025r - - - - - [continued]
a hundred feet away from the battery and should be surrounded with barricades or trenches. And this is where they go and get powder in bags or baskets. And each piece has its own basket to it three or four times. Then, when the cannon is placed on the platform, one puts an arquebus bulletproof board between two gabions. Then, with a lantern, a gunner reloads it, and with the ramer which is at the other end of the lantern, two men press as hard as they can, nine of ten pushes, until the powder is dense Then another one adds some hay or straw and the others ram for a while. Another one loads the cannon ball. And the one with the hay adds the same amount and presses again. Another one adds a wood hung but this might damage the piece. And if one has to shoot a lot, one would need many hungs which are heavy to bring. When the cannon is loaded, xx or xxv workers push it forward with the sticks by the side, behind the gabions without taking off the board until the cannon reaches it. Once the cannon is forward, the gunner adjusts it with the hooks at the back, pointing at the target on each side and then in the middle.Then another one nearby sets fire. Each gunner needs 3 cannoners: one to load, one to point at the target and one to set fire. Sometimes, against a camp where breaches are made, one shoots a cartridges, as you find elsewhere, or one may use a basket full of stones, cars’ nails or similar things. A cannon must not be carried unless it is with two wood or iron carriages. And you need seven quintals and a half of iron to fill the cannon’s wheels, flasques and other equipage. The best battery is, according to some people, made as a curtain which sideways, because by doing so you unsettle more stones. ————————————————————————————————————————
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Some add small wheels to a piece and a thick board to the end of the piece so it can be moved quicker and without noise. Others add some leather around the wheels and also add soles or leather shoes to the horses’ hooves so they cannot be heard.