[Footnote 52: Muratori (Annali d' Italia, tom. xii. p. 144) refers to the most ancient Chronicles of Venice (Caresinus, the continuator of Andrew Dandulus, tom. xii. p. 421, 422) and Genoa, (George Stella Annales Genuenses, tom. xvii. p. 1091, 1092;) both which I have diligently consulted in his great Collection of the Historians of Italy.] [Footnote 53: See the Chronicle of Matteo Villani of Florence, l. ii. c. 59, p. 145--147, c. 74, 75, p. 156, 157, in Muratori's Collection, tom. xiv.] [Footnote 531: Cantacuzene praises their bravery, but imputes their losses to their ignorance of the seas: they suffered more by the breakers than by the enemy, vol. iii. p. 224.--M.] [Footnote 532: Cantacuzene says that the Genoese lost twenty-eight ships with their crews, autandroi; the Venetians and Catalans sixteen, the Imperials, none Cantacuzene accuses Pisani of cowardice, in not following up the victory, and destroying the Genoese. But Pisani's conduct, and indeed Cantacuzene's account of the battle, betray the superiority of the Genoese.--M.] [Footnote 54: The AbbÈ de Sade (MÈmoires sur la Vie de Petrarque, tom. iii. p. 257--263) translates this letter, which he copied from a MS. in the king of France's library. Though a servant of the duke of Milan, Petrarch pours forth his astonishment and grief at the defeat and despair of the Genoese in the following year, (p. 323--332.)] Chapter LXIV: Moguls, Ottoman Turks.--Part I. Conquests Of Zingis Khan And The Moguls From China To Poland.--Escape Of Constantinople And The Greeks.--Origin Of The Ottoman Turks In Bithynia.--Reigns And Victories Of Othman, Orchan, Amurath The First, And Bajazet The First.-- Foundation And Progress Of The Turkish Monarchy In Asia And Europe.--Danger Of Constantinople And The Greek Empire. From the petty quarrels of a city and her suburbs, from the cowardice and discord of the falling Greeks, I shall now ascend to the victorious Turks; whose domestic slavery was ennobled by martial discipline, religious enthusiasm, and the energy of the national character. The rise and progress of the Ottomans, the present sovereigns of Constantinople, are connected with the most important scenes of modern history; but they are founded on a previous knowledge of the great eruption of the Moguls [100] and Tartars; whose rapid conquests may be compared with the primitive convulsions of nature, which have agitated and altered the surface of the globe. I have long since asserted my claim to introduce the nations, the immediate or remote authors of the fall of the Roman empire; nor can I refuse myself to those events, which, from their uncommon magnitude, will interest a philosophic mind in the history of blood. [1]