216 



ON THE WEAPONS USED 



The same Martin Bellay who states this fact, further informs 

 us that the German horse or Better were the first, who were 

 armed with pistols, and that those troopers were thence called 

 pistoliers. Musket is a still later weapon. It has got its 

 name from the French mouchet (Latin tnuschettts, sparrow 

 hawk). 87 The Duke of Alva is reported to have first used 

 them in the Netherlands. 



The gun was originally fired by the simple application of 

 a lighted match. The clumsiness and uncertainty of this 

 procedure especially during storms and rains suggested 

 improvements. At first a cock was added to give security 

 to the hand, afterwards a flrestone was inserted into this 

 cock and a small wheel was fastened to the barrel. The 

 wheel lock is said to have been invented in 1517 at Niirn- 

 berg in Bavaria. The firestone first used was not the flint 

 which was employed later, but the pyrites or marcasite. 

 The match was nevertheless not altogether discarded, as 

 the stone often missed fire, and it was retained together 

 with the wheel. Flint locks were of a far later origin. They 

 were first used in 1687 by the Brunswick ers, and they 

 were introduced into England under William III during the 

 years 1692-93. These continued improvements, to which we 

 may add the modern percussion lock, the needle-gun, and the 

 breech-loader, were mainly necessitated by the perilous and 

 defenceless position a soldier was in as soon as he had 

 discharged his gun against an enemy, who chose this moment 

 as convenient to attack him. The greater the rapidity in 

 loading, the greater is the efficiency of the fireweapon. 



If we now turn our attention from the West to the East 

 we find that powder and firearms seem to have been much 

 earlier used in the latter than in the former. 



It is recorded that in the battle near Delhi fought between 

 Tamerlane and Sultan Mahmud, the latter opposed his 



87 According to others it was invented at the end of the fifteenth century 

 by one Moketta of Velletri. after whom it is said to have been named. 



