PISTOLS, etc.

The musquet is of Spanish origin, and the skilful use of it rendered the infantry of Spain celebratedthroughout Europe . Authorities differ as to its haying been used at the battle of Bicoigne, in 1521, but allacknowledge its terrible effects when wielded by the forces of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands , in 1569.

The spoil of rich weapons which accrued to England from the capture of so many of the Spanish vesselson the occasion of the dispersion of the Armada, procured for this country a great variety of new types mform.* Stowe records a great lottery of costly armour and weapons which took place in St. Paul’s Church-yard in the year following; and the collection formed by Queen Elizabeth, which probably originated theTower Armoury as an exhibition, is described by Hentzner of Nuremberg , who visited it in 1598, as consistingof “ many and excellent arms, as well for men as for horses f in cavalry engagements.” Many a Spanish weapon is still existing in this country, taken from the wrecks upon the coast: of these some interestingspecimens were exhibited at the museum formed at Norfolk by the Archaeological Institute in 1847.+ Fromthe gorgeous ornament with which everything manufactured by the Spaniards was decorated in the days oftheir almost boundless riches, and from their knowledge, through the Moors, of all the processes of inlayingand damascening, there can be no doubt that some of their fire-arms were of the most elaborate description.

It is justly remarked by the learned M. Labarte,§ that no “ sooner had fire-arms become portable thanart was applied to their decoration. The barrels of harquebuses and pistols were enriched, like the armourof the period, with delicate engraving and ornaments inlaid in gold and silver. In their adornment splendidveneers were employed: ivory and wood, stained of different colours, were made use of; frequently thestock was covered with ivory of different colours; and subjects and foliage, &c., of extreme minuteness, wereengraved' upon them. The sides of the lock and the cock, &c., were also richly decorated; on them orna-ments, arabesques, figures, in relief and even completely detached, were frequently carved.”

In the production of the specimens of Spanish fire-arms we have engraved, M. Zuloaga evinces consummateskill, and we can imagine, to a military man, no more splendid offering than was made when “ the Captain-General of Puerto Ricco, the Count Mirasol, the General Don Celestino Ruiz de la Bastida, the Peninsularregiments of Catalonia, Iberia, and the Asturias , and the regular Militia of the year 1846,” offered the princelygift of this rich collection of arms to the Duke of Valencia, captain-general of the Spanish army.

# For particulars of the Spanish weapons, vide Hewett’s “ Ancient Armour.”

■f “ Anna multa et egregia quam pro viris quam pro equis in equestri pugnh.” —Pauli Hentzneri Itinerarium. Norib. 1G29, p. 192.J “ Memoirs illustrative of the History and Antiquities of Norfolk.” London , 1851.

^ “ Description des Objets d’Art qui composent la Collection Debruge Dumenil, par Jules Labarte.” Paris , 1847, p. 367.