THE EOYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION, 
£09 
of saltpetre, of sulphur, of charcoal, and of herbs, from the which composition is 
generated a dry hot gas, which being inclosed in the narrow rigid and unyielding 
body of bronze, with no other means of escape than the one left it, opens this by its 
internal pressure and gives such velocity to the stone that sometimes the very 
bronze is ruptured. For the rest, our old language has no word to designate this 
machine unless you choose to call it eXuroXos, Taker of cities; or a^ereptov, The 
bolt-compelling. In current language now-a-days all the world give it the name of 
o-Kevr], Machine, bagage. So much for the description of this cannon, as we have 
been able to learn, seeking the information among those who make a profession of 
Artillery.” 
This finishes the Greek writer's account. 
Dr Dethier, the learned translator of the unpublished MS. into French* 
proceeds to draw a comparison between the gun of Muhammad and the 
American XX-in. Rodman gun* which is of no great interest; but he sub¬ 
joins a further extract from the same MS. in support of the claim of 
Muhammad II. to the first employment of vertical fire. “After having 
given,” he says, “an interesting account of the attack on the chain and 
vessels which defended the entrance of the Port of the Golden Horn, and 
the necessity the Turkish Admiral Baltoglou was under to retire without 
any resultthe author proceeds :— 
“But the Emperor Muhammad beholding the repulse of this attack, turned his 
attention to the invention of another machine. He called together those who made 
his guns and demanded of them if it were not possible to fire upon the ships 
anchored at the entrance to the port, so as to sink them to the bottom. They 
made answer that there were no cannon capable of producing such an effect, adding 
that the walls of Galata hindered them on all sides. The Emperor then proposed 
to them a different mode of proceeding and a totally new description of gun, of 
which the form should be a little modified so as to enable it to throw its shot 
to a great height that in falling it might strike the vessel in the middle and sink 
her. He explained to them in what manner, by certain proportions calculated and 
based on analogy, such a machine would act against the shipping. And these on 
reflection saw the possibility of the thing, and they made a species of cannon after 
the outline which the Emperor had made for them. Having next considered the 
ground, they placed it a little below the Galata point on a ridge which rose a little 
opposite the ships. Having placed it well and pointed it in the air according to 
the proper calculations, they applied the match and the mortar threw its stone to 
a great height, then falling, it missed the ships the first time and pitched very near 
them into the sea. Then they changed the direction of the mortar a little and 
threw a second stone. This, after rising to an immense height, fell with a great 
noise and violence and struck a vessel midships, shattered it, sunk it to the bottom, 
killed some of the sailors and drowned the rest, only a few saved themselves by 
swimming to the other ships and nearer galleys.” 
Keitoboulos affirms that the order to make the mortar was given four 
or five days before the Latin fleet arrived—that is to say, about the 17th 
April; and we learn from Nicholas Barbaro* that a Genoese ship was 
sunken by a bombard on the 5th May, leaving only eighteen days for the 
manufacture of the piece, a period that seems hardly sufficient, even allowing 
for the terrible stimulus which must have been given by the chastisement of 
the Admiral Baltoglou to all who had the orders of Muhammad to execute* 
* See von Hammer. 
