354 
DON COSSACKS. 
CHAP. 
XIII. 
1 * ' 
taking: but afterwards, when we had assembled 
our workmen, an alarm was spread, and 
speedily increased, by the observations of an 
ignorant physician, that the plague might be 
thus communicated to the people : in conse- 
quence of which we were lorced to abandon 
the design. Several of the Cossacks, never- 
theless, assured us that they had formerly 
opened several mounds; and affirmed that they 
had found in them bones of men and ot horses. 
Sometimes, they said, (and this, it true, would 
be indeed remarkable,) that gun-barrels were 
discovered in these tombs, exhibiting very 
antient workmanship. A Cossack officer shewed 
to us a very extraordinary weapon of this 
nature, which he declared had been discovered 
in one of the mounds in the steppes. But, not- 
withstanding all that may be urged concerning 
any knowledge which the Chinese and Oriental 
hordes are supposed to have possessed of gun- 
powder before its use in Europe, it must appeal 
evident that such weapons were derived from 
the inhabitants of Poland, who employed them 
with matchlocks ; yet the officer alluded to had 
no motive for deviating from truth. Other 
things, (such as vessels of terra-cotta, and instru- 
ments of war, common to antient nations,) said 
to have been found in these heaps, are more 
consistent with probability. 
