Page:Destruction of the Greek Empire.djvu/251

 MAHOMET DEOLAEES WAE 217 Within the next few weeks the city as well as the capture of Venetian and Genoese colonies learned how greatly the ^m*iia- new fortification of Boumelia-Hissar had strengthened Hissar. Mahomet's position. On November 10, two large Venetian galleys under the command of Morosini were fired at as they were passing and captured. A fortnight later, on November 26, another Venetian ship was fired at and also captured. Some of the crew were sawn in halves. These captures, says Barbaro, led to the beginning of the war with the Venetians. For the first time the Turks com- manded the Bosporus. Now that he had provided himself with a safe base of operations against the city and withdrawn to Adrianople, Mahomet threw off all disguise, and calling together the principal officers of the army announced to them the Mahomet's object of his preparations, which, in accordance with his the pashas, habitual practice, he had hitherto kept secret. Critobulus gives us an address which he represents Mahomet as making to his leaders. He describes the progress made by his .ancestors in Asia Minor, how they had established them- selves at Brousa and had taken possession of the Hellespont ; had conquered part of Thrace and Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and even Selymbria, and had overcome nearly every obstacle. The great barrier to their progress was the city and the army of the Komans. "Whatever the sons of Oth- man wanted to do was opposed at Constantinople. The citizens had fought them everywhere pertinaciously and continually. This opposition must be ended; this barrier removed. It was for his hearers, said Mahomet, to complete the work of their fathers. They had now against them a single city, one which could not resist their attacks; a €ity whose population was greatly reduced and whose former wealth had been diminished by Turkish sieges and by the continual incursions made by his ancestors upon its terri- tory, a city which was now only one in name, for in reality simply invaluable, though for the part written day by day, internal evidence shows that it was subsequently revised after the siege. It was published in 1856.