involved in the Construction of Artillery. 325 



in Europe, at a period before the wrought-iron bombard was disused, transmitted to India, 

 and ornamented by Indian artists there. The weight of the gun, the small size of sea- 

 going vessels in the fourteenth century, the partial overland route to India alone known, 

 the difficulty of transport over that — all make its formation in Europe most improbable. 

 We must conclude, then, that this gun was designed and made in India; and we cannot 

 conclude it later in date than the end of the fourteenth century. Did Europe, then, 

 •ndependently, discover a mode of construction in cannon, of a complex character, identical 

 in all its details with the modes invented in Asia (as it has been said she did gunpowder)? 

 or did Asia in this case learn from Europe? or must we come to the conclusion that Asia 

 ■was the discoverer and the teacher, and that the identity in general dimensions and propor- 

 tions, as well as in all the details, of a very remarkable construction found in the bombards 

 of both continents, is due to this — that they were long known and in use in India and 

 China; ^nd that both the serpentine and the bombard were, like gunpowder, and along 

 with it, eastern inventions, imported to us. 



Colonel Symes, in his "Embassy to Ava, in 1795," informs us that he found, that 

 " cannon, formed of prismatic bars of wrought-iron hooped together, were known in India 

 from a remote antiquity." Du Halde mentions such bombards at the gates of Nankin, 

 as so ancient, that their use had apparently been forgotten ; the Fort of Chittoor, and 

 others, and many strongholds in China, present to this day " fire tubes," which are the 

 real ancestors of the serpentines of early Europe, though the latter became varied and 

 modified, and mounted to suit European wants and modes of transport. 



If cannon, as the corollary of gunpowder, were invented by its reputed European 

 inventors, or near their seats, we should find the progress of the discovery, as it got rapidly 

 into use, spreading over Europe, from England on Saxony as centres ; but the fact is not 

 so. The following dates of the ascertained use of ordnance, in various parts of Europe, 

 all corroborate the view, that the great invention was brought into Europe through Spain, 

 the Levant, and South-eastern Europe, and through the naval or commercial cities of 

 Northern Italy ; and passed into Northern Europe through the great trading and naval 

 nations of the north : — 



A. D. 1118 to 1135. The Moors in Spain use artillery in attack and defence of fortified 

 places (Conde's " Hist. Moors in Spain"). 



1157. The Spaniards have artillery at the siege of Niebla, held by the Moors. 



1156. The Moors use artillery at siege of Bona, in Sicily. 



1249. The Arabians in Egypt, have artillery. 



1280. Cordova besieged with artillery. 



1308. Ferdinand IV. took Gibraltar from the Moors with artillery. 



1311. The City of Brescia defended by bombards, obtained probably from the Venetians. 



1312. Baza, in Spain, attacked with artillery. 



VOL. XXIII. 2 u 



