendom. On this occasion the Republic was fortunate in its selection as Commandant at Corfu of Marshal Schulemberg, a brave and skilful German soldier of fortune, who had served under Prince Eugene and the King of Saxony. While directing the retreat of a division of the Saxon army before the Swedes, he had formerly extricated himself, when apparently lost, by throwing his forces over the river Oder-a manoeuvre which drew from Charles XII. himself the exclamation, "Schulemberg has conquered us to-day!" A statue of the Marshal, erected by the Senate of Venice, stands on the esplanade at Corfu, in front of the gate of the Citadel.* The Turkish fleet of 60 ships-of-mense loss. In the night of the 22nd war, and a number of smaller vessels, appeared before the place on July 5th, 1716; they were commanded by

A sister of Schulemberg was one of the two mistresses of George 1. of Great Britain, and was by him created Duchess of Kendal.

On July 16, the Seraskier established his head-quarters at Potamò, and laid waste the country far and wide, the peasantry having mostly taken refuge within the walls of the town. The garrison amounted to 5000 men, chiefly Germans, Slavonians, and Italians. The Turks erected batteries on Mount Olivetto, above the suburb of Manduchio, on August 1, and, after several failures, carried Mount Abraham by assault on August 3. Their advanced works were then abandoned by the besieged, when the Turks pushed their approaches through the suburb of Castrades, and closely invested the town. For several days there were frequent assaults by the Infidels and sorties of the Christians, with heavy loss on both sides, the inhabitants, including, it is said, even the priests and the women, fighting along with the soldiers on the ramparts and in the trenches. An hour before daybreak on August 19 the Turks made their grand assault, and effected a lodgment in Scarponi, an outwork of Fort Neuf. Schulemberg then headed a sally in person, and after a desperate contest drove them from this vantage-ground with im

they retreated to Govino, re-embarked, and sailed away to Constantinople, where both the Admiral and the General paid with their lives the penalty of their failure. The Turks abandoned in their trenches all their

"Spread like a shield upon the dark blue sea.”

Od., v. 281.

ammunition and stores, including 78 | rises to the southward, presenting a pieces of artillery; and they are stated long swelling mountain-ridge, to have lost, during the siege of 5 weeks, full half their army in action and by disease, for it was the most deadly period of a very unhealthy season. The Venetians lost 2000 out of their garrison of 5000 men.*

The outlines of the island are very graceful; and its surface is a darkmass of luxuriant groves of olive, cypress, and ilex. The eastern ex

The first approach to Corfu, whether from the north or the south, is ex-tremity of the mountain-ridge of San tremely striking. The south channel will be described hereafter (Section II., Rte. 1). Coming from the north, the traveller sails close under those

"Thunder-cliffs of fear, The Acrocerannian mountains of old fame "

craggy

Salvador (the Istóne of the ancients, but now called by the Greeks ПavTокpάTwp) projects within 2 m. of the mainland. On the right the vessel passes the ruined walls of the mediaval fortress of Cassópo, erected on the site of the Hellenic city of Cassiope; on an uninterrupted lofty chain, rising the left opens the plain or valley of abruptly from the very brink of the Butrinto, the ancient Buthrontum, sea in precipitous cliffs or rugged de- where Æneas was entertained by his clivities, and terminating in kinsman Helenus. On clearing this peaks, capped with snow during nine strait, the sea again expands into an months in the year. Here and there an open gulf between the two coasts, and Albanian hamlet hangs like a snow- the citadel and town of Corfu appear wreath on the mountain-side. Wher-in sight, forming the centre of an ever there is a break in the heavy amphitheatre of rich varied scenery. masses of cloud which robe so often In front, the green slopes of the islet the further summits of the Pindus of Vido form a breakwater for the range, and the sun of Greece tints harbour. Behind, the promontory on them at mid-day with golden, at even which the town is built terminates to with rosy, radiance, the mind delights the eastward in the citadel, built on a to figure to itself, far away amid those huge insulated rock, with its summit dim mysterious crags, the region of the split into two lofty peaks, the aeria "wintry Dodona," now shorn, indeed, Phæacum arces of Virgil (En., iii. of its ancient sanctity and honour, but 291), from which the modern name of still tenanted, as in Homer's time, by the island is derived. The hoary cliff a race "with unwashed feet and sleep-is bound round with forts and bating on the ground." (Il., xvi. 235.) As we advance, the coast of Corfu

An excellent account of the siege of Corfu in 1716 will be found in the Corps Papers of the Royal Engineers,' vol. i., pp. 262-272.

