La Porta

La Porta d'Ampugnani (Corsican, A Porta d'Ampugnani) is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica.

La Porta is situated in the heart of the Castagniccia, of which this is the largest settlement. It formed the gateway (porta) to the ancient pieve of Ampugnani.

Geography

Part of the canton of the Fiumalto d'Ampugnani, La Porta on its spur of Monte San Petrone is sheltered among the chestnut woodlands on the slopes. This most remote and isolated area of north-western Corsica retains the last extensive stands of the old-growth chestnut forest that gave its name to the Castagniccia region (castagna, "chestnut"); the depopulation it has experienced since ca 1870, to 196 persons in 1999, have had the effect of preserving the traditional landscape.

The hamlet of Poggiale, part of the commune which contains its reservoir, is sited somewhat further up the slope. To the northeast the village of Quercitello looks down upon La Porta. To the east, it faces the adjoining village of Ficaja.

Jao de la Porta

João da Porta (also José da Porta), along with his older brother Morin, was a Portuguese Jewish merchant important in the early settlement of the Texan coast.

João was born in Portugal but attended school in Paris, before moving to Brazil, the British West Indies, and finally New Orleans. Along with his brother, João provided the financing for the privateer Louis Michel Aury, who established his base at the site of future Galveston in Spanish Texas, in 1816.

The same year, Mexican revolutionary general Francisco Javier Mina visited and successfully encouraged Aury to join him in an invasion, which failed. Morin da Porta left Galveston and soon died, and João sold Aury's camp and supplies to Jean Lafitte, who relocated to Galveston from Matagorda Bay on 15 May 1817. A year later, João was appointed supercargo for trade with the Karankawa Indians. Lafitte left in 1820, and João later returned to New Orleans.

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