Bonifacio owes its name to Boniface, a Tuscan Duke, who founded the town over a thousand years ago. He had been fighting in Africa, and on his way home he touched at the southern end of the island and built a fortress which he called by his own name, a name that has also been given to the strait that separates Corsica from the more southerly island of Sardinia. Boniface intended his fort to be used as a defence against Saracen pirates. [Illustration: THE HARBOUR, BONIFACIO.] In due time (1195) it was taken by the Genoese, who drove out nearly all the original inhabitants and replaced them by their own people. To these people they gave a great deal of liberty. The new colonists were allowed to coin their own money and to make most of their own laws. In consequence of this treatment, they remained faithful to the Genoese in later years, at a time when most of the other towns in the island were rebelling against foreign rule. They defended their town with courage and determination on many occasions, when they were attacked by Corsican or other forces. At one time they were besieged by Alphonso V., the King of Aragon, who said that the island belonged to him, because the Pope had made a present of it to his father. As no one paid any attention to his claims, he came with a fleet and 10,000 men to obtain possession of his rights. He laid siege to Bonifacio. He surrounded the town both by land and by sea for a period of five months. From a hill to the north of the town he directed a steady bombardment against the fort, and destroyed a part of the defences. Provisions grew scarce, but the colonists still held out. A small vessel escaped from the harbour and managed to reach Genoa, carrying the news to the doge of that city that if help did not soon arrive, the inhabitants of Bonifacio would be forced by fire and hunger to surrender the fort that they had so valiantly defended. The doge lost no time in sending a small fleet laden with provisions, but this fleet carried only 1,500 men to relieve a place that was besieged by 10,000. The inhabitants had almost given up all hope of relief, and the Spaniards were expecting the immediate surrender of the fort and town, when a new Genoese force, clad in bright armour, appeared upon the walls. The Spaniards were told that reinforcements had arrived during the night, though, as a matter of fact, nothing of the kind had happened. The new army consisted simply of the women, children, and priests of the town, who had clothed themselves in steel in order to take part in the defence of their homes. When the real Genoese relief force did arrive, it found the harbour blocked by a number of galleys firmly chained together. The Genoese commander drove his vessels against the chain, forced the barrier, and so got through the Spanish lines and saved the town. Alphonso left the Corsicans to themselves, and never again made any attempt to capture the island.