The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1879-05-31

By DIR. r. SHELTON MACKENZIE

kinds of elastic and tough wood. The |
arrows, made of reeds or light wood, /
were often pointed at the ends with sharp /
stone instead of iron.
At present, the bow and arrow makers |
have an extended choice of materials, as !
well for the bow and the arrow as for the |
string. The arbalest, or arblast (which /
is the olden name of the cross-bow), was |
IN use In Europe long before the battle |
of Hastings, tonight A. ID. 1906, on which |
occasion it was used with great effect by
the invading army of the Duke of Nor
mandy, historically known as William
the Conqueror.
In Walter SCOTS romance of g Ivan
hoe, Robin Hood is effectively intro
duced as exhibiting his skill with the
bow The arbalest, though destructive
weapon, when well-handled, was infe-
rior, in battle, to the low bow. from
which succession of arrows could be
discharged while the abalester was wind
ing his cumbrous machinery for the dis
charge of one.
For centuries before, and even after,
the invention of firearms, the bow was
frequent and formible weapon in the
hands of English soldiers. Even SO late
as the early part of the sixteenth CEN
tury, Henry VIII. made strenuous eff
forts to retain skillful bowmen in his
army.
The wood, Of the best quality, was
imported from abroad, and we read of
bow-staves imported duty-free. Yew
was considered to be the best wood, but
ash, which has long, continuous grain
or fibre, was much used, being less
costly.
The arrows, originally made of reeds,
finally were made of ash. The manu-
facture of steel arrow-heads was lucra-
tive calling. The arrows were feathered
with portions of goose wing. The bow
man usually carried sheaf of twenty
four arrows, in quiver, at his back or
right side, besides three or four ready
for immediate use in his girdle.
The use of the lance, in which the saw
age inhabitants of Australia, most of the
islands in the Pacific Ocean, the western
part of the North American Continent,
and large portion of Africa, have been
| found skilled, is of great antiquity In
many instances, lance-heads of flint, Gu
riously shaped, sharpened and fashion
ed, were used before iron was applied
for that purpose. Very frequently, those
who used the lance also carried shields,
covered with skins or metal.
At present, in Zulu-land, in South
Africa, where war is now raging, the ma
tive soldiers carry lance, shield and q
light sword, most of them being also
armed with rifles, in the use of which
they are said to have acquired deadly
skill. 1t does not appear that they have
yet attained the art of making guns or
gunpowder.
One popular belief is that, about the
year 1896, one Berthold Swartz discov-
cred the art of making gunpowder. There
is tradition, however, that it was used
in China as early as the year A. D. S5,
and that the knowledge of the same was
conveyed to Europe on the return of the
Crusaders from Asia Minor.
/ Roger Bacon, the well known British
scholar and particularly chemist of the
thirteenth century, has been supposd
from sort of enigmatical mention OF
an infammable powder, formed by q
| very intimate mixture of nitre, charcoal,
potash and sulphur) to have indicated
the discovery of the destructive com
pound which has oyerthrown nations and
dynasties.
The Germans, who really have been
great and ingenious inventors-as type
founding, printing, oil-painting, watch
making, ithography and other ingen'
ious arts exhibit-are so sure of being
entitled to the credit of having also in
vented gun powder that they have
erected q bronze statue of Swartz in the
picturesque square of Freiburg.
1t is hard, very hard, to believe that
the Chinaman, whom it has become the
fashion to depict as well acquainted with
almost every modern invention few
centuries before it was known in Europe
should also have been credited with the
invention of what Falstaff energetically
called ''villainous gunpowder."
For one, l don't believe it. / have
been a reader land to some extent q
writer) of history all my life, and no an.
nalist, ancient or modern, has given me
reliable assurance that the Mongols OF
Mantchus of the Celestial Empire bat
tered each other with cannon balls long
before European combatants had wit
messed that species of combatancy
Once that gunpowder came into use
the whole system of wharfage was chang
ed. Heretofore, the art of defense has
been in advance of the art of destruc
tion. But with cannons and gunpowder
mortars and arquebuses, the tables were
turned at once.
The bow, previously mentioned, had
come into Europe from the East, where
it had been used exclusively by cavalry
At the shoulder of stout and stalwart
Norman, German or Briton, it was a
formidable weapon.
To be effective, its use required a
ready eye, as well as strong arm. Very
often the arrow glanced harmlessly of
the polished armor with which it came
in contact When, rarely enough, il
went throught the joints of the har-
ness, as in the case of the King of Is
rael at Ramoth Gilead, that was more
| likely to be from "a bow drawn at a
venture" than from the true aim and
sore hand of the archer.
As rule, then, the casualties of early
warfare were not very great. At an in
termediate time, when the system OF
ransoming military captives of the sword
or bow was in vogue, to kill an enemy
was the worst use he could be put to.
! Defeated knights, as in the time of
Richard Ceur de Lion fwho died in the
last year of the twelfth century,, had to
pay ransom, for themselves and their
war steeds, when they came to grief, -
| even in the tournament We have an
example of this in the spirited and accu-
rate pages of the mock combat of
knights at Ashby y-de-la-Zoueh, before
Prince John and his mobiles, as related
| in SCOTS .'Ivanhoe."
Whether in the real or mimic combat,
the defeated was subject to demands for
ransom from the cupidity of the con-
| queror. OF course, this refers only to
knights and esquires who had money or
valuables with which to purchase their
| liberation
Long after artillery came into use in
| Europe, it was so unscientiically con-
structed that the full power Of destruc-
ton was not got out of an invention
which at first seemed as if it were des-
| tined to exterminate mankind
Whoever may be SO curious as to wish
to trace artillery science back to its ear
liest practice would do well to devote q
| day or two to a stroll of observation
through some arsenal or museum fthe
Louvre, in Paris, or the Tower of Lon
dom stocked with the old fashioned in
vention of artillerists of days long since
departed.
Curious and quaint the ancient ord
4 nance anneara when coufrastad side l,xy