Che la diritta via era smarrita.
Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura.
Questa selva selvaggia, ed aspra, e forte—
Ma per trattar del ben, ch' ivi trovai
Dirò dell' altre cose, ch' io v'ho scorte."
Dante.
CHAPTER I.—ARRIVAL IN CORSICA.
Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch' entrate.—Dante.
The voyage across to Corsica from Leghorn is very beautiful, and more interesting than that from Leghorn to Genoa. We have the picturesque islands of the Tuscan Channel constantly in view. Behind us lies the Continent, Leghorn with its forest of masts at the foot of Monte Nero; before us the lonely ruined tower of Meloria, the little island-cliff, near which the Pisans under Ugolino suffered that defeat from the Genoese, which annihilated them as a naval power, and put their victorious opponents in possession of Corsica; farther off, the rocky islet of Gorgona; and near it in the west, Capraja. We are reminded of Dante's verses, in the canto where he sings the fate of Ugolino—
"O Pisa! the disgrace of that fair land