Greek Fire of the Middle Ages. 31 
Having thus traced the origin and progress of pyrotechny as 
far as the evidence admits, it is time to return to the more par- 
ticular consideration of the Greek fire, and to try to ascertain, 
from the narratives of authors, if possible, what its nature and 
effects really were. 
It seems clear that no single invention, or composition, of a 
combustible nature, will fulfil all the conditions of this celebrated 
military firework. It is easy enough to conceive how those who 
felt the alarm and the effects, and knew not the means, should 
have confounded all these annoying contrivances under one 
term; or itis possible enough that they might have given this 
as a generic name to all offensive fireworks, while their readers, 
ignorant of the subject, have imagined that the composition was 
as single as the name. It will presently be seen, by the descrip- 
tion of a few of the effects recorded by writers and eye-witnesses, 
what probability there is in this supposition. 
Having traced generally the origin of pyrotechny from the 
East, it will however first be proper to see if some of the parti- 
cular inflammable compounds, known by the name of the Greek 
fire, cannot be traced thither also. It is reported by the author 
of the Esprit des Croissades, to have been known in China in the 
year 917. This, itis true, is 250 years after the time of Con- 
stantine Pogonatus; yet as the Chinese have never been known 
to borrow arts from the Europeans, it is far more likely that it 
was known to them long before. This is a supposition, indeed, 
that can scarcely be rejected, if, as already shewn, the eastern 
nations, and the Chinese among the rest, were acquainted with 
the properly explosive compounds, or with gunpowder. The same 
reporter says, that it was there known by the name of the Oil 
of the Cruel Fire, and that it had been introduced by the Kitan 
Tartars, who had learnt the composition from the king of Ou, 
Thus the oily or resinous Greek fire, which forms one of the kinds 
immediately to be described, seems toclaim an oriental origin 
as well as the explosive and combustible nitrous compounds. 
With respect to the names, composition, and effects of the 
Greek fire, the Byzantine writers are our earliest European au- 
