A LIVING HISTORY BLOG.

18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Wednesday 26 January 2011

Gunpowder Bags.

A hundred miles upstream from Jamestown, on an exploring journey by canoe, Smith was badly burned and injured by the explosion of a gunpowder bag. 17th century.
http://www.teachersyndicate.com/documents/oct_2010/TTC%20Guidebooks/American%20Identity.pdf


Supplies for 24 Abenakis and Iroquois who have joined our party:
24 pounds of gunpowder in one bag of half an ell
Supplies for the six militia men:
6 pounds of gunpowder in bags of one eighth of an ell
1756-1760 journal of Louis Antoine de Bougainville
France, Archives de Colonies series C11A, volume 117, folios 191v to 194, National Archives of Canada, microfilm f-118.


8 Leather lodges
20 Powder bags
3 setts Wampum moons
15 nests sheet iron kettles
Invoice of Sundry Merchandise from the Rocky Mountain Outfit 1836
under charge of Fontenelle, Fitzpatrick, & Co.


15           Leather Powder Bags

Invoice of Sundry Merchandise furnished Rocky Mountain Outfit 1837 under charge of Fontenelle, Fitzpatrick & Co.


“…fungus that grows on the outside of the birch-tree…used by all the Indians in those parts for tinder…called by the Northern Indians Jolt-thee, and is known all over the country bordering on Hudson’s Bay by the name of Pesogan…there is another kind…that I think is infinitely preferable to either. This is found in old decayed poplars, and lies in flakes…is always moist when taken from the tree but when dry…takes fire readily from the spark of a steel: but it is much improved by being kept dry in a bag that has contained gunpowder.”



~Samuel Hearne, Northern Canada, 1772

3 comments:

Buzzard said...

Very nicely done!

Gorges Smythe said...

That's a new one on me!

Keith said...

So much more to learn Gorges. Here is a quote for you:

“…fungus that grows on the outside of the birch-tree…used by all the Indians in those parts for tinder…called by the Northern Indians Jolt-thee, and is known all over the country bordering on Hudson’s Bay by the name of Pesogan…there is another kind…that I think is infinitely preferable to either. This is found in old decayed poplars, and lies in flakes…is always moist when taken from the tree but when dry…takes fire readily from the spark of a steel: but it is much improved by being kept dry in a bag that has contained gunpowder.”
~Samuel Hearne, Northern Canada, 1772