of the today Montresta are of Greek Maniot descent. The census of 1773 showed that the Greek population of the town had dropped to 428. The situation changed with the Treaty of Versaille in 1768 when the French gained control of the island and the governor, the Comte de Marbeuf, took a personal interest in the Greek colonists. Cargèse 1775 to the present day Marbeuf arranged for the construction of the village of Cargèse on the Puntiglione headland that separates the Gulf of Sagone from the smaller Gulf of Peru. Around 120 terraced houses were built, all paid for by the French crown. In 1775, under the leadership of George-Marie Stephanopoli, most of the Greek colonists moved from Ajaccio to the new village so that by 1784 there were 386 Greeks in Cargèse. Marbeuf had a large house with a garden built for himself on the west side of the village. In 1789 and in 1791, with the breakdown in civil order resulting from the French Revolution, Cargèse was subject to a series of attacks by the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages. On each occasion the attackers were driven off but a number of families chose to return to Ajaccio to escape the violence. By 1792 24 families had moved back to Ajaccio, selling their properties in Cargèse to Corsicans. Thus, from early in its history there were both Greek and Corsican communities in the village. Britain took control of Corsica in 1794 with Gilbert Elliot acting as viceroy during the short-lived Anglo-Corsican Kingdom. Elliot visited Cargèse in 1795 and recorded his experiences in his journal. At the time the village had population of around 500 people divided into 114 families. The British withdrew from the island in the October of the following year, and almost immediately the inhabitants of Vico, Appriciani, Balogna, Letia and Renno attacked Cargèse. Much of the village was destroyed including Marbeuf’s own house. The inhabitants were forced to flee to Ajaccio where they stayed for three months before returning when French forces had reestablished order. The village was threatened on two further occasions. In 1814, with the collapse of the First French Empire, the threat of violence forced the inhabitants of Cargèse to surrender some of their farmland to the surrounding hamlets. The final incident occurred in 1830 at the time of the overthrow of Charles X and the Bourbon monarchy in the July Revolution.