ARTILLERY. 



probability that the invention was of a 

 much more remote date ; as it is not like- 

 ly that cannon, immediately after the dis- 

 covery of gunpowder, would have been 

 brought to sufficient perfection for wall 

 service ; or that a very new invention 

 would have been alluded to in the nomi- 

 nation of the pieces used in the game of 

 chess, peculiar to China. 



It is so far from an impossibility that the 

 same thing may have been invented by 

 different persons in various parts of the 

 world, that no fact is better proved to have 

 frequently occurred ; but to invent an im- 

 portant matter, and to bring it into gene- 

 ral use, are distinct affairs, and seldom 

 fall to the lot of the same person. 



The discovery made by Bacon was 

 most probably not more attended to in 

 an age of ignorance, than new discove- 

 ries are at the present enlightened period, 

 when they make such slow progress to- 

 wards universal adoption : and that of 

 Schwartz was evidently of the same na- 

 ture. It is, therefore, much more proba- 

 ble, that the use of gunpowder in war was 

 derived ultimately from the Chinese, than 

 that it originated in the cell of an obscure 

 monk, such as Schwartz ; or of one, 

 though of more notoriety, yet from the 

 prejudices of the times held in abhor- 

 rence for an imputation of sorcery, as 

 Bacon was. The mode in which the use 

 of gunpowder in war might have passed 

 from China to Europe is the most proba- 

 ble ami simple imaginable. Zingis Khan 

 is known to have conquered the five north- 

 ern provincesofChinaaboutthe year!234. 

 In this conquest, that he must have learn- 

 ed the use of gunpowder, and have prac- 

 tised it afterwards, would have been ma- 

 nifest from reason alone ; as at that time 

 it had been in common use in China up- 

 wards of 1400 years, from the facts before 

 stated But \ve have also the positive 

 testimony of history to attest this point ; 

 for in the Chinese annals of the Moguls 

 by Yuen, as translated by Pere Gaubil, 

 it is particularly stated, that the use of 

 cannon and mortars was familiar in the 

 wars and sieges of Zingis against the Chi- 

 nese, both by them and him, in attack 

 and defence. It is most probable that he 

 used gunpowder in his wars against Mo- 

 hammed, Sultan of Carisme, whose domi- 

 nions extended from the Persian gulphto 

 the borders of India and of Turkistan ; 

 all which he added to his empire, de- 

 stroying many flourishing cities, and lay- 

 ing waste a tract of many hundred miles, 

 extending from the Caspian Sea to the 

 Indus, which was richly adorned with the 



labours and buildings of mankind ; and 

 which has not yet in the least recovered 

 from the effect of his ravages. It is well 

 known that he had a body of Chinese en- 

 gineers in his army, who of course must 

 have been acquainted with the use of gun- 

 powder ; and his rapid successes were 

 probably greatly owing to this circum- 

 stance. The conquests of Zingis would 

 thus have spread the knowledge of gun- 

 powder over the western part of Asia, 

 where, at the time of the crusades, the 

 Europeans would have frequent opportu- 

 nities of learning it ; and accordingly we 

 find that it was just after this time that it 

 was first used by Europeans in war. At 

 no long period after the return of Ed- 

 ward the First to England, who was so 

 famous for his victories in Palestine, we 

 hear of cannon used by the English 

 against the French. The Venetians, who 

 used them in their wars to so much great- 

 er extent, that the invention has been 

 commonly attributed to them, were of all 

 Europeans the most connected with Asia 

 at that period ; therefore those who 

 would be most likely to learn the use of 

 gunpowder from the Asiatics : and these 

 are strong testimonies in favour of the in- 

 troduction of the invention into Europe 

 in the manner stated, especially as we can 

 trace many arts to Asia, which are well 

 known to have been also learned there 

 by Europeans at the time of the Crusades. 

 Another argument in favour of this opi- 

 nion is, that the first war, in which cannon 

 were much employed in Europe, was one 

 carried on by Asiatics against Europeans, 

 in which they were used exclusively bythe 

 Asiatics. It was most remarkable in this 

 war, at the siege of Constantinople, and 

 in 1453, in which Mahomet the Second 

 used one of the largest cannon ever made, 

 which threw a stone bullet of 600ft?s. 

 weight. Some knowledge of the use of 

 gunpowder might also have been intro- 

 duced into Europe by the successes of 

 Zingis, who extended their conquests 

 over a large portion of Russia, the great- 

 est part of Poland, and subdued all Hun- 

 gary except three cities, and overran Ser- 

 via, Bosnia, and Bulgaria ; and who must 

 have known its effects in war, when it 

 was used by the armies of their prede- 

 cessors, as before shown. In addition to 

 the reasons mentioned for the Asiatic ori- 

 gin of the use of gunpowder, it should be 

 noted, that the Germans were or.e of the 

 last nations in Europe who adopted its 

 use ; which renders its having been first 

 invented in that country highly improV 

 bable. 



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