. artillery. 
The discovery made by Bacon was most 
probably not more attended to in an age of 
ignorance, than new discoveries are at the 
present eulightened period, when they make 
such a slow progress towards universal 
adoption ; and that of Schwartz was evi- 
dently of the same nature. It is, therefore, 
much more probable that the use of gun- 
powder in wav was derived ultimately from 
the Chinese, than that it originated in the 
cell of an obscure monk, such as Schwartz ; 
or of one, though of more notoriety, yet 
from the prejudices of the times held in 
abhorrence for an imputation of sorcery, as 
Bacon was. The mode in which the use of 
gunpowder in war might have passed from 
China to Europe, is the most probable and 
simple imaginable. Zingis Khan is known 
to have conquered the five northern pro- 
vinces of China about the year 1234. In 
this conquest that he must have learned the 
use of gunpowder, and have practised it 
afterwards, would have been manifest from 
reason alone ; as at that time it had been in 
common use in China upwards of 1400 
years, from the facts before stated. But 
we have also the positive testimony of his- 
tory to attest this point, for in the Chinese 
annals of the Moguls by Yuen, as translated 
by Pere Gaubil, it is particularly stated that 
the use of cannon and mortars was familiar 
in the wars and sieges of Zingis agamst the 
Chinese, both by them and him, in attack 
and defence. It is most probable that he 
used gunpowder in his wars against Moham- 
med, Sultan of Cavisme, whose dominions 
extended from the Persian Gulph to the 
borders of India and of Turkistan ; all which 
he added to his empire, destroying many 
flourishing cities, and laying waste a tract 
of many hundred miles, extending from the 
Caspian Sea to the Indus, which was richly 
adorned with the labours and buildings of 
mankind ; and which has not yet in the least 
recovered from the effect of his ravages. 
It is well known that he had a body of 
Chinese engineers in his army, who of course 
must have been acquainted with the use of 
gunpowder; and his rapid successes were 
probably greatly owing to this circumstance. 
The conquests of Zingis would thus have 
spread the knowledge of gunpowder over 
the western part of Asia, where at the time 
of the crusades the Europeans would have 
frequent opportunities of learning it ; and 
accordingly we find that it was just after 
this time that it was first used by Europeans 
in war. At no long period after the return 
of Edward the First to England, who was so 
famous for his victories in Palestine, we 
hear of cannon used by the English against 
the French. The Venetians who used them 
in their wars to so much greater extent, 
that the invention has been commonly attri- 
buted to them, were of all Europeans the 
most connected with Asia at that-period ; 
therefore those who would be most likely 
to learn the use of gunpowder from the 
Asiatics ; and these are strong testimonies 
in favour of the introduction of the inven- 
tion into Europe in the manner stated, es- 
pecially as we can trace many arts to Asia, 
which are well known to have been also 
learned there by Europeans at the time of 
•the Crusades. Another argument in fa- 
vour of this opinion is, that the first war 
in which cannon were much employed in 
Europe, was one carried on by Asiatics 
against Europeans, in which they were used 
exclusively by the Asiatics. It was most re- 
markable in this war at the siege of Constan- 
tinople, and in 1453, in which Mahomet the 
Second used one of the largest cannon ever 
made, which threw a stone bullet of 600 lbs. 
weight. Some knowledge of the use of gun- 
powder might also have been introduced 
into Europe by the successes of Zingis, who 
extended their conquests over a large por- 
tion of Russia, the greatest part of Poland, 
and subdued all Hungary except three 
cities, and overran Servia, Bosnia, and Bul- 
garia ; and who must have known its effects 
in war, when it was used by the armies of 
their predecessor as before shewn. In addition 
to the reasons mentioned for the Asiatic ori- 
gin of the use of gunpowder, it should be 
noted that the Germans were one of the 
last nations in Europe who adopted its use ; 
which renders its having been first invented 
in that country highly improbable. 
It was many years after the introduction 
of cannon in Europe before they attained 
that form and equipment which fitted them 
for any extensive use. At the siege of Con- 
stantinople, before mentioned, which was 
107 years after the battle of Cressy, their 
form was in the highest degree rude and in- 
convenient; the object in their use then 
seemed to be to imitate the effect of the 
ancient balista, in throwing large masses of 
stone ; the large cannon, before mentioned, 
that threw a stone of 60016s. weight, was so 
unwieldy that 60 oxen were employed near- 
ly two months in drawing it about 150 miles 
from Adrianople ; and it could be only 
charged and discharged seven times each 
day. 
We find that at no very remote period 
