HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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property of burning under water, and defying the utmost opposition of thatelement, was brought into more extensive use than had ever before been made

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of contending with die warlike enthusiasm and youthful vigour of the Saracens, The historian whopresumes to analise this extraordinary composition, should suspect his own ignorance, and that of hisByzantine guides, so prone to the marvellous, so careless, and, in this instance, so jealous of the truth.From their obscure, and perhaps fallacious hints, it should seem, that the principal ingredient of the-Greek fire was the ns.fj.tha, or liquid bitumen, a light tenacious and inflammable oil, which springsfrom the earth, and catches fire as soon as it comes in contact with the air. The naptha was mingledI know not by what methods, or in what proportions, with sulphur, and with the pitch that is extractedfrom evergreen firs. From this mixture, which produced a thick smoak, and a loud explosion, pro-ceeded a fierce and obstinate flame, which not only rose in perpendicular ascent, but likewise burntwith equal vehemence in descent, or lateral progress. Instead of being extinguished, it was nourishedand quickened by the element of water ; and sand, urine, or vinegar, were the only remedies thatcould damp the fury of this powerful agent, which was justly denominated by the Greeks the liquid ror the maritime fire. For the annoyance of the enemy, it was employed with equal effect by sea andland, in battle, or in sieges. It was either poured from the rampart in large boilers, or launched in redhot balls of stone or iron, or darted in arrows or javelins twisted round with flax or tow, which haddeeply imbibed the inflammable oil. Sometimes it was deposited in fireships, the victims and instru-ments of a more ample revenge, and was most commonly blown through long tubes of copper, whichwere planted on the prow of a galley, and fancifully shaped into the mouths of savage monsters, thatseemed to vomit a stream of liquid and consuming fire. This important art was preserved at Con-stantinople as the palladium of the state. The gallies and artillery might occasionally be lent to theallies of Rome, but the composition of the Greek fire was concealed with the most jealous scruple, andthe terror of the enemies was encreased and prolonged by their ignorance and surprise. In the treatiseof the administration of the empire, the royal author suggests the answers and excuses that might bestelude the indiscreet curiosity and importunate demands of the barbarians. They should be told, thatthe mystery of the Greek fire had been revealed by an angel to the first and greatest of the Constan-tines, with a sacred injunction, that this gift of heaven, this peculiar blessing of the Romans, shouldnever be communicated to any foreign nation, that the prince and subject were alike bound to religioussilence, under the temporal and spiritual penalties of treason and sacrilege, and that the impious attemptwould provoke the sudden and supernatural vengeance of Heaven. By these precautions, the secretwas confined above four hundred years to the Romans of the east, and at the end of the eleventh cen-tury, the Pisans, to whom every sea and every art were familiar, suffered the effects without under-standing the composition of the Greek fire. It was at length either discovered or stolen by the Maho-metans ; and in the holy wars of Syria and Egypt, they retorted an invention contrived against them-selves, on the heads of the Christians. A knight who despised the swords and lances of the Saracens,relates, with heartielt sincerity, his own fears, and those of his companions, at the sight and sound ofthe mischievous engine that discharged a torrent of Greek fire, (the feu Gregeois, as it is stiled bydie more early of the French writers.) ‘ It came flying through the air,’ says Joinville, ‘ like awinged long-tailed dragon, about the thickness of an hogshead, with the report of thunder, and thevelocity of lightening, and the darkness of the night was dispelled by this deadly illumination.’ The-

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