[“Wheeled boats are mentioned in 1272 at the siege of Siang-yang. Kúblái did not decide to ‘go for’ Manzi, _i.e._ the southern of the two Chinese Empires, until 1273. Bayan did not start until 1274, appearing before Hankow in January 1275. Wuhu and Taiping surrendered in April; then Chinkiang, Kien K’ang (Nanking), and Ning kwoh; the final crushing blow being dealt at Hwai-chan. In March 1276, the Manzi Emperor accepted vassaldom. Kiang-nan was regularly administered in 1278.” (_E. H. Parker, China Review_, xxiv. p. 105.)—H. C.] Siang-yang has been twice visited by Mr. A. Wylie. Just before his first visit (I believe in 1866) a discovery had been made in the city of a quantity of treasure buried at the time of the siege. One of the local officers gave Mr. Wylie one of the copper coins, not indeed in itself of any great rarity, but worth engraving here on account of its connection with the siege commemorated in the text; and a little on the principle of Smith the Weaver’s evidence:—“The bricks are alive at this day to testify of it; therefore deny it not.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] And to the Bern MS. which seems to be a copy of it, as is also I think (in substance) the Bodleian. [2] In this note I am particularly indebted to the researches of the Emperor Napoleon III. on this subject. (_Études sur le passé et l’avenir de l’Artillerie_, 1851.) [3] Thus Joinville mentions the journey of Jehan li Ermin, the king’s artillerist, from Acre to Damascus, _pour acheter cornes et glus pour faire arbalestres_—to buy horns and glue to make crossbows withal (p. 134). In the final defence of Acre (1291) we hear of balistae _bipedales_ (with a forked rest?) and other _vertiginales_ (traversing on a pivot?) that shot 3 quarrels at once, and with such force as to _stitch_ the Saracens to their bucklers—_cum clypeis consutos interfecerunt_. The crossbow, though apparently indigenous among various tribes of Indo-China, seems to have been a new introduction in European warfare in the 12th century. William of Brittany in a poem called the _Philippis_, speaking of the early days of Philip Augustus, says:— “Francigenis nostris illis ignota diebus Res erat omnino quid balistarius arcus, Quid balista foret, nec habebat in agmine toto Rex quenquam sciret armis qui talibus uti.” —_Duchesne, Hist. Franc. Script._, V. 115. Anna Comnena calls it Τζάγρα (which looks like Persian _charkh_), “a barbaric bow, totally unknown to the Greeks”; and she gives a very lengthy description of it, ending: “Such then are the facts about the _Tzagra_, and a truly diabolical affair it is.” (_Alex._ X.—Paris ed. p. 291.)