The situation of the Gerioese colonies in the East after the faııof Constantinople is efficaciously reflected in two letters sent toGenoa, a few months distant the one from the other, from Pera andfrom Chios. In the first letter, written on the 23 rd of June 1453, theex-podesta of Pera, Angelo Giovanni Lomellino, related the tragicevents of the conquest of the Greek Capital city and the surrenderof the Genoese colo~y: