456 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



upon them, and the armes of King Vitney, who, he saith, was the 

 inventor." 



Another passage from Philostratus, the historian of Apollonius 

 Tyanseus, about the commencement of the third century, has 

 also been referred to by writers in favor of the antiquity of this 

 invention. In speaking of a people of India called Oxydracae, 

 this ancient authority remarks: " These truly wise men dwelt 

 between the rivers Hyphasis and Ganges. Their country Alexander 

 the Great never entered, deterred, not by fear of the inhabitants, 

 but, as I suppose, by religious considerations ; for, had he passed 

 the Hyphasis, he might doubtless have made himself master of the 

 country all around them; but their cities he never could have 

 taken, though he had led a thousand as brave as Achilles or three 

 thousand such as Ajax to the assault, for they come not out into 

 the field to fight those who attack them, but these holy men, be- 

 loved by the gods, overthrow their enemies by tempests and thun- 

 derbolts shot from the walls. It is said that the Egyptian Her- 

 cules and Bacchus, when they overran India, avoided this people also, 

 and, having prepared warlike engines, attempted to conquer them. 

 They made no show of resistance ; but upon the enemy's near ap- 

 proach to their cities they were repulsed with storms of lightning 

 and thunderbolts hurled upon them from above." 



In the Opus Magus of Friar Bacon, who died about 1294, may 

 be found a particular description of the effects of a certain com- 

 pound of saltpetre and other ingredients, which, when ignited, gave 

 results analogous to those of thunder and lightning ; and, further- 

 more, it is stated when these elements are rightly amalgamated 

 and properly applied, the force of the explosion would be suffi- 

 ciently powerful to destroy not only an army, but even to overturn 

 an entire city. 



These remarks, together with some others even still more per- 

 spicuous on this head, have led most inquirers to conclude that the 

 learned friar was at least well acquainted with the components and 

 effects, if not well versed in the precise composition and applica 

 tion, of gunpowder. 



