170 GUNPOWDER. 



and the Duke of Bavaria are thought to have been the first princes 

 who made saltpetre in Europe*. 



It ought not to he concealed from the reader, that Camerarius 

 quotes a Danish historian, as relating that Christopher, king of the 

 Danes, was killed in battle by the stroke of a gun, in the I280r. 

 Upon examining the passage quoted by Camerarius J, it is only said, 

 that Christopher, the son of King Wajdemar, was killed in the 

 beginning of an engagement by a gun, a warlike instrument then 

 lately discovered. Now it appears , that NValdemar, Christopher's 

 father, did notsucceed to tin- crown of Denmark till the y i ar 1332, 

 and that his son was killed in a naval engagement several years 

 afterwards)!, probably about the time assigned by Munster for the 

 first use of gunpowder in Denmark. 



But we are able, upon good grounds, to carry the discovery of 

 gunpowder to a period antecedent to the date of the Amberg piece 

 of ordnance ; and it is probable enough, that its composition was 

 known long before we read any thing of its use in war. 



Roger Bacon died at Oxford in 1292. In the printed copies of 

 the works of this renowned Monk, there are two or three passages, 

 from which it may fairly be inferred, thnt he knew the compo. 

 sition of gunpowder1[ ; and a manuscript copy is said to have been 

 seen**, wherein saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal, are expressly 

 mentioned, as the ingredients of a composition which would burn 

 at any distance. But though it be allowed, that Bacon was well 

 acquainted with the composit'on of gunpowder, it will not follow, 

 either that he was the first discoverer of it, or that he knew its ap- 

 plication to fire-arms. 



Clarke's Nat. His. of Saltpetre. 



f Cranzius scribit Christophormn Dannrum re^om in praelio bombard ac ictij 

 occisum anno 12bO. Camera, ilor. Subs. foil. p. 3. 312. 



J Cranzius Vandal. Lib. VIII. C. 23. 



() Cranzins Daniae Lib. VII. C. 32. 



(I Id. Lib. VII. C. 38. 



f In oinnom disiantiam qnam volumu?, possumus nrlificialiter componcrc 

 ignem comburcntem ex sale petraj ct alii;- It. Bacon de Mirab. Potes. ArtN ct 

 Naturae, Epis. C. VI. sod lumen viliis pctra Luru vpo vir can utriei siilphu- 

 risetbic fades (onilrum ct coru-c:itionem,si ?cias artificiuin. Id. ib. C. XI- It 

 is very probable, that in the first <>: thr-e passages, Baron, concealed sulphur and 

 charcoal under the word alii-; :ind (hat in the last, having mentioned saltpetre 

 and sulphur, he concealed charcoal and the method of mixing the three ingre- 

 dients, under the barbarous terms, Lnru vopo vir can utriet. ' 



* Plott'i Nat. His. of Oxfordkhire. 



