The modern buildings have doors, which are closed at night, as in Ajaccio, where assassinations drove the mayor to the issue of a general order for front doors, without exception.
I was strolling quietly last Saturday, which was Beggars’ Day, the only time in the week the police allow that class to ask alms publicly, amusing myself in distributing among a group of urchins a quantity of chestnut-flour cakes, which they were looking wistfully upon, when I found myself surrounded by a crowd of beggars, old, infirm, and lame, in tattered and torn rags, or garments of many colors. Distributing my coppers among them, I was glad to escape, and soon found myself near the entrance gate of the city.
Upon looking up, I saw the Republican motto, effaced under the Empire, but still peeping through—“Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.”
Conviction, the most positive, strikes the mind, of the entire incapacity of such masses of ignorance, superstition, and poverty to appreciate the blessings of pure republicanism, as it is enjoyed in our favored land.
Their republicanism means license and anarchy. The moral and social condition of the people must first be improved, and the blessings of general education diffused; their early prejudices for monarchy must first be eradicated. In a word, to be a good republican, one must be educated, or driven by the tyranny of rulers to adopt a home in a country where the rights of all classes are respected.
The surplus agricultural population of the Italian states of Parma, Modena, and Lucca, migrate after the harvest to this island, where there is a demand for manual labor. They are now returning in swarms with their hard-earned savings out of thirty sous per day. It is computed that some twenty thousand visit the island annually; and being exceedingly frugal, they take considerable sums away with them, which helps to impoverish the people here.
Having seen the birthplace of Napoleon, as described in my last letter, from Ajaccio, and being familiar with most of the localities of his exploits, I cannot resist visiting his place of imprisonment upon the island of Elba. There are also extensive iron mines, which are represented as very remarkable.
XCIV.
Sienna, Italy, April 7, 1854.
I reached Leghorn just in time to catch the little steamer Gilio, of one hundred and fifty tons burden, which composes the entire Tuscan government marine, with the exception of a few small feluccas. She makes regular trips to the island of Elba, for the conveyance of troops and their supplies. After passing the usual strict examination at the Custom House for the contraband articles of cigars and fire-arms, as Leghorn is a free port, and going through the farce of signing passports, I embarked for Porto Ferrayo. This strongly fortified place bears some resemblance to Malta, and appears almost impregnable; the streets are well paved with flat stones; the houses rise upon the side hill, and are approached by flights of stairs and passages; the crown of the lofty, craggy cliffs is surmounted by immense fortifications, well mounted and manned. The town has a population of five thousand, and about one thousand troops. By means of a fosse, the tide-water is permitted to surround the city. From an angle of the wall on the summit of the citadel is a small observatory, erected by Napoleon, which gave him views from all points of the compass. The house where he lived, a few miles from the city, still stands, and is now the property of Prince Demidoff, who is erecting a palace which will contain all the relics which have been preserved of the Emperor. The island of Elba is only about sixty miles in circumference, and about fourteen hundred troops are kept there by the Tuscan government. The bays and shores are picturesque, and the valleys are fertile. There is great suffering this year in consequence of the failure of the grape, wine being their principal resource. I procured a conveyance to Longone, a free port on the south side of the island, now a fishing town. The immense citadel commanding the height was built by the Spaniards while in possession. It is now dismantled, and unoccupied, except as barracks for the land guard, and is fast going to decay, looking mournful and desolate. Trees are growing where once was heard the busy tread of the military, and goats are feeding and cabbages growing where once was piled the shot for the enemy. From Longone to Rio there is no carriage road, so I mounted a pony, with a guide to run beside him, and passed over a path through a hilly country, to the great iron mines. I had heard of the richness and abundance of the ore; I had seen the extensive mines of Dannemora, also mines in England and America, where the work is mostly subterranean; but was not prepared to find an inexhaustible mountain of iron, where three hundred men were employed in cutting down and blasting out the ore, which ranges in richness from forty-five to eighty per cent.; four hundred donkeys were wending their way by zigzag paths, laden with this valuable product.