The hatchet is common among almost all savage na tions, and is usually made of an edged stone tied to a handle. It is carried in the war expeditions of savages, and appears in the tomahawk somewhat advanced from its original simplicity. Like most other weapons, the hatchet has undergone considerable changes, under the name of battle axes, Lochaber axes, black and brown bills, all implements with which the governments of different countries ordered subjects to provide them selves. A double-headed battle axe, according to father Daniel, an estimable author, was called besague in French, and biftennis in Latin. The Lochaber axe is at this day carried by the serjeants of the town guard of Edinburgh : we do not know of it being used any where else. Battle axes were of many shapes, some consisting simply of a head on the end of a pole ; others combin ing several weapons together, such as a pike horizon tal or straight, several prongs, or a hook.
The sling is an implement of war mentioned at pe riods of the most remote antiquity. Not to speak of those recorded in sacred writ, we have undoubted tes timony, proving their use in the Greek and Roman ar mies; and that they were afterwards known to the in habitants of these kingdoms. Even now the sling is used by the savages of the South Sea islands and other places. That of Duke of York's island consists of some tough dried leaf, several times doubled ; and the strings are manufactured from a fibrous plant. The stones discharged from it arc like a small fowl's egg in size, and fly with much force and precision. The natives of New Caledonia carry stones for their slings, in bags hung from their belts. These stones are cut out from a steatite of considerable hardness, into an oval form. In the Pelew Islands, an implement is used which the describer calls a sling, consisting of a piece of wood about two feet long, with a notch, wherein a dart is fix ed. This, by the curvature either of the wood or of the dart itself, we are unable to determine which, from the indistinctness of the expressions, is projected to a con siderable distance. But we are inclined to refer it to another species of weapons.
The bow, an implement of obvious invention, is un doubtedly of very great antiquity. We believe, not withstanding its simplicity, that it is unknown among the rudest savages of the present day. It seems to have been almost universally used ; and the superiority of the English bowmen was unchallenged. Sensible of the great advantages derived from its effects, the Eng lish government, for several centuries, testifies the ut most anxiety that it should be encouraged. The Scot tish parliament also made fry. ai exertions to induce the people to render themselves skilful in archery. Every youth above twelve years of age, is enjoined to accoutre himself for an archer, by an ai t in 1424. And probably under the impression that at ch ry might he substituted as an amusement, an act in 1457 declares, " that the foot ball and golf shall be utterly cried down and abandoned ; that a pair of butts shall be erected in each parish, where every man shall shoot at least six shots, under penalty of twopence, which is to be given for drink, to those who come, in obedience to the mandates of the statute : Also all persons between twelve and fifty shall practise archery." Thus we have sometimes found the
net ad sagittandum specified in ancient charters. Such spots were carefully preserved front encroachment ; and in the seventeenth century, when archery was encouraged in England, they were ordered still to be set apart, though individuals had, for their own advantage, oblite rated the marks, or appropriated the grounds to them selves. So late as the middle of the eighteenth cen tury, a piece of ground so appropriated was vindicated uncle!' an act of Charles I., by the London company of archers. The English were particularly celebrated for their use of the long bow. The force of an arrow dis charged by it must have been very great; for king Ed ward VI. rolates, that an hundred archers of his guard shot before him at a board of seasoned wood, and the heads of some arrows pierced it quite through. Ac counts of nearly equal feats are given of modern savages. To encourage the importation Of bow-staves, those six feet and a half in length were exempted from duty : and to prevent too great waste of yew, four of different l.inds of wood were to be made for each of this. The bowmen were a numerous corps in ancient armies: Ten thou sand Highland Scottish bowmen attended king James III. before the battle of Bannockburn in 1488. The range of the English long bow was computed to be from sixteen to twenty score yards ; and about the year 1625, it is said that expert archers could discharge six arrows in the time of loading one musket. The length of the long bow was usually six feet, and that of the ar row between two and three. But we are told of bows incomparably smaller being used with dangerous effect. There is a diminutive race of Caffrarians, called Boshis men (or Bushmen) by the Dutch colonists, whose bows do not exceed two feet and a half in length, and dis charge a poisoned arrow nearly as long. It inflicts a mortal wound. The modern Tartars and South Ame rican Indians are celebrated for their skill in archery : the bow of the former is short ; that of the latter long. The Foolas, an African tribe, use a thin split of a bam boo reed for a bowstring, instead of manufacturing it as other nations do. It has frequently been debated by experienced military characters, whether the long bow might not be successfully revived in warlike operations. They have advanced in its favour, that the discharge is never in danger of failure, like gunpowder, from the state of the atmosphere ; that the whizzing of arrows would more easily frighten horses, and throw them into confusion ; and that the men themselves would be much more dismayed by the sight of deadly weapons flying through the air, than affected by the apprehension of suffering from the invisible approach of a musket-ball.