Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1897-02-13
GUNS OF THE PURlTANS.


Not the BlundcrbusseS Usually Represent
ed by artists.
On- of the most remarkable facts
to the investigator of ouI American
antiquities is the almost total igno
rance which prevails among even
those who are otherwise well in
formed as to the weapons, more es-
pecially the firearms, with which
our Puritan ancestors fought their
wars with the Indians. One of the
notions which seems firmly estab-
ished is that the early settlers gen
orally used the bell muzzle blunder
buss, Almost every artist who
draws Thanksgiving OF Christmas
picture of Il Puritan going to meet
ing gives him a gun with Il muzzle
like the end of trumpet. Now, the
fact is that the lCll mouth frearm
was never Al military arm among
English speaking people at all, nor
was such Il weapon ever common
either in this country or in England
until about the middle of the last
century, when it came into use for
the defense of houses against bur
glars, for stagecOach guards and
similar purposes. The blunderbusses
which are common enough in the
curiosity slOl ile almost without
exception later tlan 1850, and many
of them GN,c only from the early
part OF this century
"A large. lell mouthcd gun was in
use somcW hat earlier on board of
naval and other ;1med ships, but
this was IL Heavy liecc mounted on
a swivel and used very much as the
howitzer was later.
Then as t. the lccks. Even some
of our most distinguished writer's
seem to le conn letely at sea ON this
point. One New England writer,
whom I will not name 4or fear of
seeming disrespectiul to Il man de-
serving Of honor, wrote some time
ago in a magazine article that some
soldier III King Philips war might
have invented the fiintlOck by find
ing that an Indian flint arrowhead
would make fire il inserted into the
cock of his matchlock Now, the
soldier of 1873 WAS given Il match
lock, not because the military au-
thOrities Nerc ignorant of guns
which could make their own fire
(wheel lock-; and snal haUnces were
in common use), but because the
matchbox was considered better for
ordinary Use. More than this, if he
had thought of it, he would have
known that his matchbox would
not make ilre Nith a flint. The flint
lock with which our wan of indie
pendoncc was fought requires a
powerful blow TO make the flint
strike fire from the steel. This the
matchbox did not have, nor did the
pan cover oIen III such away as to
mako this possible.
At the time Of King Philips war
and for q long time afterward the
ordinary ti1taIm for infantry was
the matchbox nlus ket. These are
plenty in EuIol can collections, but
very rare in America. l have never
seen one III any collection in this
country AT the same time the snap
hauncc, a primitive form of the
fintlock, was quite extensively used
by hunters, and probably by the In
dams, who would naturally object
to the match, which if kept lighted
would Eetray its presence, especial
ly at night. Wheel locks were prob
ably used 10 some extent by the
earliest settlers, but it was always
an exceptional ann and too costly to
be generally used. BY the time of
King Philips war it was rather old
fashioned and not likely to have fig
ured much. In Springfield is a fine
bronze statue of one of the early
settlers, WHO is represented with a
wheel lock llunderllas This is, of
course, Io"eible-anything is posi-
BILE. But ii any wheel lock blunder-
blss can be toulld i'll any collection
of Europe OF this colnt1y I would
like to see it.-EOstOn Transcript.