Bastia and the plain of Aleria, looked upon themselves as the most civilized; and so were for calling those on the opposite side of the island to them 'forrestieri, foreigners.'
The next division is into provinces, of which there are nine; for although a great part of this country long went under the denomination of 'feudos, feus,' and is still called so in the maps, the jurisdiction of the signors is now gradually wearing out, and will soon be sunk into the general power of the state.
Another division of Corsica is into pieves. A Pieve is properly an ecclesiastical appointment, containing a certain number of parishes, over which is placed a pievano, who superintends the the priests, and draws a certain part of the tithes. But this division is as much used for civil affairs, as for those of the church.
There are large traces of uninhabited land in Corsica, mostly covered with woods; to some parts of which the peasants resort in summer to feed their cattle, and to gather chestnuts, making little sheds for themselves to lie under. There is hardly such a thing as a detached farm-house to be seen in the island, like what are scattered every where over Great Britain; for, the Corsicans gather together in little villages, which they
