Page:An Account of Corsica (1769).djvu/111

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OF CORSICA
101

Arno; after which, they got entirely the mastery of Pisa, and so were at length enabled to seize upon Corsica, about the beginning of the fourteenth century.

Thus were the Corsicans, for the first time, brought under the power of the Genoese; with whom they have since had such struggles for that freedom, which they appear to have at all times attempted to recover.

If I have erred in any part of this recital, I am sure it is without any intention. I know some Genoese writers have maintained, that a signor Ademar, of their nation, was employed in the first conquest of the island by the kings of France. I confess I do not see sufficient authority for this. But supposing it had been so, Ademar could only be an officer under the French king. We are certain, that the French king made the conquest, because he afterwards made a gift of the island to the pope.

But I would not dwell long upon such disquisitions. There are many pieces lately published, both by the Corsicans and the Genoese; in which the authours, with great labour, endeavour to refute each others hypotheses with regard to many ancient facts in the history of Corsica. Here indeed, there is full scope for all