Corfu

Corfu, the Corcyra or Drepane of ancient days, the most northerly and the largest of the Ionian islands, separated from Albania by a channel varying in width from 2 to 12 miles. It has an area of 270 square miles. The climate is moderately good, the winters being rainy, and the summers hot and dry. The island is well-wooded, with the olive, cypress, and ilex, and the chief productions are olives, oranges, citrons, figs, honey, silk, and wine, and some maize. Goats are plentiful, and much oil is exported. The chief minerals are sulphur, salt, coal, and marble. Corfu, on the E. coast, has a good harbour and frequent steam communication. It is the seat of a Greek archbishopric and a Catholic bishopric, and there is a palace and an Ionian academy. In 734 B.C. the Corinthians founded a colony, and the first recorded sea-fight (in 665) was between the colony and the mother country. The Romans took it in 229 B.C. In the Middle Ages it passed through many vicissitudes, and finally became Venetian. From 1815-64 it was under the protection of Great Britain, who made it over to the newly-founded Greek kingdom.