His fine
powder for priming was in a touch-box. His bullets were in a leathern
bag, shaped much like a lady's work-bag, the strings of which he was
obliged to draw in order to get at them. In his hand were his burning
match and musket rest, and after discharging his piece he was obliged to
defend himself with his sword. The match was fixed to the cock by a kind
of tongs. Over the priming-pan was a sliding cover, which had to be
drawn back with the hand before pulling the trigger. It was necessary to
blow the ashes from the match, and take the greatest care that the
sparks did not fall upon the priming. After each discharge the match had
to be taken out of the cock and held in the hand until the piece was
reloaded; then, in order that it might come down exactly upon the
priming, the greatest care and nicety were required in fitting it again
to the cock. Other inconveniences attended the use of the match-lock
musket. The light of the burning match betrayed the position of the
soldier, and hence it could not be used by sentinels or on secret
expeditions. Various contrivances were resorted to in order to obviate
these difficulties. Walhuysen, a captain of the town of Danzig, in a
treatise entitled _L'Art Militaire pour l'Infantrie_, printed in 1615,
says: "It is necessary that every musketeer should know how to carry his
match dry in moist or rainy weather, that is, in his pocket or in his
hat, by putting the lighted match between his head and hat, or by some
other means to guard it from the weather. The musketeer should also have
a little tin tube, about a foot long, big enough to admit a match, and
pierced full of little holes, that he may not be discovered by his match
when he stands sentinel or is gone on any expedition."

The learned captain does not state whether the hair of those soldiers
who carried their lighted matches between their heads and hats, was
insured. These inconveniences were so great that many able military men
regarded fire-arms as a failure, and recommended a return to the
long-bow, which had been so terrible a weapon in the hands of the
English archers. But the art of war, like every other, never goes
backward, and men were not disposed to abandon the use of so mighty an
agent as gunpowder, merely for the want of some weapon adapted to its
use.

The fire-lock, named from its producing fire by friction, was the first
improvement upon the match-lock. Its earliest form was that known as the
wheel-lo