On the 4th of April, after Easter, in this same year 1453, Morbesan[164], son of Orestes, great lords in Achaia, advanced near to Constantinople, and, on the 5th day of this month, besieged that city all round with two hundred thousand men,--sixty thousand of whom were archers, and from thirty to forty thousand cavalry. About a fourth part of them were armed with haubergeons and coats of mail, others after the french manner,--some in the bulgarian manner, and in different fashions. Many had helmets of iron, and others were armed with bows and cross-bows. The greater part, however, of the sixty thousand were without any other armour than targets and turkish blades. The remaining hundred were composed of merchants, artisans, followers of the army, pillagers, and destroyers of the country. There were very many bombards and culverins made use of at this siege,--and one particularly large bombard, that shot stones twelve spans and four fingers in circumference, weighing eighteen hundred pounds. These bombards shot daily from one hundred to six score times,--and this thundering lasted for fifty-five days, expending a thousand weight of powder each day, which was necessary for the numerous culverins that were employed. The Turk had likewise a fleet of sixteen or eighteen galleys, and from sixty to eighty galiots, having each eighteen or twenty oars, and from sixteen to twenty small barks, called Palendrins[165], to transport horses in, and plenty of gun-carriages. When the siege had been regularly formed, Sangombassa[166] principal minister to the Turk, and who had the greatest credit and authority with him, had transported over land, the distance of two or three miles, from sixty to eighty galleys, and other armed vessels, into the Melse Mondagarin[167], near to Pera, and between the two cities. The Turks could not by any other means enter the harbour of Constantinople, as the Bosphorus and the straits of the Dardanelles were strongly guarded by the Christians, who were so posted that they could relieve each other when attacked.