1876.] E. Maclagan— On Early Asiatic Fire Weapons. 57 



at Creci. But a recent reviewer has indicated two manuscripts of Froissart 

 m which they are distinctly mentioned as used by the English on that 

 occasion. And he gives some quotations.* Froissart had spoken of guns 

 employed at an earlier date —at the siege of Stirling by the Scots in 1341. 

 Tytler {Hist, of Scotland, Vol. IZ, p. 60) says this is not corroborated by 

 contemporary historians. But at a still earlier date they had been used 

 in Britain, if, as is generally understood, guns are meant by the war-crakes 

 (crakys of weir), mentioned by Barbour as having been first seen by the 

 Scots in their skirmishes with Edward Ill's forces in Northumberland in 

 1327.f 



But long after those days, in Britain and other countries where gun- 

 powder and its modern application were well known, the employment of 

 cannon had not made great progress. In India they were used by Babar, 

 as largely, it would seem, as the means and skill available would permit \ 

 and he was not much behind other countries in this respect. In 1528, when 

 he had the aid of artillery in forcing the passage of the Ganges near 

 Kanauj, he says, "For several days, while the bridge was constructing, 

 Ustad 'All Kuli played his gun remarkably well. The first day he discharged 

 it eight times ; the second day sixteen times ; and for three or four days 

 he continued firing at the same rate." J This was just fifteen years after 

 Flodden, when artillery practice was at much the same stage in Britain, 



Their marshall'd lines stretched east and west, 



And fronted north and south, 

 And distant salutation pass'd 



From the loud cannon mouth ; 

 Not in the close successive rattle 



* " Li Engles — descliquierent aucuns kanons qu'il avoient en le bataille pour esba- 

 hir les G-enevois." 



" Les Engles avoient entre eulx deulx des bonbardieaulx, et en firent deulx ou trois 

 descliquier sur ces Genevois." And from another chronicle (St. Denis) the reviewer 

 quotes, " Lesquels Anglois gietterent trois canons : dont il advint que les Genevois 

 arbalestiers qui estoient au premier front tournerent les dos et laissierent a traire ; si ne 

 scet Ten se ce fu par trai'son, mais Dieu le scet." Saturday Review, July 2ith, 1875. Ke- 

 view of Edward III. by Rev. W. Warburton, M. A. The reviewer makes these notes 

 with reference to an observation of the author that Villani is the only historian who 

 mentions the employment of cannon at Creci. 



t Tytler, Hist, of Scotland, IV, 150. Note. Sir Walter Scott also gives a note in 

 the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border on this mention of guns by Barhour. Some early 

 notices of powder and cannon are referred to by a writer in Notes and Queries, May 15th, 

 1869. The earliest date mentioned is dr. 1326. 



X Memoirs of Baber, tr. by ley den and Er shine, p. 379 ; Er shine, Hist, of India under 

 the first two sovereigns of the Souse of Taimur, Baber, and Humayun, I. 486. Dowson's 

 Elliot, IV, 279. 

 H 



V. 



