Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	country_n	sea_n	see_v	1,852	5	3.4928	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47958	The present state of Genova with the articles of the treaty of Cession to the French king, and an account of the late actions of the French fleet, before it, and ofthe damages there sustain'd by the bombs and carcasses. To which is added, a letter from the Republick of Genova to the City of Argiers upon that subject.	Leti, Gregorio, 1630-1701.	1687 (1687)	Wing L1339; ESTC R217652	30,484	107

passes in the Mountains that divide their States and two or three thousand Dragoons posted in the avenues of these Passes would be enough to hinder all relief Men may land not onely without Musquet shot but it is easie for them also in landing to lodge under Covert either on the side of Bizagne or on the side of S. Peter des Arenes Batteries may be raised betwixt the Fanal and the new Mole without the reach of any assault which would batter down the City on all sides besides there is nothing more easie than to cut the Aqueducts which make the Milns to go and furnish the City with fresh water so that the People without Bread and Water starved with hunger and thirst would quickly cry for Peace the whole City is also full of common Sewers and subterranean Vaults which discharge themselves into the Sea and nothing hinders but Mines and other Engines may be made to play which would overthrow the Walls that cross those Sewers and make in them as many breaches as might be thought fit from whence it may be concluded that that City is supported more by its name haughtiness and outward appearance than by any solid strength That Republick then though exceeding rich is notwithstanding in it self very weak for two reasons First Because the profound Peace it hath for a long time enjoyed has inured the People to softness and luxury and secondly because though the private Persons be extreme wealthy yet the Revenues of the State are but very moderate and it is no easie matter in Common-wealths to impose new Taxes for defraying the charges of War which always displeases the People who are naturally inclined to rest But to remedy this weakness which the Genoese themselves are sensible enough of they are so straitly linked in Interest with the Spaniards that they will always be supported with all the Forces of that Kingdom That strict Alliance is founded not onely on what I have already said of the great Estates which the Genoese possess in the Territories of the Catholick King but also because the Milanese borders upon the States of Genoa and that Final Final which belongs to the Spaniards is a place apart and situated betwixt Albegnao and Savona in the middle of the States of this Republick which inviron it on all hands so that Milan can have no communication with that important Maritime place but by passing through the Lands of Genoa which are bordered on the West by the Mountains of Piemont The limits of the State of Genoa on the North by Montferrat and the Milanese on the East by the States of the Dukes of Florence and Parma and on the South by the Sea of Liguria Some time before the Pyrenean Peace the Spaniards fearing that the French might seize Final proposed to sell it to the Genoese the price was agreed upon Genoa bargains for Final but the Marquess de los Balbaces a Grandee of Spain of the House of Spinola as a faithful Subject preferring the Interest of the King he served before that of his own Country opposed it He was Counsellour of State for the Affairs of Italy and with much vigour and stedfastness he represented that if Final were abandoned and the Genoese should afterwards break with Spain it would be impossible to send relief in to the Milanese but that if the Genoese should abandon Spain relief might always be sent by Final and Montferrat without being obliged to them His reasons were good because at that time Montferrat was not in the hands of the French but if at present Genoa abandoned Spain Milan would be without relief because to go from Final to Milan Montferrat being shut there is a necessity of passing through the State of Genoa The advice of Los Balbaces was followed And is disappointed the Treaty of Final was broken off and the Genoese thereupon conceived so great indignation against Balbaces their Country-man that they deprived him of all his priviledges which were to go with his Servants armed to have the Cushion at Church and to be visited by the Nobility without the permission of the Doge which obliged him wholly to renounce Genoa and to settle in Spain Final then is one of the chief links that unites Genoa with the Catholick King. Nevertheless what Efforts soever Spain makes in favour of that Republick yet it can give them but very moderate assistances by Land because it can onely help them with the Forces of the Milanese which it dares not ungarison But by Sea it can defend them with all the Galleys of the Squadrons of Naples Sicily Sardinia and Spain So that provided a powerful Prince who intended to attack Genoa had a Fleet strong enough to give a check to the Naval forces of Spain it would be easie for him by Piemont and Montferrat to assault that Republick by Land and in a short time to triumph over its pride with a smaller number of men than one may imagine and so much the rather that Commerce being the Soul of that Republick a Fleet cruising before their Harbours would no sooner interrupt their Trade but that the People and Artificers would be reduced to extremity besides that Genoa the Country furnishing but very little Corn is obliged to supply it self from Sicily and Africa by Sea and that finding themselves besieged by Land and blocked up by Sea with little relief from the Forces of the Milanese and out of condition of being revictualled from any where else it would quickly be reduced to the last pinch having but very few standing Soldiers and the Militia of the Country altogether undisciplined But if the Nobility as well as People of Genoa could be once cleared of the false notions they have conceived of a Government contrary to that under which they live if once they could be persuaded that the Republican yoke gives instead of one lawful Master an hundred insatiable Tyrants that it is a Hydra of many Heads which seldom agree in their resolutions that a King governs alone in imitation of the Deity whereas popular Assemblies are for the most part but a confused Babylon that by an inclination of Nature which tends always to perfection all Republicks soon or late terminate in a Monarchy as heretofore Rome and Florence in later days furnish the Genoese with almost a domestick instance if they would also call to mind that they freely gave themselvs over to Charles VI. and his Successours upon conditions religiously observed on the part of our Kings who by consequent are their true and lawful Sovereigns If to all these Reasons they added serious reflections upon the incomparable Virtues of the greatest King that ever France had and that touched with a remorse for a revolt that made them shake off his Dominion they would sincerely return under his Royal Protection to what pitch of grandeur might not that rich Republick advance what Traffick might not the Genoese aspire to under the triumphant banner of France and what Corsaires durst appear in the Mediterranean when our Squadrons joined to twenty Galleys that Genoa might entertain should cruise from Europe to Africa against these infesters of the Seas I say that Genoa which commonly sends out but six Galleys might easily maintain not onely twenty but also six men of War at least to convey their Merchant Ships if that Republick were again under the protection of the Kings of France for seeing then they could have no cause to fear a War from their Neighbours all their Revenues might be wholly employed in Navigation that they might become Masters of all the Trade of the Mediterranean and successfully carry it on as far as the East and West Indies And as the Nobles of Genoa are extraordinarily rich and have no less Wit and Courage than Wealth what employments might not they render themselves capable of under a King who with wonderful exactness knows how to discern the merit of his Subjects and who would furnish them with continual occasions of cultivating a genius that is dastardized by pleasures and of employing a Courage which by an unactive Peace languishes in idleness The principal Dignities of the State the highest Commands in the Army the considerable Offices of the Kingdom would be as much the recompences of their merit as of their sincere submissions and it would be a pleasant thing to see them share in the good fortune and glory of a State whose Interests would go hand in hand with their own Genoa and Marseilles united under the Standard of the Flower-de-luce would give the Law from Cadiz to the Dardanelles keep all Barbary in awful respect and make the Sultan tremble even in the Seraglio of Constantinople The Treasures of the Ligurians would daily increase by the free Trade that they might have in their own hands and that great Commerce drawing into the Coffers of the King's Subjects all the Money of Europe would render his own the more inexhaustible for the enlargement of that high Power to which his Virtues buoyed up by extraordinary fortune have raised him May Heavens grant that that invincible Monarch may reunite to his Crown that precious Flower which a revolt heretofore struck out of it and that Louis the Great and the Genoese may contend who shall have the better on 't he by Clemency and they by profound Submissions

which in time will prove one of the best of the Mediterranean This Port within begins to dry towards the Land by the filth and dirt that the common Sewers bring to it It would not be difficult to fill it up as far as the mouth of the Darsena and joyn that great space to the City which would much enlarge it And on the other hand by carrying further out on each side the two Arms whith the old and new Moles stretch out into the Sea the Harbour of Genoa might by that means be rendered one of the largest most stately and safe Ports in the World For the wide opening which is betwixt the two Moles as they are at present leaves too much Sea exposed to the rage of the South South-east and South-west winds so that Vessels cannot lie opposite to the mouth of the Harbour when any of these Winds blow hard The Darsena I mentioned is a little Harbour within which can hold five and twenty Galleys as in a box It might easily be made twice as big by breaking down a Wall which divides it from another bosom of the Sea called the Darsena of Wine because the Barks that bring it put in there The Sea Arsenal hath great shades and Coverts The Arsenal where twenty Galleys may be built at a time And the Arsenal of Arms which is in the Ducal Palace is always furnished with Arms for forty thousand Foot. The Magazines of Powder are well provided but they entertain no more Soldiers ordinarily than the three thousand Men I spake of Having surveyed the main Land we must now give a description of the Isle of Corsica The Isle of Corsica It lies in a very good Climate betwixt the fortieth and two and fortieth degree of North latitude It is in circuit one hundred and fifty French Leagues That part which looks to Italy and which they call Banda di dentro is less cultivated than the rest All that this Island produces is excellent exquisite Wines and delicate Oil it yields also Silk Wax Honey and all sorts of Fruits in abundance It hath