Page:An Account of Corsica (1769).djvu/58

48 temperate countries in that quarter of Europe. Its air is fresh and healthful, except in one or two places, which are moist, and where the air, especially in summer, is suffocating and sickly; but in general, the Corsicans breathe a pure atmosphere, which is also keen enough to brace their fibres more than one would expect under so warm a sun.

Corsica has indeed been pretty generally represented as unwholesome, which, I suppose, has been owing to the bad report given of it by the Romans, who established their colonies at Aleria and Mariana, which from their damp situation, occasioned a great death among the inhabitants, and accordingly these colonies soon went to ruin. But all the interiour parts of the Island have very good air.

Corsica is remarkably well furnished with good harbours, so that we may apply to it what Florus says of the Campania, 'Nihil hospitalius mari. Nothing more hospitable to the sea.' It has on the north Centuri. On the west San Fiorenzo, Isola Rossa, Calvi, Ajaccio. On the South it has Bonifaccio. And on the east Porto Vecchio, Bastia, and Macinajo. Of each of these I shall give some account.