The best special authorities on the antiquities and history of the Island are:-

Historia di Corfu,' da Andrea Marmora, Venice, 1672; which contains much curious

information and several prints of the town and

fortresses in their medieval aspect.

Primordia Corcyra,' curâ A. M. Quirini, 1725; a treatise in Latin on the antiquities of Corfu by a Roman Catholic Archbishop of the island.

Illustrazioni Corciresi,' da Andrea Mustoxidi,

Milano, 1811; comments on the history of his native island by a Corflot noble of literary dis

tinction.

Le tre Costituzioni delle Isole,' Corfu, 1850; a valuable collection of official documents, &c.,

throwing light on the more recent history of

the Ionian Islands.

teries, while its base is strewn with white houses and barracks, perched like sea-fowl, wherever they can find a resting-place. The ramparts and bastions mingle with Nature's own fusion of cactuses, evergreens, and wild craggy fortifications, mantled by a proflowers.

presents now a less rugged aspect. Across the bay, the Albanian coast The ridges of snowy mountains retire further into the distance, while the hills in the immediate vicinity of the sea offer, by their bleak but varied landscape, a fine contrast to the richly wooded and cultivated shores of the island. In the general view of the town, the Palace, formerly of the |Lord High Commissioner, and now of

the King, stands out among the other | To the W., the side of the esplanade buildings as prominently as did that next the town is bounded by a lofty of King Alcinous of old. (Od., vi. 300.) row of private houses with an arched The channel which separates Corfu walk beneath them. from Albania varies in breadth from 2 The stranger in Corfu had better to 12 m., and appears one noble lake devote his first hour of leisure to infrom the harbour, whence its outlets specting the splendid panoramic view are not visible. It certainly affords of the town and island presented from one of the most beautiful and stirring the summit of the citadel. The Greek spectacles in the world. Its northern Garrison Church is a large building, extremity narrows until it is lost with a Doric portico, at the S. side of among lofty mountains, swelling each the citadel. The ramparts are of variover each like the waves of the ocean; ous ages; some of them dating as far while, gradually widening as it ex-back as A.D. 1550. At the opposite, tends to the southward, it spreads or western, extremity of the town, round the indentations and promon-rises another fortress, erected by the tories of the fair and fertile island. Venetians at the end of the 16th But the whole forms a scene which addresses itself to the eye and to the heart rather than to the ear. The memory of those who have once beheld it will long carry a vivid impression, which they will find it hard to describe in adequate language.

The ordinary landing-place is at the Health Office Mole, but there is another for man-of-war and yacht boats in the ditch of the citadel, whence a flight of steps leads immediately to the esplanade.

centy., and still generally known as Fort Neuf, or La Fortezza Nuova. The hill on which it is built is less lofty and precipitous than that of the citadel. The fire of these two fortresses protects the harbour.

The town, including its suburbs of Manduchio to the W. and Castrádes (called in Greek Tapír(a) to the S., contains 24,091 inhabitants. There are 4000 Latins, with an archbishop of their own, and 5000 Jews, which latter live in a separate quarter of the town; the remainder of the people belong to the Greek Church.

The Esplanade occupies the space between the town and the citadel, and is laid out with walks and avenues The cathedral, dedicated to Our of trees. On its northern verge stands Lady of the Cave ('H Пavayia Σnnthe Palace of white Maltese stone, Airiooa), is situated on the Lineornamented with a colonnade in front, wall, not far from Fort Neuf. The and flanked by the two Gates of St. oldest church in the island is in the Michael and St. George, each of which suburb of Castrádes, near the Strada frames a lovely picture of the sea and Marina. It is dedicated to St. Jason mountains. The Palace was erected and St. Sosipater, comrades of St. under the administration of Sir Thomas Paul, and who are related by tradiMaitland, and contains a suite of ex- tion to have been the first preachers cellent ball-rooms. The casino, or of Christianity in Corcyra. Though villa of the king, was built by Sir neglected, and repaired in bad taste, Frederick Adam in a beautiful situa- this church is a very graceful spetion, about a mile to the south of the cimen of Byzantine architecture, and town. At the southern extremity of seems to have been finally erected the esplanade is a terrace overhang-out of the materials of heathen teming the sea, a little circular temple ples. Several columns and other anerected in memory of Sir Thomas Mait-cient fragments are also built into land, and an obelisk in honour of Sir the walls of the church at Paleopolis, Howard Douglas. There is also a on the road to the One-gun Battery. statue of Sir Frederick Adam in front There are a great many other of the Palace, and one of Marshal churches, the most remarkable being Schulemberg in front of the draw- that of St. Spiridion, the Patronbridge which leads into the citadel. | Saint of Corfu, whose body is pre

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