In Grey's Gunnery, printed in London in 1731, the following passage is found, deduced from the life of Apollonius Tyaneus, by Philostratus : "These truly wise men dwell between the Hyphasis and the Ganges : their country Alexander never entered ; deterred, not by fear of the inhabitants, but, as I suppose, by reli gious considerations ; for bad he passed the Hyphasis, he might doubtless have made himself master of the country all round them. But these cities he never could have taken, though lie had led a thousand as brave as Achilles, or three thousand such as Ajax, to the as sault ; for they come not out of the field to fight those who attack them, but these holy men, beloved by the gods, overthrow their enemies with tempests and thun derbolts shot from their walls. It is said that the Egyp tian Hercules and Bacchus, when they overran India, invaded this people also, and having prepared i war like engines, attempted to conquer them: they, n the mean time, made no oitow of resistance, appearing per fectly quiet and secure ; but, upon the enemy's near ap proach, they were repulsed with lightning and thunder boltc ha.led on them from above." These people were the Oxydracx, and the period of Alexander is 355 before the Christian era.
Here then is a record of the very early use of some kind of firework ; whether of ordnance is more doubt ful. We should rather be inclined to think that this story alludes to some kind of rocket, which would ful fil the conditions both of lightning and of thunderbolts, though much more likely to frighten than to destroy an enemy.
The defence of Syracuse by Archimedes in 212 A. C. gives rise to a similar suspicion that even the Greeks were acquainted with some species of firework at that time ; though we do not go so far as to imagine that this celebrated mathematician was acquainted with ord nance. Vitruvius relates that, by means of one of his engines, he threw large stones on the Roman fleet with a terrible noise ; a description which, as far as the noise is concerned, is not applicable to the scorpion, balista, catapults, or any of the mechanical artillery of the ancients.
But, to pass over this conjecture, the history of the Oxydracx will render more easy of belief that which is told of the use of gunpowder, and even of ordnance in China, at a very early period; a time no less distant than 85 years after the birth of Christ; an invention which, if admitted, would prove the much earlier know ledge of less difficult kinds of pyrotechny. We admit that there is, however, somewhat of the air of fable in this story ; yet, to confirm the probability of the very early knowledge of explosive compounds in the east, we may quote the code of Hindoo laws, in which it is mentioned ; while oriental antiquaries suppose that the date of this code reaches backwards to the time of Moses. But to return to the tale respecting China,
which is quoted from Robert Norton's work, printed in 1:664.
" Uffano reporteth that the invention and use, as well of ordnance as of gunpowder, was, in the eighty fifth year of our Lord, made known and practised in the great and ingenious kingdom of China ; and that, in the maritime provinces thereof, there yet remain a certain species of ordnance, both of iron and brass, with the memory of their years of founding engraved on them, and the arms of king Vitey, who, he saith, was the inventor ; and it well appeareth, also, in ancient and credible histories, that the said king Vitey was a great enchanter and necromancer ; who one time being vexed with cruel wars by the Tartarians, conjured an evil spirit that showed him the use of making of guns and powder, the which he put in warlike practice against the realm of Pegu, and in the conquest of the East Indies, and thereby quieted the Tartars ; the same being confirmed by certain Portingales, that have tra velled and navigated those quarters, and also affirmed by a letter from Captain Artred to the king of Spain, wherein, recounting very diligently all the particulars of China, said, that they long since used both ord nance and powder;' and affirming further, that he found ancient ill-shaped pieces, and that those of later foundry are of far better fashion and metal than the ancient were.'" This testimony must stand for what it may seem worth ; but it is abundantly plain that such stories could not have been invented without an adequate cause; and there is no reason to doubt that the whole of these sister arts, depending on the properties of nitre, were known in ancient times, and that they originated from the east.
It is not easy to trace accurately their progress into Europe ; but the same difficulty attends the mariner's compass, attributed to a Venetian, but evidently im ported through the then ordinary track of Indian com merce. It is not improbable, however, that the arts that depend on gunpowder came to us by the interven tion of the Arabians, as we shall shortly show that the first description of a rocket that we have is by an Ara bian writer, in 1249. But here we are driven back to examine the long disputed and difficult question of the Greek fire, the first firework of which we read in Euro pean history. The whole question, as well respecting the nature as the origin of this invention, is extreme ly obscure ; but on the former, at least, our present knowledge of chemistry enables us to form some more rational conjectures than those who have preced ed us.