the Force of Fired Gunpowder. 1 1 1 



stances, the various effects produced by its explosion ; 

 and as a long habit of meditating upon this subject 

 rendered everything relating to it highly interesting to 

 me, I seized these opportunities with avidity, and ex- 

 amined all the various phsenomena with steady and in- 

 defatigable attention. 



During a cruise which I made, as a volunteer, in the 

 Victory, with the British fleet, under the command of 

 my late worthy friend Sir Charles Hardy, in the year 

 1779, I had many opportunities of attending to the fir- 

 ing of heavy cannon ; for though we were not fortunate 

 enough to come to a general action with the enemy, as is 

 well known, yet, as the men were frequently exercised at 

 the great guns and in firing at marks, and as some of 

 my friends in the fleet, then captains, (since made 

 admirals,) as the Honourable Keith Stewart, who 

 commanded the Berwick of 74 guns, — Sir Charles 

 Douglas, who commanded the Duke of 98 guns, — and 

 Admiral Macbride, who was then captain of the Bien- 

 faisant of 64 guns, were kind enough, at my request, to 

 make a number of experiments, and particularly by fir- 

 ing a greater number of bullets at once from their heavy 

 guns than ever had been done before, and observing the 

 distances at which they fell in the sea ; I had opportu- 

 nities of making several very interesting observations, 

 which gave me much new light relative to the action of 

 fired gunpowder. And afterwards, when I went out to 

 America, to command a regiment of cavalry which I 

 had raised in that country for the King's service, his 

 Majesty having been graciously pleased to permit me to 

 take out with me from England four pieces of light 

 artillery, constructed under the direction of the late 

 Lieutenant-General Desaguliers, with a large propor- 



