THE SANGUINARY ISLANDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 18 August 1909, Page 80

THE SANGUINARY ISLANDS.

By a Bahxsk.

The birthplace of the "Scourge of Europe"— of the man responsible for a greater immolation of the humar^ race, more widespread havoc and devastation, and more pitiable and! appalling misery than perhaps almost any man who ever lived — Corsica, — that lovely gem of the ocean, is indeed a Nature-favoured! spot upon which her bounty has been bestowed with lavish hand*.

The drive, for instance, from Ajaccio along the shore road, to the promontory opposite "The Sanguinary Islands" — presumably so named from the heavy death toll they exact from incautious or storm-diiven mariners — ia in parts lovely beyond description. Near -tho town, on each side palm-adorned gardens, perfumed with the soenf-^though 'tis -winter i — of ro§es and luxuriantly-flowering mimosas and hibiscus or other flowering shrub, andl . ornamented with cycas, castor-oil, or other subtropical tree or plant; while the hand- | some villas, many wreathed and festooned with that luxuriantly-flowering beauty of . •Nature, the Bougainvilles, a dense mass of deep purple-red, or light pink, or orang* flomge, which in the bright rays of the sun are a sheen of vivid splendour. Farther out the road is bordered with, cactus hedges, which later on must be a blaze of scarlet bloom; while the hillsides in many places are covered with a plant, apparently the conservatory "diplacus," which in summer would be » mass of bright orange bloom. Still higher, rows of larches uplift their lofty heads; while in the distaace th« pyramids and peaks of a range of snowcloud mountains are upreared against tho azure of the sky- , Seawards innumerable picturesque creeka and inlets indent the shore; though on the coasts of this tideless but beautiful sea, exoept perhaps for a. narro.w strip, the hard, sparkling sandy shore is never seen. And now the great promontory is reached; a - jagged mass of granite jutting out into the great ocean, which for ages past h*s futileiy vented its wrerth. against those crags *nd escarpments and beatling cliffs, and now with th« sound of thunder is impotently hurling itself in .grea.t volumes of foam and spume against the iron-bound rocks. And beyond are- Hie SanguJbary Is^ofAye and well may they bear tha.t terrible name. For from time to time many » etorm-tossed- gallant ship, helplessly driven on the locks, has sunk down into the depths, transformed trom tho tome of brave aearae™ into their mausoleum. And there will their whitened bones rest until on the morn of «Te resurrection the sea Aall give up her dead. Then shall the- righteous they who hav.e lived a godly life, and whose trensgresaions are atoned for by the .sacrifice of the Saviour of the world, Himself bore the retributior due-then shall those happy ones be welcomed with glory. But, alas, not for all shall be this .welcome!