fleet of prows made sail for the spot where the frigate had blown up. No part of her was however now above water. A few seainan's chests were seen floating about, and pieces of the wreck, and the saddest sight of all, here and there the corpses of some of our late companions. From the way we were treated, we concluded that our friends did not form part of the fleet with which the boats of the "Resolution" had been engaged a few days before, and of course Smith wisely forbore to mention the subject. Finding that nothing more was to be picked up from the wreck, the pirate fleet continued their cruise along the coast, looking out for trading craft, from China, Java, and other parts. At night, when the weather was fine we kept under way, like a pack of wolves, hoping to come suddenly upon a quarry. In the day time the fleet would lie hid behind some point of land so that they might dart out on any unwary passer-by. I learned a lesson from their mode of proceeding, from which I hoped some day to benefit, should I, in the course of service be ever sent to look after such gentry. What were their intentions regarding us all this time we could not tell. The old chief, though ready enough to ask questions of us, was not very communicative in return, and Smith could learn nothing from him.

"Perhaps he intends to demand a ransom for us," I observed..

"He may, sir, but I rather think that he will keep us until some day he is hard pressed by any of our men-of-war, and then he will threaten to cut our throats if our friends do not let him get off, and it is my belief he would do it, sir. These sort of people are very civil as long as you please them, but just get on the other tack and they will not scruple a moment to knock their best friend on the head."

This was not a pleasant piece of information, but it did not greatly damp our spirits. We had all recovered from the effects of our exposure on the raft, but were getting somewhat weary of our long detention on board the prows. That Smith was right in the description of our hosts, we had soon too clear evidence. It was night. We were gliding calmly over the moon-lit ocean when suddenly we came upon three native craft, Smith said they were Javanese. The prows boarded, one on each side of the strangers. In an instant the Malays threw themselves on board. There was very little resistance, and they returned almost immediately, each man laden with a bale of goods. With wonderful rapidity the more valuable part of the cargo was transferred on board the prows. The chief's prow remained at a little distance, ready to render assistance apparently if required. Esse and I were watching what was taking place. Presently we saw a figure appear at the stern of the prize. The next instant there was a plunge, and the waters closed over the man's head. Another and another followed. The prow then cast off, and a bright flame burst forth from the

merchant vessel. The materials of which she was composed, ignited rapidly, and in another instant she was one mass of fire, one after the other was treated in the same way. We had got half a mile from the scene before all the vessels taken had burned to the water's edge and sunk, leaving not a trace behind, while we sailed away with the goods which had lately filled their holds. I confess I did not feel quite as comfortable in the society of our friends after this occurrence as I had done before. We had been nearly six weeks on board, and the pirates had taken a considerable number of prizes, when Smith told us that he suspected, from the conversation he overheard, that they were about to return to their own stronghold to which traders were wont to resort for the purchase of their goods. Our best chance of escape will be to make a bargain with one of the captains, and get him to buy us of the Rajah, we promising to repay him. Esse and I talked over the matter, and though it did not appear very promising, we of course agreed to attempt it if we could find no other way of escape. Two nights after this we were at sea with the wind aft, and the water smooth, though the sky was overcast. Now and then the moon came forth, soon again, however, to be obscured. Our prow was leading. A small vessel, apparently a trader appeared ahead, and we gave chase. She must have seen us, and made all sail to escape. We pursued eagerly. Now we saw her, now the darkness hid her from sight. On we went. The night was hot, and Esse and I with our companions were on deck forward watching the chase. Hoping heartily she would escape.

"She's distancing us, sir," observed Kiddle. "She's in luck, for I don't think the black fellows will have her this time." Suddenly the moon beamed forth.

"Hillo! why what is that ?" exclaimed Esse.

We all eagerly looked out. A little on the starboard bow, the rays of the bright luminary fell upon the white canvas of a tall

ship standing across our course.

"She's a man-of-war, or I am a Dutchman !" exclaimed Kiddle, "and a frigate too."

"Perhaps she is the Orion herself, after all," cried Esse; "Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!"

(To be continued.)

MITRAILLEUSES.

BY CAPTAIN E. ROGERS,

Shortly after the establishment of the School of Musketry at Hythe in 1853, an officer of ability and distinction was appointed to deliver a series of lectures to the succeeding sections of embryo instructors, with the double object of recapitulating for the benefit of the assembled students, the historical records of missile weapons, and of instilling a right method of imparting musketry lore, when they in turn should be called upon to address their regiments as certificated apostles of the new craft.

The lectures were eight in number, and embraced exhaustively the whole theory and practice of large and small arms, together with the collateral subject of projectiles, from the earliest ages to the latest improvement in gunnery and the art of war. It was considered a very essential item in the course of training that these lectures, lengthy as they were, should not only be listened to, marked, learned, and inwardly digested, but copied verbatim et literatim by each individual officer in his own handwriting; and woe betide that luckless wight who ventured to disregard the injunction and perform the duty vicariously!

Under these circumstances the lectures came to be looked upon as irksome, and the gallant lecturer as somewhat of a bore. But of the entire series there was none so intolerable as the third lecture, which, from association of ideas and the scoffing remarks of those who had undergone the ordeal, was known among the initiated as "the Utopian."