Iron Mines two salt Pits and a good breed of Horses might be kept there but for all that this Country is so fertile Dispeopled by the Genoese the Genoese do what they can to render it almost desart and abandoned for two reasons First because they think that if the People grew numerous and powerful they would revolt against them And secondly that they may not excite Strangers to invade an Island which they endeavour to render contemptible that they make it to be less envied There are not reckoned to be upon it at present above one hundred thousand Souls but it might easily admit and maintain six times as many It is divided into six Bishopricks Hath six Bishopricks reduced in to five by the union of the Bishoprick of Mariana to that of Accia Aleria Aiazzo Nebbio and Sagona are the other four The considerable parts of it are Calvi Aiazzo Boniface St. Florent and Porto-vecchio and the Genoese have made at Bastia the ordinary residence of the Governour a Mole capable to contain four Galleys under cover St. Florent was a work of the French fortified before the Peace of Chasteau Cambresis The Genoese have demolished it but the foundations of Free-stone are still remaining so that it might easily be raised again and if a descent were to be made upon the Island there is no place more commodious not onely by reason of its situation on the West side but also because it is but three Leagues distant from Bastia the Capital Town of the Island opposite to it and seated on the Coast which looks to Italy on the East side The Territory of Aiazzo Aiazzo abounds in Wine Corn and in all sorts of fruit Cape Corfe Cap Corfe produces excellent Wine and the people of this Countrey are the civilest and most peaceable of all the rest of the Island Balagna which is called the Garden of of Corsica yields the excellentest Oil in the World and exquisite fruits of all kinds Bastia Bastia the residence of the Governour hath a good rich and fertile Soil There are thirty thousand Souls reckoned to be in it the Town has a good Trade and is well governed There is good Hunting and better Fishing about it by reason of the many Lakes and Ponds that are near the same On Alerie Alerie that is destroyed and Porto-vecchio depend large Lands which are partly uncultivated though they be fit to bear all sorts of Corn. The great quantity of standing dead Water that is there incommodes the Air and makes that Country almost abandoned There Colonies ought to be planted for draining the Fens and labouring a fat and fertile soil which alone might feed all Liguria that hath so little Corn that it is forced to supply it self from Lombardy Sicily and many times from Africa That draining would be easie and the Genoese have seen a proof of it since they brought thither a hundred Families of Magnote Greeks a people neighbouring upon Morea who have much advanced Husbandry in the place where they have setled but that number is not sufficient for a corner of all these great Countries which labour and industry would render most fruitful if men enough were employed to compass so good a work a thing that would be easie by dividing all these Lands into inheritances of different Tenures and qualities to be granted upon condition of settling a certain number of Families therein sowing of Corn planting Vines and Olive Trees and especially quantities of Mulberry Trees for Silks By that means of a despicable Island it might be made one of the richest Provinces in the World. Woods of Aitona Aitona is famous for the vast Forrests and innumerable Trees that grow upon the Mountains thereof and which are of a bigness and quality not onely for building of Houses but also for building and masting all sorts of Vessels These Mountains make a chain of some Leagues in length And the Forrest would never be consumed provided it were orderly cut the Timber even cut in the new Moon alters not and is of a particular grain The Genoese who have found the importance of this have employed an hundred thousand Crowns to plain a way upon the ridg of the Mountains which from the Forrest reaches to the Sea-shore where they have built great Magazines for preparing the Timber keeping it dry and preserving it There is very good fishing for Tunnys there and abundance of Coral which if well looked after might turn to a considerable account There are two salt Pits also in the Island but the Republick slights them through a Politick condescension to the Spaniards Salt is a sacred Commodity The Salt. which People cannot be without and whereof some Princes make their ordinary Revenues that Element of life as necessary as Corn that Manna which seasons all our food to defend us from corruption that source of

vigorous and hardy Men able to carry Arms and who want nothing but discipline and exercise On the West side the Men are Richer but not so Warlike and those on the East side are poorer but better Soldiers Corsica also can furnish a Militia of fifteen thousand good Men. There are in Genoa an hundred and fifty Families of rich and powerful Nobles who for most part follow Merchandising but these one hundred and fifty are properly reduced to fourscore and ten or thereabouts for some of them are but branches of other Families As for Merchants there are at least three hundred very rich Families They have all sumptuous Palaces Country Houses delightful Gardens costly Furniture rich Tapistry much Plate exquisite Pictures excellent Statues and their Wives are always cloathed in cloth of Gold covered with Jewels and precious Stones The Nobility is divided into the Ancient and the new Nobility heretofore adopted the Offices of State are always filled by half of the one and half of the other and the Doge is chosen out of the two by turn In the year 1528. when Genoa having