CHAPTER II.

ARTILLERY OF EARLY TIMES.

Derivation of the name of Artillery.-The Balista, Catapulta, &c., the earliest kind of Artillery.- Power of Machine Artillery.-Used at Jerusalem 1000 years B.C.—Their invention attributed to the Sicilians, 3000 B.C.-Artillery of our Men-of-war in the Thirteenth Century.— Artillery a name of general application to all Engines of War in former times. Early use of Gunpowder in China. - Combustible Materials and Explosive Instruments of the Chinese.-Guns used in China A.D. 85.-Stone Shot and Fire Machines used in Caïfong-fou in the Thirteenth Century.-Guns were known in China long before the time of the Missionaries.—Ancient breech-loading Jinjals and other Guns still found in China; also Gunpowder.-Ancient Bells found at Pekin.-The art of Founding long known in China.— Gunpowder known in India at the time of Alexander's Invasion.-Inflammable Oils, Explosive Substances, &c., of the Indians.-Fire-arms mentioned in the Gentoo Laws.-Their early use in India.-Extensive use of Artillery by the King of Delhi, A.D. 1258; Muhammed Shah, A.D. 1368; and Mahmud Shah, A.D. 1482.-Artillery at Sea and on Land found by the Portuguese in the East in 1498; also Fire-ships.-Ancient Guns at Boorhampore, and Colossal Bombard found at Moorshedabad. -Indian breech-loading Guns, similar to Venetian Pateraroes, at Woolwich.-Early preparation and use of Gunpowder and Propellant Machines by the Arabs.-Introduced by the Saracens into Europe.— Greek Fire.-Stone Cylinder and Gunpowder used by the Arabs at the Siege of Alexandria.-Artillery used by the Moors in Spain.

sketch of

BEFORE entering upon the intended sketch of the Proposed field artillery of the principal armies of Europe, artillery, it will be proper to give some account of the arm in general, of which it forms an essential part.

Reference to the past will show that the march of artillery towards its present efficiency has been exceedingly slow, compared with the time that the basis of this formidable power, namely, the means of propulsion, have been known to the world.

C

18

ANCIENT ARTILLERY OF VARIOUS KINDS.

and derivation

Originally the name appears to have been of the name. Arcualia, from Arcus, a bow,* and it

Power of machine artillery,

appears to have included all sorts of missiles, as well as the engines by which they were propelled. The common sling, which is still retained by the Arabs on the banks of the Upper Euphrates, was in all probability the first kind of artillery, and the arrow, one of the succeeding stages of improvement, which in the sequel embraced a variety of machines, such as the balista, catapulta, espringal, trebuchet, mangonel, and others which it would be tiresome to mention. They, may, however, be considered generally either under the head of balista, or catapulta; the former hurling stones, varying between 2 lbs. and 330 lbs., and even occasionally 500 lbs., to a distance of 90 yards,† and the latter propelling arrows and iron bolts some 200 yards. Both kinds of machine may be traced back to 1,000 years before our era, when Uzziah had engines in Jerusalem, "invented by

cunning men, to be upon the towers and upon "the bulwarks, to shoot arms and great stones "withal." +

Plutarch's account makes the origin of such instruments later; they were, he says, inventions

* Vossius, de Vitüs Sermonis, lib. iii., c. i.

† Etudes sur le passé et l'avenir de l'Artillerie, par le Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, tome ii., pp. 46, 47, 48, compared with Grose's Military Antiquities, vol. i., pp. 357-364.

2 Chron., c. xxvi., v. 15.

THE TERM ARTILLERY' APPLIED TO ARROWS. 19

tion of the

ancient times.

of the Syrians; and Diodorus, as well as Plutarch, attributes the invention, which was in reality a readoption, to the Sicilians, about 300 B. c., when the battering-ram, which is much older, also reappeared.* That the name under consideration was applied to the preceding and other machines in the fourth century is evident from Vegetius, who calls balista, onagri, scorpiones, arcubalistæ, fustibuli, and fundæ, engines of artillery. So and applicarecently as the thirteenth century, the artillery of name in our men-of-war consisted of stones and darts discharged from machines, which also threw pots of fire, quicklime, and other combustible materials. Even as late as the fourteenth century it is stated by Froissart that there were collected at Yprès, A. D. 1384, two tons of artillery, chiefly arrows, which were shot into the town. This circumstance would seem to account for some of the mistakes into which historians have occasionally fallen in their accounts of battles, in consequence of the term artillery having been still applied to the arrow after that great change had commenced which, as the result of the invention of gunpowder, eventually restricted the use of this name almost entirely to large ordnance, such as cannons, mortars, howitzers, and in the present day, rockets.

Did circumstances permit, it would be far from * Diod. Sic., lib. xiv., p. 91; and Plutarch's Apothegms.

+ Lib. iv., c. xxii.

Vol. vi., p. 298, translation by Johnes. London, 1806.

Early use of gunpowder in China.

20

EARLY USE OF GUNPOWDER IN CHINA.

an unpleasing task to attempt to do something more than give the following brief notice of gunpowder and its application to the service of mankind, which there is reason to believe first took place in the East.

Beginning with the Chinese, probably the oldest portion of the human family, and whose government is, undoubtedly, the most ancient in the world, Sir George Staunton observes, that "Nitre is the natural and daily produce of China and India, and there, accordingly, the knowledge of gunpowder seems to be coeval with that of the most distant historic events. Among the Chinese it has been applied at all times to useful purposes, such as blasting rocks and removing great obstructions, and to those of amusement in making a vast variety of fireworks. It was also used as a defence, by undermining the probable passage of an enemy, and blowing him up. But its force had not been directed through strong metallic tubes, as it was by Europeans soon after they had discovered that composition." Yet this invention did not prove so decisive for those who first availed themselves of it as to mark distinctly in history the precise time when its practice first took place.*

There is some little difficulty in distinguishing

* Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China, by Sir George Staunton, Bart. Second edition: Bulmer and Co., London, 1798, vol. ii., pp. 292, 293.

EXPLOSIVE INSTRUMENTS OF THE CHINESE. 21

between inflammable substances and those which in a more advanced state were used as propellants; but it is remarkable, in connexion with the former, that China snow, and China salt, are names given to saltpetre by Arabian writers, and white Chinese fire, and red Chinese fire, show, as the names express, that pyrotechny belongs to this ancient people.*

materials.

Other inflammable compositions have also re- Combustible tained their Chinese names, as Joung-ko (hive of bees), another kind of weapon no less terrible than the Ty-lai (terrestial thunder), and belonging to the same age; Leho-yas (devouring fire), Le-hotoung (box or tube of fire), Le-tien-ho-kien, that is to say, a globe containing the fire of heaven, the effects of which appear to have been similar to those of the Greek fire, and to have been known several centuries before the Christian era.†

instruments,

A more formidable instrument, the thunder of Explosive the earth, is thus described. A hollow globe of and iron, large enough to contain a bushel of gunpowder, with which it was charged, mixed with fragments of iron and brass. One or more of these being placed where the enemy was expected to advance, it was exploded at the proper moment

*Bibliographical Index to the Historians of Muhammedan India, by H. M. Elliott, Esq. (Calcutta, 1849, pp. 345, 346), compared with Du feu Grégois, et des Origines de la Poudre, par M. Reinaud et M. Favé, p. 176. Paris, 8vo, 1845.

+ Du feu Grégois et des Origines de la Poudre, p. 178.