Favoured with fine weather and a fair wind the fleet made rapid progress, and, without interruption or loss, anchored, after an unusually quick passage, at Abydos, on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont. But here a strong gale sprung up, and swept them to the eastward, and so close were they brought to the city, that some volleys of stones and darts were exchanged between them and the ramparts. Most of the invaders then beheld, for the first time, the capital of the East; and few cities can boast of so imposing an appearance; nor could it fail to create a deep impression on the minds of the invaders. Vain, indeed, would have been the attempt of the Crusaders to conquer such a city had its people been united, or its ruler a man of ability and honesty. The sixteen hundred fishing boats of Constantinople could in themselves have manned a fleet, which, with their fire-ships, would have been sufficient to have annihilated the forces of the Crusaders; but the negligence of the prince, and the venality of his ministers rendered the great city under their charge an easy prey. There was of course a show of resistance, but it was so feeble that the tower of Galata, in the suburb of Pera, was quickly stormed, and easily captured by the French; while the Venetians forced the boom or chain that was stretched from the tower to the Byzantine shores, captured or destroyed twenty Grecian ships of war, and made themselves masters of the port of Constantinople. [Sidenote: Commerce declines under the Latins, but revives on the restoration of the empire, A.D. 1261.] During the sixty years that the Latins held in their hands the empire of the East, the Greek emperors kept their court and maintained a feeble dignity at Nicæa (Nice), the most important city in Bithynia. Yet, though at that city a certain show of pomp and power was maintained, the removal of the empire from Constantinople, and the sway there of the Latin princes, produced the most disastrous effects on the trade of the capital: a race alien in religion and language, and anarchy withal, were not, indeed, likely to be favourable to peaceful arts or commerce. When, however, the Greek empire was afterwards restored in the person of Manuel, that wise monarch paid little heed to the factions of the Venetians and of other republicans from Italy, but encouraged their industry by many privileges, and allowed them full use of their own customs. Thus the merchants resident at Constantinople preserved their respective quarters in the city, trading thence whither and how they pleased. [Sidenote: Genoa.]