the process of fire, in the melted minerals that rolled in torrents down the fides of the flaming mountain, in their refiftless course fweeping away every intervening object, or affimilating it with its own fubftance, the ancient inhabitants of Afia endeavoured to imitate her fupreme analyzing power, and very early commenced the practice of chemistry, To what extent, indeed, that primitive race knew the art of decompounding and combining bodies by means of fire, it is impoffi ble to ascertain; but, without being confiderable adepts in this fcience, neither could Tubal Cain, that Tubal Cain, whofe high antiquity and whofe refembling name plainly mark him for the Vulcan of Pagan mythology; for, they thought, and one might almost think with them, that the inventor of the science of chemistry could scarcely be less than a god, have been the inftructor of avery artificer in brass or iron; nor the Indian Vifvacarma, the active fubftitute of Agni, the Hindoo god of fire, have forged the arms of the Devatas, thofe miffile weapons of fire in the Puranas denominated AGNEE-ASTRA, and made ufe of in the Satya, or firft age of the world. The use of fire arms, in the earliest periods, opens a wide field for reflection, in many refpects, fince it proves that the Indians knew how to apply the falt-petre and fulphur vivum, with which their plains abound, to the purposes of war, and formed out of them a compofition which, if not actual gunpowder, was of such a nature as gave to bodies a projectile motion. Mr. Halhed expreffly denominates it gunpowder, and gives the following account of the invention in his preface to the Gentoo Code. "It will, no doubt, ftrike the reader with wonder, to find a prohibition of fire-arms in records of fuch unfathomable antiquity; and he will probably hence renew the fufpicion which has long been deemed abfurd, that Alexander the Great did abfolutely meet with fome weapons of that kind in India, as a paffage in Quintus Curtius feems to afcertain. Gunpowder has been known in China, as well as in Hindoftan, far beyond all periods of investigation. The word fire-arms is literally, in Sanfcreet, Agnee-after, a weapon of fire. They defcribe the first species of it to have been a kind of dart or arrow tipped with fire, and difcharged upon the enemy from from a bamboo. Among feveral extraordinary properties of this weapon, one was, that, after it had taken its flight, it divided into several separate darts or streams of flame, each of which took effect, and which, when once kindled, could not be extinguished; but this kind of Agnee-after is now loft. Cannon, in the Sanfcreet idiom, is called Shet-Agnee, or the weapon that kills a hundred men at once; and the Puranas or hiftories afcribe the invention of these deftructive engines to Visvacarma, their Vulcan, who is related to have forged all the weapons for the war which was maintained in the Satya Yug, between the Devatas and Affoors, (or the good and bad fpirits,) for the space of one hundred This quotation feems to prove that the natives of this country had both actually and immemorially the use of gunpowder, and the metallic inftruments of death, brafs, perhaps, or copper, employed in the offensive use of that deftructive article: but, if the Agneeafter of ancient times bear any resemblance to the fire-rocket used in the modern wars of Halhed's Gentoo Code, Preface, p. 52. India, India, it proves that the Indians had, in thofe early periods, the ufe of iron alfo, the extraction and fufion of which ore, and the preparation of it for use, are among the mast complex and elaborate operations of chemiftry. The fire-rocket is described, by a gentleman who perfonally examined them in India, "to confist of a tube of iron about eight inches long, and an inch and a half in diameter, clofed at one end. It is filled in the fame manner as an ordinary sky-rocket, and faftened towards the end of a piece of bamboo, fcarcely as thick as a walking-cane, and about four feet long, which is pointed with iron: at the oppofite end of the tube from the iron point, or that toward the head of the fhaft, is the match. The man who uses it points the head of the fhaft, that is fhod with iron, at the object to which he means to direct it, and, fetting fire to the match, it goes off with great velocity. By the irregula rity of its motion, it is difficult to be avoided; and fometimes acts with confiderable effect, especially among cavalry."* Sketches of the Hindoos, p. 295. A A modern author of much celebrity has very ingeniously attempted to prove that the ancients were actually acquainted, in very early periods, with the chemical procefs of making gunpowder, and inftances the invention of Salmoneus, with which he is faid to have imitated the thunder and lightning of Jupiter, in proof of his affertion. What is, however, much more to our prefent purpose, he cites Themiftius to prove that the Indian Brahmins encountered one another with thunder and lightning launched from an eminence;* and Philoftratus in evidence, that, when attacked by their enemies, they did not leave their walls to fight them, but darted upon them miffile weapons, in noise and effect refembling πρηστήρας και βροντας, lightning and thunder. By these weapons were evidently meant the fire-fhaft, or rocket, described above; and to thefe we may add the artificial thunder and lightning ufed in their cavern-initiations. No higher proof in time need, indeed, be adduced of the intimate acquaintance of the Indians with the penetrating and deftructive Themiftius, Oratio 27, p. 337 + Philoftrat. Vita Apolloni, lib. ii. cap. 33. nature. |