Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-04-20
The Cannon Six Centuries Ago.

There is nothing in the history OF the
Chinese, nor in their 'sDictionary of Arts
and Sciences that bears any allusion to
their knowledge Of cannon, before the
invasion of Gengis Khan in 1919, when
mention is made of h0-pas, or fire. tubes,
the present name of cannon, which are
said to kill men, and to set fire to infam-
mable substance; they are said, too. to
have been used by the Tartars, not by the
Chinese, and very probably We're moth
ing more than the enormous rocket
known in India at the period of the Mo-
hammedan invasion.
The Moors, or Arabs, in Spain, appear
to have used gunpowder and cannon IN
the beginning of the fourteenth century !;
an isolated case is mentioned even at an
earlier date. In the Cronica de Espana,
by Abu-Abdalla, it is said, that GEL Rey
de Granada, Abu.Walid, Ilevo consign al
sitio de Baza una gruessa maquina, que,
cargada con mirtos de azutre, q dondole
fucgo, despediG con- estuend0 globos contra
ell Aleazar de aquella Ciudad." And in
1881, when the King OF Granada laid
siege to Alicant, he battered its walls
with iron bullets discharged By fire from
machines. This novel mode Of warfare,
adds the annalist, inspired great ter
rOr.
It is stated in the "Cronica de Don
Alonzo ell Onceno" that when Alonzo XII,
King of CASTLE. beseiged Algesiras in
1925 the Moorish garrison in defending
the place, "lanzaban muchos truenos
contra la hueste en- que lanzaban pellas
de ferro muy grandes." That the
truenos Citerally "thunders') were a
species Of cannon, and fired with powder,
is clear from other passages in the same
chronicle. And Mariana mentions the
circumstance Of the inhabitants defend
ing themselves by 'tiros con polvora que
lanzaban piedras,' and adds that this was
the first instance be had found Of any
mention Of the use of such arms. The
celebrated battle Of Creci was fought by
Edward III. in 1346; and Hume, on the
authority of VILLAIN, says the English had
cannon, but not the French. The asser-
ton is unsupported by Froissart, who
was a contemporary, and almost an eye
witness; he makes no mention of cannon,
although he describes the battle very
infinitely. Thomas Of Walsingham, who
wrote more than three centuries before
Hume, and who not only gives detailed
account Of the battle, but even specifies
by name the arms and weapons used by
the English, makes no mention of cannon,
which he certainly would have done had
they been used.
The Oldest piece of cannon in existence
is preserved in the Castle of St. Juiliao
da Barra, ten miles from Lisbon; it is
twenty feet seven inches in length, and
discharges ball of one hundred pound
weight. 1t has neither dolphins, rings,
nor button; is Of a strange metal, and
has an Hindostan inscription, which saws
it was cast in the..year 140O.
Cannon were originally made Of iron
bars soldered together and bound round
with strong iron hoops. Some of these
relics of the culmsiness of our ancestors
may still be seen. One is in the Tower
of London, two at Woolwich, and one
in the Royal Arsenal Lisbon. They were
sometimes also made with leather anG
| plates of iron and copper.
Queen Elizabeth's pocket pistol is wei
known. At Bots le-Duc, in France
there is cannon called the Devil; there
Is an eighty FOUNDER In the Tower
brought from Edinburg Castle, calico
Mounts Meg; an eighty FOUNDER in thu
| Arsenal at Berlin called the Thunderer
two curious sixty Founders in the Arsena
at Bremen called the Messengers of BAG
News; and, lastly, a seventy FOUNDER il
the Castle of St. Angelo, at Rome, mad
of the nails which covered the Oh
Pantheon, with this inscription: "Excla
Wis trabalibus, Porticus Agrippa."
There was at Tong Castle, in Shrop
shire, a forty FOUNDER called ''Clear tn
way of the Lord" which was used at tn
demolition of Cheney Longuville Castl
in that county by Oliver Cromwell. TIL
Protector gave Scripture phrases a
names to most of the Commonwealth
impressions of which they generally bore