- 4. The Greeks of Corsica and Leghorn.
Apart from the Albanians in Southern Italy are these two colonies. Both have a curious history.
When the Turks conquered Greece they found stubborn resistance, especially in the Peloponnesus. Here, along the eastern side of the Gulf of Messenia, is the land Maine,[1] and in the middle of the long strip of land stands the village Boitylos, formerly Oitylos.[2] The people of Boitylos made a long and stubborn resistance to their enemies. At last they saw that the struggle was hopeless. Rather than stay under Turkish rule, they decided to wander from their homes to the West, where they could find a Christian and civilized government. They sent to Genua and made an arrangement that they should come and receive the barren district of Paomia in Corsica (at that time Genoese territory).
They came in several groups. The first started in September, 1675, having escaped the vigilance of the Turks, on a French ship.[3] They were led by the Stephanopulos family and their bishop, Parthenios Kalkandes. The Metropolitan of Maine wanted to come too. But the captain of the ship, seeing his great age, and fearing lest he die on the way, refused to take him. The Mainotai in Corsica still tell the story how the old man stood on the shore weeping as the ship sailed away, and cursing them for refusing to have pity on him. Part of the story is that he then prophesied that they should never stay a century in one place.
They got to Genua and asked to be allowed to stay in the city a few days, to rest after their journey before going on to Corsica. Meanwhile they accepted certain capitulations of the Genoese Government.[4] As in the case of all these immigrants
- ↑ Μαινή.
- ↑ Οἴτυλος—Βοίτυλος, pronounced Vítilos, then (as they often cut off the last letter) Vítilo. Tozer (Journ. Hell. St., iii, 354) calls it Vitylo — rather a compromise. If you are going to transliterate β phonetically into v, you may as well do the whole thing and make v into i. The reasonable principle seems to be to transliterate the written word, letter for letter, and to let the reader take his chance of pronouncing it right. We do not spell French or German names in a way that would be phonetic to an Englishman.
- ↑ The Sauveur, Captain Daniel. The text of the contract between the Captain and the leaders of the emigrants is given in P. Stéphanopoli (op. cit. below, p. 173, n. 2), pp. 23-25. It is dated September 20, 1675. Here also (pp. 26-29) is a list of them. According to Parthenios Kalkandes they were 570, all told (ibid., p. 34).
- ↑ There were altogether three capitulations, dated 1663, 1671, 1676 (text in Stéphanopoli, pp. 52-54).
