Firelock Fire Lighting.

"There was Dry leaves and sticks under our shelter. I stoped the tuch hole of my gun with tallow and then did ketch fire and we made up a fire and Dryed our selves."

Westward Into Kentucky, Daniel Trabue, 1779:


"There happened to be an iron pot and an ax on board--- they cut off a piece of the boat rope, and picked it to oakum, and putting it in the pan of a gun, with some powder, catched it on fire, which with some thin pieces cut from the mast, they kindled in the pot, and then cut up their mast, seats, &c. for fuel, and making a tent of their sail, wrapt themselves as well as they could;"
From The Pennsylvania Gazette, 1765, 3 men trapped in the ice in their boat during a waterfowl hunt and likely to freeze to death: