in whose judgment and impartiality I could confide, joined with the regard with which he is had in remembrance by the majority of his countrymen, determine me to a persuasion of the reality of his virtues.
The administratours of the island had been so well instituted by general Gaffori, that Corsica was able to continue for two years without any chief; while the war was still carried on with various success.
The patriots did not however, swear a solemn oath, that, rather than submit to the republick, they would throw themselves into the fire, like the Saguntines of old. This oath, which is conceived in terms of strength and violence, not unlike the Corsican stile, but somewhat exaggerated, was circulated over Europe, and generally believed to be genuine. Doctour Smollet, who displays a generous warmth in favour of the Corsicans, was very naturally led to give this oath a place in his history[1]; but Paoli assures me, that it was a fiction.
I come now, to a remarkable event in the annals of Corsica, an event, from which the happiness and glory of that issand will principally be
- ↑ Smoll. hist. vol. XVI. p. 384.
