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 260 DESTEUGTION OF THE GEEEK BMPIEE Genoese already in his hand. Barbaro notes the shouts of delight with which the enemy came forward to the attack, the noise of their many oars, and the sound of their trumpets. ' They came on,' he says, ' like men who in- tended to win.' 1 The archbishop, another spectator, notes also that the Turkish fleet advanced with every sign of joy, with the beating of drums, and the clanging of trumpets. Phrantzes, a third eye-witness, was specially impressed with the con- fidence with which the Turkish flotilla approached. They went on to meet the Genoese ships, he says, with drums and horns, believing that they could intercept them without difficulty. The wind being against them, sails were dispensed with, but as their progress was independent of wind the whole fleet advanced steadily to capture the foe. Meantime the four ships kept on a direct course, steering for and striving to pass the tower of ' Megademetrius ' at the Acropolis and to enter the Golden Horn. 2 As they sail along with a stiff south breeze behind them and keeping, as vessels usually keep on making for the Golden Horn with a southerly wind, well out from the land until they reach the Point, their progress is easily seen by the citizens. Many of them crowd the walls or climb the roofs of houses near the seashore, while others hasten to the Sphendone of the Hippodrome, 3 where they have a wide view of the Marmora and the entrance of the Bosporus. Meantime the strong southerly wind has brought the four ships abreast of the city. Their short but sturdy hulls with high bows and loftier poops are driven steadily through the water by the big swelling mainsails of 1 ' Come homini volonteroxi de aver victoria contra el suo inimigod' (p. 23). 2 Ducas, p. 121, says, to pass rbv MeyaSrunrtrpiou rbv aKpditoKiv. The tower stood near Seraglio Point ; Dr. Mordtmann places it on the Golden Horn side, while Paspates, in Ta Bv^avriva 'Ai/a/rropa, p. 37, thought he had identified the foundations just beyond the bridge crossing the railway line to the Imperial Treasury. To have been a conspicuous landmark for ships steering from the Marmora to the harbour, as it is represented to have been, the church must have been very lofty if in the position adopted by Dr. Mordtmann. s Pusculus, 385, Book iv.