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The Venetians had never lost hold upon the 'Ionian' chain of islands Corfù, Cefalonia, Zante, and Cerigo which flank the western coast of Greece, and in 1685 they embarked on an offensive on the mainland, which won them undisputed possession of Peloponnesos for twenty years. Venice was far nearer than Turkey to her dissolution, and spent the last spasm of her energy on this ephemeral conquest.
I visited the Islands of Corfu, Cefalonia and Zante, inquiring of the Governors and if they had any abuses to be remedied, and I soon had over ten Petitions from Merchants whose boats had been plundered and pillaged by both parties.
The Napoleonic wars had just extinguished the Venetian Republic and swept the Ionian Islands into the struggle between England and France for the mastery of the Mediterranean. England had fortified herself in Cefalonia and Zante, France in Corfù, and interest centred on the opposite mainland, where Ali Pasha of Yannina maintained a formidable neutrality towards either power.
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