revolted from France established a new form of Government a Register of the Nobility was made in a Book which they called the Golden Book wherein all that were Ancient were recorded There they inserted eight and twenty Families which composed it The new Nobility is far more numerous and was established by a permission given to the Ancient Nobility to adopt to these twenty eight other Plebeian Families And according to that aggregation or adoption they were and are daily still inserted in the golden Book It is also to be observed that many who were of the Ancient Nobility having neglected in the year 1528. to cause themselves to be inserted have onely place amongst the new as the Justiniani and that many of the new for want of insertion have lost their Priviledges though their Children be without dispute received at Malta Of the twenty eight Families of the Ancient Nobility there are four which without contradiction are the chief to wit the Families of the Fieschi Spinola Grimaldi Doria. The House of the Fieschi's whereof Don John-Louis Mario who fled into France and lives there is the Head is at present the lowest of the four in Riches and Power tho the most Noble and Illustrious they descend from the Ancient Sovereign Counts of Lavagra who issued from the Ancient Dukes of Burgundy whose Arms they still retain having onely changed the Colours which was heretofore often enough practised by younger Brothers They possessed several considerable Estates in Italy where they were perpetual Vicars of the Empire Admirals of Liguria and coined Money There have been two Popes of that Family and an incredible number of Cardinals The Counts of Savoy at present Dukes the Counts of Montferrat and the Dukes of Milan from whom all Christian Princes spring by the Mother side have allied with the House of Fieschi Histories are full of the glorious Exploits of Generals of Armies which it hath produced but there can be no better proof of the grandeur of that illustrious Family than the priviledges which were preserved to it in a Treaty of Peace made by advice of the Duke of Milan in the year 1453. betwixt the Count Philip the chief of that House and the Republick of Genoa wherein amongst other Articles it is agreed upon that he shall always have place by the side of the Doge and the same honours that most part of Offices shall be granted one half by the Doge and the other half by the Count of Fieschi that he shall establish as well as the Doge his Notaries and Podestats and that he shall have his Forces and Garisons These four chief Families have been always divided into two Parties The division of the four Families The Fieschi's and Grimaldi's have supported the faction of the Guelphs and espoused the Interests of France but the Spinola's and Doria's have sided with the Gibellin Party and sticking close to Spain have acquired two Grandeeships in it seeing the Prince of Melfi and the Duke of Tursis Grandees of Spain are of the House of Doria and the Marquess de los Balbaces and the Duke of San-pietro are of the Family of Spinola As for the Grimaldi it is above six hundred years since the Head of their Family was Sovereign of Monaco but the Fieschi's have been strip'd of all since the enterprise of the year 1547. And they have no more now remaining but the hopes of the French King's protection to restore them to their Estates unjustly usurped The other four and twenty Families of the Ancient Nobility are the Families of the Cibo Lomellini Roeres Negrons Catanees Palavicins Imperiali Centurions Mari Serra Piquenots Leccari Salvaggi Pavezes Cigales Rapasquieres Pinelles Marini Grilli Gentilli Negri Vsodimari Malaspini Vivaldi And amongst the Families of the new Nobility there are four Chief which vie in Quality with those of the Ancient and these are The Justiniani Sauli Franchi Fornaci The others that came to my khowledg during my abode in Genoa are the Adorni Inbrees Saluzzi Franzoni Federici Paggi Viali Doughi Torilles Cazelles Balbi Raggi Torre Duraz Bassadone Carmagnoles Zoagli Brignoles Balians Odons Sophranes Carpenius Gropallo Scaglia Tiscornes Moneilles Castagnoles Morans Fosses Androvins Biasses Prato Costaguts Guani Garibaldi Caze Pietra-Raggia Garbarins Mercanti Levanti Calvi Clavezani Ferrari Ricci Poveroto Gritta Tasso Caregges Restoro Monzia Maineri Oliva Ansaldi Nuovo Paffiiani Gievardi Airoldi Passaggi Chiavari Others there may be of which I have not been informed The Custom-House is always provided of all sorts of Commodities as Silk Sugars Spice cloth of Gold silken and woollen Stuffs and of every thing that necessity or luxury requires The Port is much frequented by English and Dutch who trade with the City of Genoa in Silks Oil Velvet Damask Honey Wax and Commodities of the Levant The most considerable Forts of the Terra firma or main Land are Savona Gavi Sarzana and the Fort St. Marie in the Gulf delle Spetie and in Corsica they have Calvi Boniface and Aiazzo but the whole State hath not both by Sea and Land six hundred Piece of brass Cannon The Garison of Genoa exceeds not two thousand five hundred Men This was written before Genoa was Bombed by the French. who have never seen the fire of an Enemy nor a Mortar-piece play its Walls towards the Land side and Mountains are two French Leagues in extent they make a double enclosure of which the outermost is almost wholly cut out of the Rock but the Ditch of it is narrow and shallow and the Covert-way is so far from being large that two Men cannot pass it a breast besides that the Works which defend the Town the Gates and Posts which of necessity must be furnished require as many to defend it as are necessary to attack the same In bringing succours from the Milanese there is a necessity of marching through a great many narrow