Page:An Account of Corsica (1769).djvu/141

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
OF CORSICA.
131

cerning him, which, I am persuaded, will be very acceptable to my readers.

Theodore Baron Newhoff, in the county of La Marc in Westphalia, was the personage who aspired to the sovereignty of Corsica. He had his education in the French service. He afterwards went to Spain, where he received some marks of regard from the duke of Riperda and cardinal Alberoni. But beins; of a strange unsettled projecting disposition, he quitted Spain, and went and travelled into Italy, England and Holland; ever in search of some new adventure. He at last fixed his attention on Corsica, and formed a scheme of making himself a king.

He was a man of abilities and address; and, after having fully informed himself of every thing relating to the island, he went to Tunis, where he fell upon means to procure some money and arms; and then came to Leghorn, from whence he wrote a letter to the Corsican chiefs, Giafferi and Paoli, offering considerable assistance to the nation, if they would elect him as their sovereign.

This letter was consigned to count Domenico Rivarola, who acted as Corsican plenipotentiary, in Tuscany; and he gave for answer, that if Theodore brought the assistance he promised to the

G 2