The tallest crops, so unctuous is the glebe;
Safe is its haven also, where no need
Of cable is, or anchor, or to lash
The halser fast ashore: but, pushing in
His bark, the mariner might there abide,
Till rising gales should tempt him forth again."
As I gaze on these glorious plains, I cannot but admire the discernment of the old Romans who planted the only colonies they had in Corsica just on this spot.
CHAPTER II.
SULLA'S COLONY.
As the traveller approaches the Fiumorbo river, he sees isolated palatial mansions; some of them are the seats of French capitalists who began imprudently, and became bankrupt. Others are mansions belonging to rich domains, true earldoms in extent, as Migliacciaro in the Canton Prunelli, which belongs to a French company, and was formerly a source of revenue to the Genoese family of Fiesco.