368 A. D. 1202. 



4,500 horfes : but tbey fucceeded only with Venice. That repubUc got 

 ready 1 ro large veflels, 60 of a long conftru61ion, and 60 other tranf- 

 ports, which veflels, averaging the whole fleet, muft have been capable 

 of carrying at leaft 200 men each. To thefe they added 50 warlike 

 gallies intended for the proteclion of the tranfports on the paflage, and 

 moreover laid in provHions for all the feamen, paflengers, and horfes, 

 in the whole fleet of 280 veflels for nine months. One of the fliips 

 called the Mondo (World) is laid to have been the largefl veflel that 

 ever floated upon the bofom of the Adriatic fince the great triumphal 

 fliip, or rather houfe, as Pliny [L. iii, c. 16] calls it, of the Roman em- 

 peror Claudius * : but we have no information concerning the dimen- 

 fions of the Mondo, or how many men flie carried. [Dajiduli Chron. 

 col. 323 ap. Muratori Script. V. xii. — Formakoni, EJfaifur la marine des Ve- 

 nitiens, trad. Franpife^ p. 29.] 



When the Venetians had got every thing ready for the expedition, 

 the crufaders found themfelves unable to pay the whole fum ftipulated 

 for the equipment of their fleet ; and they agreed, as an equivalent for 

 a deficiency of 34,000 marks, to employ their forces againfl: the ci- 

 tizens of Zara, who had revolted from the fovereignty of Venice. The 

 rebellious city was taken after a fiege of five days. But, in turning the 

 arms deftined for the extermination of Goo's enemies againfl their Chrift- 

 ian brethren, they committed a crime deferving the fevereft penalties 

 of ecclefiaftical indignation, in the judgement of the pope, who failed 

 not to launch the thunder of his excommunication againfl: them. The 

 weftern pilgrims devoutly purchafed his pardon and abfolution. But the 

 Venetians, whofe views were more enlarged and judgements lefs fetter- 

 ed, fpurned his pardon, and difclaimed his authority and interference 

 in their temporal affairs. Such were the different effeds upon the hu- 

 man mind, of having not a thought but what was inftilled by interefl- 

 ed prieftcraft, and of acquiring knowlege from obfervations made upon 

 mankind in an extenfive intercourfe with a variety of nations. That 

 noble diftindion was the gift of commerce to the Venetians. [Katona, 

 H'ljl. reg. Hung. V. iv, p. 536. — Gefia Innoc. Ill, cc. 86 et feqq. ap. Mu- 

 ratori Script. V. iii.] 



1 203 — The forces colleded for the conqueft of the Holy land were 

 a fecond time drawn off from their original deftination by the earnefl: 

 entreaties and liberal promifes of Alexius, the ion of the depofed em- 

 peror of Conflantinople. The weftern warriors and their Venetian al- 

 lies were perfuaded, that the reftoration of that prince M'as a proper 

 preparatory ftep to their holy warfare. They embarked in the fleet 

 furniflied by Venice ; they undertook the fiege of Conflantinople ; and 

 after a fliow of refiftancc, wherein a handful of Englifli and Danifli 



• It is almoft necdlcfs to obftivo, lliat tlic conipariTon of the Montlo to Cl.uulius's great (hip is ar- 

 bitrarily alTunied, and conTcys no cl#ar idea of ils magnitude. 



