Franciscans took care of him and
nursed him back to health; in gratitude he painted this picture for
them. The great cypress, which spreads almost like an oak, he may have
sat under during his convalescence.

The other towns are Cittavecchia, Verbosca, and Gelsa. The first is the
new Pharos, founded at the end of the third century B.C., and
flourishing during the Roman period. It lies at the bottom of an inlet
six miles long, and is a nourishing modern town with little antiquity
visible. The campanile of S. Stefano, which appears to be of the
fourteenth century, is on ancient foundations, and there are traces of
Cyclopean walls here and there. In Verbosca is a fortified church with
bastions, S. Lorenzo, which contains the fragments of a Titianesque
painting, ascribed to the master on the strength of an entry in the
archives of a payment of 1,000 ducats to the Master Titiano Vecelli. It
is now in three portions, and shows S. Laurence with angels and the
Virgin above, S. Roch, and S. Augustine. In another church, S. Maria, is
a Birth of the Virgin, ascribed to Paolo Veronese. At Gelsa the church
is also fortified, a memorial of the time when protection against
Turkish raids was necessary.

Curzola lies due south of Lesina, separated from the long peninsula of
Sabbioncello on the mainland by quite a narrow channel. It is the
Corcyra Nigra or Melaina of antiquity, so called from its luxuriant pine
forests, little of which now remain. Various origins are attributed to
the settlement; one of them is commemorated in the inscription on the
Porta Marina: "Hic Antenoridae Corcyrae prima Melanae fundamenta locant."
The early Greek geographers include it in the territory of Narenta or
Liburnia. From Augustus to Heraclius (642 A.D.) it was Roman or
Byzantine, and from that date till 998 Narentine. From the victory of
Orseolo II. till 1100 it was Venetian, when the Genoese possessed it for
twenty-eight years. In 1128 the Venetians, under Popone Zorzi, took it
again, and it remained Venetian on the whole till 1357; from that time
till 1418 it was sometimes Hungarian, sometimes Genoese, Bosnian, or
Ragusan. Two years later it finally gave itself to Venice, with which it
was connected till the Napoleonic wars. The English occupied it from
1813-1815. It has suffered from raids; and the attack by Uluz-Ali after
he had sacked Lesina is noticeable for the brave conduct of the women.
The commandant of the island and fortress, Antonio Balbi,