180 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period II. 



them the title of the Sea Kings. They therefore sailed 

 down the river, carrying their boats and supplies by land 

 around the cataracts in the same manner as was adopted 

 by General Wolseley in the Red River Expedition of 1870 

 in Canada, where 1,200 soldiers and nearly as many 

 voyageurs, or boatmen, went by water and land a distance 

 of over 600 miles, carrying supplies for three months, 

 and being obliged to convey by main strength all their 

 boats and baggage over forty-seven different portages.' 

 The desert country through which General Wolseley 

 marched having no roads of any description, and covered 

 as it was with the original forest, rendered it absolutely 

 necessary for him to go by water. The same causes may 

 have rendered the river the easiest route for Oleg to 

 follow, and may have been the reason of its being adopted. 



The historian is silent as to whether the cavalry were 

 allowed peaceably to march through Bulgaria to Constan- 

 tinople, but it is probable that they followed the coast of 

 the Black Sea, and were in the neighbourhood of Con- 

 stantinople during the time that Oleg was besieging it ; 

 for it is stated that the country all around the city was 

 ravaged and burnt, and this was likely to be the work of 

 the cavalry. The Greeks bought a peace with money, 

 and no pitched battle was fought. 



Oleg is said to have made a second expedition against 

 Constantinople, but the silence of the Greek historians 

 renders its occurrence very doubtful. In 941 Igor made 

 a descent upon the Eastern Empire, but was defeated 

 with heavy loss, through the means of the terrible Greek 

 fire which was poured upon his troops from numberless 

 tubes and engines of destruction.^ In 943, with a powerful 

 army, oi both infantry and cavalry, Igor made another 

 expedition against the Greeks, but the emperor again 

 bought a peace by presents, and by numerous concessions.^ 



In 1043 Yaroslaf, great - grandson of Igor, made 

 another expedition against Constantinople, which was 

 also unsuccessful, partly through a storm, and partly 

 through the use of Greek fire by his opponents. 



' Huysshe, Red River Eypedition. 

 Karamsin, i. 184. 



2 Oibbcn, V. 430. 



