Greek Fire of the Middle Ages. 1 1 



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 it is 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-Tvitnesses, 

 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, it is 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 Oi 1 

 of the Cruel Fire, and that it had been introduced by the Kitan 

 Tartars, who had Jearnt 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 to claim 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- 



