Every one has heard of the exploits of the archers who served in the English army. The French often felt and acknowledged their prowess—especially at Cressy, where the cross-bowmen employed by the French could not stand before the English archers. Indeed, a great misfortune befell them at the very commencement of the action; the cords of their cross-bows, distended by the damp, were

French Archer of the Middle Ages.

rendered useless, while the long bows of the English did not appear to have suffered much from the same source, owing, perhaps, to their precautions, and their great care of their arms.

We must not forget to mention the fire arrows discharged by the British archers, which spread conflagration as well as death wherever they went.

If we drew a comparison between the archers of the middle ages and those of modern times, we should be

struck with the vast superiority of the former, and be tempted to suspect that the historians have much exaggerated their prowess. The ancient archers, according to contemporary reports, shot to distances which, in these times, seem fabulous, and with precision which nowadays we cannot understand. An Act was passed in the reign

Fire Arrows. (From J. Smith's "Art of Gunnery." London, 1643.)

of Henry VIII. commanding young men of twenty-one years of age who practised shooting at a target to do so at no distance less than 220 yards. Among archers of the present time such practice is quite unknown, for when we shoot at a target it is never at a greater distance than 80 or 100 yards.

Strutt observed, out of curiosity, shooting with the bow in the environs of London at the commencement of this

century, and he confesses that he has often waited for hours without having seen the "gold," which forms the centre of the target, touched a single time. The thing happens, however, sometimes (he adds), but so rarely that it is to be attributed to chance rather than to the skill of the archer. He mentions, however, a fact which seems to prove that skill in shooting has not quite died out. In 1795, or 1796, the Toxopholite Society held a great meeting near Bedford-square, at which the Turkish ambassador in London was present, to take part in the games. It seemed to him that the butts were too short for shooting at long range, and he therefore shot over the enclosure, into the open country. Strutt says that he saw him discharge his arrows at a distance which was double the length of the butts, and that one of his shafts went quite 480 yards.

The ancestors of Robin Hood, William of Cloudesley, and his companions, did not shoot with an equally long range; but it must not be forgotten that they shot with precision against a fixed target, while the diplomatist in question shot at large. The bow of the Turkish ambassador has been preserved in the museum of the Toxophilite Society, where the curious may see it.

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CHAPTER VI.

THE BOW IN THE EAST AND IN AMERICA.

The Archers of the Grand Turk-Precautions against Turning the Back to the Sovereign-The Crossing of Rivers-Cannon-ball pierced by an Arrow-The Indians of Florida-Their Skill and Strength -Experience of the Spaniards-A Centaur.

OTHER nations besides tnose we have mentioned excelled in the use of the bow, especially the peoples of the East. The Grand Turk had among his Janissaries a corps of archers, consisting of 400 or 500 men, very dexterous in the use of the bow. They were called solachis, or lefthanded men, because nearly one half of them shot the bow in that fashion. This portion of the troop marched always on the right of the Sultan, while their comrades, the righthanded men, were placed on the left side, so that neither in shooting their arrows required to commit the incivility of turning their backs to his Highness, which would have been the height of rudeness.

While crossing a river they no more thought of quitting the flanks of their lord's steed than they did when marching on the firm ground. As a reward for this kind of service they received a crown-piece when the water came up to their knees, two crowns when it reached to the waist, and three when they were covered to the neck. But it was only for the passage of the first river that they received this payment, the others brought them nothing; so that in water as on land it was le premier pas qui coûte.

Other soldiers of the Turkish army who made use of the bow could pierce cuirasses of the finest temper, and plates of copper four fingers thick, through and through. "I have seen," says Blaise de Vigenère, "when the Turkish army came to Toulon under the command of Caïraddin Bassa, a certain Barbarossa, admiral of the Grand Solyman, piercing a cannon-ball with an arrow which he shot from his bow."

The Orientals retained the use of the bow in the army a much longer time than the Western people. They employed it till the end of the sixteenth century, and at the battle of Lepanto, in 1571, the Turks knocked over with their arrows more Christians than the Christians with their fire-arms did Turks.

Among the peoples who formed in those ages numerous and powerful tribes, the North-American Indians achieved wonders by means of the bow. At a later period they adopted the weapons introduced into their territory by the Europeans, and turned them with deadly effect against the latter; for the musket handled by marksmen such as one reads of in the novels of Fenimore Cooper was as effective as the bow had been in the hands of their ancestors.

The Indians practised the use of the bow from their earliest youth, for scarcely could the infants walk before they began to imitate their fathers, and demanded bows and arrows. When refused them they manufactured them of a sort of cane, and with them amused themselves by hunting mice in the paternal wigwams. When there were no mice, they made game of flies, and having exhausted them they had the lizards to fall back upon, and for these they lay in wait sometimes for five or six hours with the patience and tenacity which characterise the savage.

Such were the pursuits of the young Indians of Florida