58 E. Maclagan— On Early Asiatic Mre Weapons. n$ j 



That breathes the voice of modern battle, 

 But slow, and far between.* 



It was not till after many improvements and much further experience 

 during a long course of years, that things came to be done after this other 

 manner. 



The walls grew weak ; and fast and hot 

 Against them pour'd the ceaseless shot, 

 With unabating fury sent 

 From battery to battlement ; 

 And thunder-like the pealing din 

 Eose from each heated culverin.f 



Babar gives a name to the gun which his engineer and master-gunner 

 'Ali Kuli, managed in the way above mentioned : — (" the gun which he 

 fired was that called Deg Ghdzi, the victorious gun" — ) from which it is 

 seen that he had others, besides one which was put Ivors de combat at an 

 early period in the engagement (" Another gun, longer than this, had 

 been planted, but it burst at the first fire"). But it is not likely that the 

 many other carriages ('ardha), mentioned in other accounts of his war equip- 

 ment,]: mean guns, but rather, (as supposed by M. Pavet de Courteille, the 

 latest translation of Babar's Memoirs, and by Prof. Dowson) carts of some 

 kind, used for transport of ordnance stores and for other purposes in con- 

 nection with the guns. Ley den (or Erskine) translates the word as guns, 

 even when mentioning so large a number as seven hundred. This is out of 

 the question. It appears indeed from other notices of Babar's artillery that 

 on some occasions, a single piece was all he had, though at other times he 

 had several. § "About noon-day prayers, a person came from Ustad with 

 notice that the bullet was ready to be discharged, and that he waited for 

 instructions. I sent orders to discharge it, and to have another loaded 

 before I came up." H A deal of work has often been done with a single 

 gun. But the possession of the new weapon did not confer a very formid- 

 able superiority when this was the whole of the artillery.^" 



* Marmion, YI, 23. 



In the early days of artillery in Europe " it was usual for a field-piece not to be 

 discharged more than twice in the course of an action." Prescott, Ferdinand and Isabella, 

 I, 87. 



f Byron, Siege of Corinth. 



% Dowson' s Elliot, Tuzak-i-Bdbari, IV, 268, and Note. 



§ James's ordnance, at Flodden, as given by Pitscottie, consisted of " seven can- 

 nons that he had forth of the Castle of Edinburgh, which were called the Seven Sisters, 

 casten by Robert Borthwick, the master-gunner, with other small artillery, bullet, pow- 

 der, and all manner of order, as the master-gunner could devise." Marmion, Note 3 J). 



|| Tuzak-i-Bdbari, Dowson, IV, 285. 



If Reminding one of Hood's account of the arrangements for quelling an election 

 riot, as supposed to be described in the letter of a country cousin at the scene of action, 



