Page:An Account of Corsica (1769).djvu/102

 This account of the first peopling of Corsica, is a very curious piece of ancient history. It is indeed very probable, that the Phenicians, or the Phoceans, where its original inhabitants; seeing they were the first great navigatours in the western part of the world, and sent out colonies to many distant countries.

It afterwards got the name of, Cyrnus, from the number of its promontories; and Isidorus relates the manner in which it got the name of Corsica. According to him, Corsa, a Ligurian woman, having often observed a bull swim over to the island, and return much fatter, she had the curiosity to follow him in a little vessel; and so discovered the island, with all its beauty and fertility. Upon which the Ligurians sent thither a colony; and from Corsa, who had made the discovery, they called the island Corsica. This is ludicrous enough; but we may trace what has given rife to so extraordinary a fiction,