The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-02-17


TO the population of the island in which
he was born. The substra tum was per-
haps that old Etruscan life which pre-
ceded the Italicans in Italy. The first for
cign colonists We're Greeks, out Of Ionia
These gained supremacy in the island
but were overwhelmed at length by the
Carthaginians. The Roman ascendancy
came next, and lasted for seven or eight
centuries. Then followed the Vandals
and after them the Huns of Attila. Eth
mic influences had meanwhile reached a
second time out of Africa. Many Maui
Titanians came over and settled in Sar-
DINA and Corsica; and then, in the
Dark Ages, there was a Saracenic con-
quest.
More important than this was the es-
tablishment of Norman power in the
island. The people and the architecture
alike show traces of all these remote but
potent influences in determining the final
rBee-character of the Corsicans who,
after the fifteenth century, became es-
sentially Italian. The race is thus COM
posite in its derivation to as great a de-
gree as any people in the world. Be
sides the ethnic origin, the environment
the narrow confines of the island, its
mountainous character its pleasant sit
uation In the pellucid waters of the Med
iterranean, its easy distance from the long
bending line Of one OF the most famous
NOdSlS OF the WtItl-ll4S ACll46Q pOWGA~
fully by the reactions Of nature on the
human animal, to establish and con-
firm the small insular race whose one
man was destined to give it a conspicuous
place in human annals.
The Buonapartes were true Corsicans
The family reaches back obscurely into
the Middle Ages. The name is Italian,
and shows linguistically an origin os re-
mote as the Renaissance. There We're
Italian as well as COrsican Buonapartes.
A family of this name lived in the Tuscan
city of Sarzana,; another perhaps, in
Genoa, and another at Florence. TX
amples are found in which the spelling
is given thus-Buona Parte. They of
Sarzana were ennobled in the sixteenth
century, and continued to write their
name with a di, or de, until the epoch
when the Great One was born. The no
blesse, however, became attenuated, both
in Tuscany and in the island, where to
a branch of the family, at some unknown
dates removed and established itself at
Corte or Ajaccio.
1t would appear that the Corslcan Buon-
apartes kept an interest in Italy, whence
they originated. They concerned them
selves in the affairs Of Tuscany, as wen
as with those of Genoa. Doubtless they
regarded their Importance and rank as
having been derived from the mainland,
and would faia share in the faded glOries
Of the Italian citis.
At the middle of the eighteenth CEN
fury the head of the Corsican BOunapartes
was Joseph, grandfather Of Napoleon The
family resided at Corte, in the center
of the island. Joseph received patent Of
nobility from the grand duke of Tuscany,
making him a patrician; and this worth
less distinction was carried down to his
son, Carlo Buonaparte whose rights were
confirmed by the Archbishop of Pisa and
the king of France.
The geographical position of Corsica
made it bone of contention among the
Powers. From the sixteenth TO the eight
zenith century the island was under the
suzerainty of Genoa. The people were
partisans Some favored the CONCISE,
some the French. and some other Italian
states. At the middle of the eighteenth
century there was turbulence. lnsurrec-
ton came, and rebellion, and attempted
Independence The patriots rose against
Genoa. and certain Gen. Won
Neuhof was about to be made
king, when a French army under Gen.
Marboeuf was sent into the island to