Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-12-11
HISTORY OF CORFU ISLAND.
The Turkish Forces Tried in Vain to
Overcome Its Rocky Forti
fications.
The Rule of Venice Over the COrtiotes
Lasted Nearly Six Hundred
Years.
Facts in Regard to Corfu, Which Ante
date the Christian Era 700
Years.
Prof Rufus B. Richardson in New York indie
pendent.

prof Rufus b. Richardson in New York indie
pendent
If Corfu had no classical history, II
would still be historically interesting 1t
has been spared that curse which rested so
long on the rest of Greece-Tmkish occu-
patton. The TURKS dashed their forces in
vain in two memorable sieges against its
rock forts. The high degree of culture
here, as compared with the rest of Greece
outside of Athens, is partly due to this ex-
emption. But there have been stlmuat-
| ing influences from without. Rome, By
zantium. Naples, Venice and England
have held sway here. The rule of Venice,
to which the Corhotes gave themselves
voluntarily, as they had formerly done to
Rome, lasted nearly 600 years, with the
interruption of the Anjou episode. This
rule was mild and benetcent. 1t was the
| Venetians who built the Notifications
which kept off the Turks. and which still
form the characteristic feature III the
aspect of the city.
From Waterloo to 1864 England exer-
cised protectorate over this and the SIX
other lonian islands. The successive lord
high commissioners, OF whom Gladstone
was one, and whose monuments profusely
deck the esplanade, represented here the
majesty Of England, The English built
the present fine system OF roads-pald Tor,
of course, in lonian money. kindly
feeling prevails toward England that she
yielded to the strong desire of the inhab-
itants for union with the kingdom of
Greece. But the fact that the English on
their departure blew up the principal for
LITIGATION of the harbor on the island Nldo
and carried away all the guns from the
other forts left sting. The dismantled
fort was paid for in Ionian money, but the
exigencies of European politics demanded
I the dismantling. Austria had as much to
say about that as England.
But sweeping away the name Of Corfu.
which arose in the Middle Ages, and trans
ferring ourselves back of all this foreign
occupation and centuries of seml-bar-
barism, let us introduce ourselves to the
Greek Kerkyra, of Thucydides. Passing
! southwark, half-mie or so from the es-
planade of the present city, one comes
along an isthmus between two old harbors
to an elevated peninsula, on which now
stands the kings villa in a beautiful gar
| den. Here one is overpowered by historic
associations. Here lay the proud Greek
colony established by Corinth In ia b. c.,
| a colony that first set the example OF tlllal
| ingratitude, and, feeling itself stronger
than the mother city, joined battle With
| her and defeated her in the first great
naval battle of Greeks against Greeks in
! Cos b. G. From this rising ground the
dilalE
the mainland opposite the southern end OF
! the island, the Sybota islands, where the
/ later great naval battle between mother
| city and colony in the presence of an
! Athennan fleet, gave the occasion for the
! dreadful PelopOnnesian war. From this
| inner harbOr, now abandoned and still,
nearly silted up and yearly submitting to
! the encroachment OF vines upon its oord-
ers, the proud feet of Alkibiades and
| Nikias sailed for Syracuse. 1t was The
alliance with Kerkyra, the key to the voy-
age to Sicily, that lured the Athenians to
that ruin.
! Little of this Kerkyra remains above
/ ground. Perhaps much may yet be found
below the ground Within year or so
excavations by Carapanos have laid bare d
/ great quantity of terra-cottas. Perhaps 1t
| was a terra-5otta mandatory that he dis
covered. The ruins of an old Doric temple
| lie on the surface of the ground near a
spring in an olive grove on the side of the
peninsula looking toward the mainland.
| The situation, 100 feet above the strait,
among the olives and near the ancient
| fountain, makes one feel that he could
have Joined in doing honor to the dryads
/ and naiads with the throng that used to
meet here One of the antiquarians of
| Corfu has lately advanced the view that
| these remains are those not OF temple,
but of a bath. Blessed bathers!
1t was not bad taste for the king of
Greece to put his gardens on the spot OF
the gardens of Alllinoos. If | were king
| of Greece | would try to compound with
my subjects to take the business of ruling
| off nv hands and let me keep my Corfu
| home. Ii is no wonder that Elizabeth,
/ the empress OF Austria, seeks relief from
| her troubles in her villa on the other side
| of the inner harbor.
But long before the time of Thucydides
| The natives of this island stoutly main
/ tanned their descent from the oar-lOvlng
! Phaacians of Homer Their land was
/ Stheria. the home of Alkinoos. This belief,
| in which they took so much pride, really
/ made them great as naval power; and he
who would to-day take away the charm OF
Homeric tradition from this land, which
has been made by it into holy ground,
would work it a greater injury than one
who should despoil it of its olive trees. OF
course our enjoyment Of Homer does not
depend on loealizing his story. And yet
the story of the Odyssey having been
localized here from gray antiquity. one
like. while here, to a believer, to read the
Hdyssey as if there had been nobody, to
bring up any objection to its geography,
or to reason about its geography at ALTO
read it, in short, with Corfote eyes and
Corfote fancy.
Does not the very ship which Poseidon
turned into stone, because it conveyed
1 Ulysses home against his will, still stand
at the mouth OF its old inner harbor? ]
T ,,,ssa1 tho bride,a over the potamO where