and, I believe, they had considerable influence, in procuring the interposition of Sardinia and Great Britain, in favour of the Corsicans.
Matra, in the end of the year 1748, went to the service of Piedmont, and left Gaffori sole general of the island. A repetition of the same desperate actions continued, till on the 3d of October, 1753, Gaffori was assassinated by a band of murderers, set on by the republick. At least, it is a fact that some of these wretches have still a miserable pension to support them, in the territory of Genoa. There is a pillar of infamy erected at Corte, on the place, where stood the house of the principal actour in this bloody villany. The house was burnt, and razed from the foundation.
The Corsicans, from their family connexions, and violent parties, differ in their accounts of Gaffori. Some of them would have it believed, that he was too much engrossed by selfish views, and in order to promote his own interest, endeavoured to bring about unworthy schemes of reconciliation with Genoa. But, besides the reluctance which every generous mind must feel, to give credit to injurious reports of a hero, whose greatness of soul shone forth, in the manner I have related, what I heard of Gaffori from those,
