Rather than subject themselves to the tyranny of Ali Pasha, the Pargiotes decided to forsake their country; and accordingly in 1819, having previously exhumed and burned the remains of their ancestors, they migrated to the Ionian Islands.
In 1858 Lord Palmerston was succeeded by Lord Derby at the head of a Conservative administration, and Gladstone accepted the temporary office of high commissioner extraordinary to the Ionian Islands.
Communication by sea with Athens, Patras, the Ionian Islands and the shores of the Ambracian Gulf, is constant since the opening of the Corinthian ship canal, in 1893.
There is no doubt that Leucas fits the Homeric descriptions much better than Ithaca; but, on the other hand, many scholars maintain that it is a mistake to treat the imaginary descriptions of a poet as if they were portions of a guide-book, or to look, in the author of the Odyssey, for a close familiarity with the geography of the Ionian islands.
When, by the treaty of Paris of November 5,18'5, the Ionian Islands were placed under the protectorate of Great Britain, Corfu became the seat of the British high commissioner.
