HOW THE TURKS GOT CONSTANTINOPLE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 87, 24 September 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

HOW THE TURKS GOT CONSTANTINOPLE.

AMAZING AXCIENT ADVENTURE. On April 6, 1453, Mahomet 11., with an, army of 160,000 men, camped one mile from Constantinople. The eitv, according to a paper by Mr. Arthur Benington, was defended by the Emperor XII., with an army of 49/3 Greeks and 2000 Genovose, Venetians, Cretans. Romans, and Spaniards, all fighting among themselves over questions of liturgy! Mahomet began battering the city walls with fourteen batteries, besides twelve guns that hurled stone cannon balls weighing from 200 to 500 pounds and one enormous siege gun that threw .stone balls weighing from 800 to 1200 pounds. In the Dardanelles, the Christian Emperor had ten ships, and he had stretched a heavy chain across the Straits. The infidels had 300 uhips, but these could not pass the chain. For nearly two months the Christians had out. being supplied with food by the ships making raids in the Black Sea. In May four great Greek and Genovose ships, laden with provisions and commanded by Maurizio Cattaneo, sailed up the Aegean Soa, attacked the Ottoman fleet, sinking 30 ships and killing 12,000 men, and parsed through the Dardanelles. The chain was lowered for them and they reached the beleaguered city in safety. Mahomet 11. was so infuriated by this sight that he stretched his admiral out upon his back and thrashed him over the abdomen with a steel whip. CROSS-COUNTRY "VOYAGE." Then the Sultan executed a manoeuvre unique in the history of naval warfare. From near Galata to the Bosphorus his engineers built a road KOOO paces long, U-shaped in cross section and paved with wooden beams greased with tallow. Over this road Mahomet sent eighty warships, hauled out of the water by thousands of men, slipping along the well-greased ways, with sas set. and flags flying. As this fleet passed thus across the land, the soldiers and sailors on board sang war songs and played martial airs upon their trumpets and drums.

At the unprecedented sight of a fleet sailing over wooded hills and verdant vales, the Christian defenders of Constantinople lest heart. The strategem brought the Ottoman flnet Jnto the water between the city and the defending ships. A general assault gave the city to the infidels. In the night between May 28 and 29 Emperor Conxtantine and his staff received Holy Communion in St. Sophia's and rewetl to give their lives for their country. In the morning their vow was fulfilled. They perished' fighting, and Constantino's head was stuck up on the column that Constantino the Great had erected in honour of his mother, St. Helena. The city was sacked, and Mahomet IT. entered St. Sophia's on horseback. It has been a Turkish possession ever since that dav.