OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 207

great cannon of Mahomet has been separately chap.noticed; an important and visible object in the L x ^ lir ihistory of the times: but that enormous enginewas flanked by two fellows almost of equal mag-nitude; p the long order of the Turkish artillerywas pointed against the walls: fourteen bat-teries thundered at once on the most accessibleplaces; and of one of these it is ambiguouslyexpressed, that it was mounted with one hun-dred and thirty guns, or that it discharged onehundred and thirty bullets. Yet, in the powerand activity of the sultan, we may discern theinfancy of the new science. Under a masterwho counted the moments, the great cannoncould be loaded and fired no more than seventimes in one day. q The heated metal unfortu-nately burst; several workmen were destroyed;and the skill of an a-*' was admired who be-thought himself of preventing the danger andthe accident, by pouring oil, after each explo-sion, into the mouth of the cannon.

The first random shots were productive ofA<tackandmore sound than effect; and it was by the ad-vice of a Christian, that the engineers were taughtto level their aim against the two opposite sidesof the salient angles of a bastion. However im-perfect, the weight ahd repetition of the fire madesome impression on the walls; and the Turks,

p According to Chalcocondylcsand Phranza, the great cannon burst,an accident which, according to Ducas, was prevented by the artist’sskill’ It is evident they do not speak of the same gun.

Near an hundred years after the siege of Constantinople , theFrench and English fleets in the Channel were proud of firing 300 shotin an engagement of two hours (Memoires de Martin du Beliay, I. x,in the Collection Generate, tom. xxii, p. 239).