414 SIEGE OF COiNSTANTINOPLE. 



to Damascus. The remains of the fleet were so 

 damaged by the repeated attacks of tempest and 

 fire, that only five galleys reached Alexandria. 



The deliverance of Constantinople, in both sieges, 

 must be ascribed, not to the want of prudence or 

 courage on the part of the besiegers, but to the ter- 

 rible efficacy of the Greek fire used on these occa- 

 sions. In this extraordinary composition the prin- 

 cipal ingredient was naphtha, or liquid bitumen, a 

 tenacious and inflammable oil which springs from 

 the earth, and catches fire as soon as it comes in 

 contact with the air. This substance was mingled 

 with certain proportions of sulphur, and pitch ex- 

 tracted from evergreen firs ; and from the mixture, 

 which produced a thick smoke and a loud explosion, 

 proceeded a fierce flame, that burnt with equal ve- 

 hemence in all directions, and was quickened, rather 

 than extinguished, by the element of water. 



This terrible compound obviously served the pur- 

 pose of the rockets, bombs, and artillery of modern 

 warfare ; and might be employed by sea or land, in 

 battles or in sieges. For the annoyance of the 

 enemy, it was either poured from the ramparts in 

 large boilers, or launched in red-hot balls of stone 

 and iron, or darted in arrows and javelins twisted 

 round with flax and tow which had deeply imbibed 

 the inflammable oil. Sometimes, for a more sweep- 

 ing destruction, it was deposited in fireships ; and 

 was most commonly blown through long tubes of 

 copper, planted on the prow, and fancifully shaped 

 into the mouths of savage monsters vomiting 

 streams of consuming fire. The early French 

 writers describe it as flying through the air like a 

 winged long-tailed dragon, about the thickness of a 

 hogshead, and dispelling the darkness of the night 

 by its deadly illumination. The use of the Greek 

 or maritime fire was afterward adopted by the 

 Saracens, and continued to the middle of the four- 

 teenth century, when the invention of gunpowder. 



