364 G A N G E T 1 C II I N D O O S T A N. 



performance not to be lurpafTed for elegant concifenefs, and 

 comprehenfive brevity. Thefe rockets a6t with great force, for 

 I have heard of one that paffed through the body of a bullock, 

 and afterwards killed a man. If I remember right, they are 

 alio ufed in lieges. Fire arrows are ufed either to burn 

 Ihipping, or to fet on fire belleged towns. Thefe were fre- 

 quently ufed in Europe from early times. Thofe in India were 

 difcharged from a bamboo ; after they had flown a certain way, 

 they divided into feveral different darts or ftreams of fire, each 

 of which took effe(5l^ and could not be extinguifhed ; this 

 fpecies is now lofl:> but was known in the w'ars between the 

 Saracens and the Grecian empire. Le feu gregeois, or the 

 Greek fire, was the deftru6tion of the Saracennic fleet before 

 ConJlantinQple^ in 718. It was miflile, and difcharged feveral 

 Gunpowder. ways, fome of which W'as by darts or javelins. We will admit 

 the early application of gunpowder for warlike purpofes, and 

 will alfo admit that the difcovery of that fatal fecret was dif- 

 covered in India and in ClAna ; but excepting in the inflances 

 we have induced, it is never iifed but for fire-works on feftive 

 occalions, in which the Indians excel all the world. 



We will alfo allow, that it was found out very long before 

 the days of Roger Bacon. That great man made the difcovery 

 in England before the year 1292 (the time of his death). He 

 even hints at the application that might be made of it in battles 

 and in fieges ; but above a century elapfed before it came into 

 military ufe. Poflibly the knowlege of gunpowder might have 

 reached him through the WTitings of the Arabs ; he was deeply 

 verfed in their books. The Jrabs received it from their coun- 

 trymen 