The lecture in question opened with a magniloquent sentence, of which the writer was evidently proud, and he was wont to deliver it with a certain degree of emphatic dignity, that on one' occasion "brought down the house" in so indecorous and astounding a manner as to threaten to convert the rather solemn proceedings into a screaming farce; and yet it may be assumed that the shocked and outraged professor of musketry would at this day laugh as heartily at his ill-timed philosophy as did those tickled subalterns at the thrice-attempted exordium. It was this:-" The Utopian may shrink from the contemplation of so painful a subject as war; the moralist may raise his voice against the justice of it, but the practical philosopher can see very little chance of its cessation, and actuated by the very best intentions, will endeavour to render war as terrible as possible, well knowing that so soon as certain death awaits two rival armies, princes must fight

*Mitrailleur " or

grapeshot or hail.

"mitrailleuse" is derived from the French word mitraille,

Therefore, however para

their own battles or wars must cease. doxical it may appear at first sight, whoever increases the power of destruction is engaged in the cause of humanity."

Surely then among the inventions, in accordance with this humane theory, may well be ranked the Mitrailleur, an engine of war, which, in its yet infantile progress, has won for itself unfading renown on the battle-fields of the latest Gallic war, and bids fair to rival if not to surpass, in excellence of killing powers, the most infernal of mechanical contrivances for the deprivation of life. In reviewing the past efforts of civilization to accomplish its sad ends, it is remarkable to note how tardy has been the advance-how wide the gaps in the gradual development of lethal weapons. Not to retrace the vestiges of primitive warfare in the wake of hosts armed with bows and slings, let us descend to comparatively modern times, and we will find that, although personal courage gradually waned and became of less account in inverse ratio to the multiplied requirements of war when waged on the grandest scale, the weapons themselves were of a very simple and harmless description except to the pair of combatants actually engaged, and that in fact the art of wholesale slaughter by the employment of artificial agencies and arms of precision, was reserved for the more enlightened intelligence of our own day; with how little gain to the cause of humanity may surely be admitted. We know that cannon were first employed less than five hundred years ago, and small guns one hundred years later; that it took a century to improve the hand-gun into the match-lock, and another hundred years to improve the latter into the flint-lock musket, with which Europe was content as a weapon for nearly two centuries, that in fine it has only been during the latter portion of the present century that mankind seem to have devoted an unceasing and successful attention to the invention and perfection of armaments; not the least ingenious of the discoveries made, being attributable to the wayward fancies of men following more peaceful pursuits. And yet when we contemplate the subject from another point of view, is it not equally true that the march of intellect in the study and improvement of instruments designed to make war as terrible as possible, advances pari passu with the increased desire for war? was it not in fact owing to the invention of the needle-gun that Schleswig Holstein was overrun by those "lords of human kind"-the Prussians? and may we not as reasonably ascribe to the invention of the Mitrailleur the bloodiest war that ever disgraced Christendom, and stultified through all time the humanizing effects of civilization? So much for the Utopian theory.

Before we procced to describe Mitrailleuses in detail, let us impress it on our readers that although the invention is in itself of very recent date, the principle was well known, even to the ancients; and ever since gunpowder was introduced as a propel

ling agent, many attempts have been made to carry the idea into practical effect. In 1860 Colonel Martin (4th regiment) appears to have invented a "war-truck" and "rifle-battery," fitted with a number of independent barrels, and in 1862 General Vandenburgh, of the American army, lectured in the United Service Institution (Whitehall) on a "New System of Artillery for projecting a group or cluster of shot." But this and other inventions at the time, fell through from the want of the as yet untried metallic cartridge. No doubt the same course of reasoning that produced revolving pistols gave rise to the formation of Mitrailleuses, for, as we have said, the mere fact of uniting in a fixed breech a number of barrels designed to be fired simultaneously or in rapid succession, had been ascertained as a mathematical possibility from very early times; nor can their power to slay off-hand a batch of human creatures be regarded as so very skocking to our amiable sensibilities, in an age that has produced Greek-fire, torpedoes, incendiary balls, shrapnel shells, and explosive bullets. In former times the Second Lateran Council prohibited the use of the cross-bow under the penalty of anathema, in consequence of the painful and dangerous wounds caused by it. Now the bullet of the Mitrailleur makes a very small hole indeed; but it is effective. As the Prussians jocularly expressed themselves with regard to it during the war, with an attempt to disguise their real feelings, "If we are to be killed, it matters little whether we are killed very much or not."

With a view to collecting material for this paper by a personal inspection of the specimens to be seen in the Arsenal, I visited Woolwich recently, and found our great artillery entrepôt in a ferment of fuss, owing to a transition state of affairs, while garrison are being converted into field artillery. I was consequently deprived of the scientific companionship in my rounds, upon which I had counted. However, the admission order of a "British subject" having been obtained without difficulty, I proceeded to the arsenal under the fond illusion that a pattern gun of each class of Mitrailleuse would reward my research.

After considerable hunting about and vain inquiry among stray officials, who did not appear to take the slightest interest in the subject, much less to know where the monsters were kept. I was at length directed to the Military Store Department, where an intelligent and courteous civilian, employed on the premises, undertook to exhibit and explain the only two specimens possessed by the British Government.

one

"We have only two guns of the sort," began my guide, a Gatling, the other a Montigny, and I need scarely waste your time, sir, in describing the mechanism of the Gatling, for this style of piece is already obsolete; but you will require to understand the principle, as that of course extends to the improved gun."