Читать книгу Foot-prints of a letter carrier; or, a history of the world's correspondece - James Rees - Страница 20

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The first mention we find made of the employment of pigeons as letter-carriers is by Ovid, in his “Metamorphoses,” who tells us that Taurosthenes, by a pigeon stained with purple, gave notice of his having been victor at the Olympic Games on the very same day to his father at Ægina.

Goldsmith, in his “Animated Nature,” says:—“It is from their attachment to their native place, and particularly where they have brought up their young, that these birds (pigeons) are employed in several countries as the most expeditious carriers.”

When the city of Ptolemais, in Syria, was invested by the French and Venetians, and it was ready to fall into their hands, they observed a pigeon flying over them, and immediately conjectured that it was charged with letters to the garrison. On this the whole army raising a loud shout, so confounded the poor aerial post that it fell to the ground; and, on being seized, a letter was found under its wings from its Sultan, in which he assured the garrison that “he would be with them in three days with an army sufficient to raise the siege.” For this letter the besiegers substituted another to this purpose: “that the garrison must see to their own safety; for the Sultan had such other affairs pressing him it was impossible for him to come to their succor;” and with this false intelligence they let the pigeon flee on his course. The garrison, deprived by this decree of all hopes of relief, immediately surrendered. The Sultan appeared on the third day, as promised, with a powerful army, and was not a little mortified to find the city already in the hands of the Christians.

In the East the employment of pigeons in the conveyance of letters is still very common, particularly in Syria, Arabia, and Egypt. Every bashaw has generally a basketful of them sent him from the grand seraglio, where they are bred, and, in case of any insurrection or other emergency, he is enabled, by letting loose two or more of these extraordinary messengers, to convey intelligence to the government long before it could be possibly obtained by other means.

The diligence and speed with which these feathered messengers wing their course is extraordinary. From the instant of their liberation their flight is directed through the clouds at an immense height to the place of their destination. They are believed to dart onward in a straight line, and never descend except when at a loss for breath; and then they are to be seen commonly at dawn of day lying on their backs on the ground, with their bills open, sucking with hasty avidity the dew of the morning. Of their speed the instances related are almost incredible.

The Consul of Alexandria daily sends despatches by these means to Aleppo in five hours, though couriers occupy the whole day, and proceed with the utmost expedition from one town to the other.

Some years ago a gentleman sent a carrier-pigeon from London, by the stage-coach, to his friend in St. Edmundsbury, together with a note desiring that the pigeon, two days after their arrival there, might be thrown up precisely when the town-clock struck nine in the morning. This was done accordingly, and the pigeon arrived in London and flew to the Bull Inn, Bishopsgate Street, into the loft, and was there shown at half an hour past eleven o’clock, having flown seventy-two miles in two hours and a half.

Carrier pigeons were again employed, but with better success, at the siege of Leyden, in 1675. The garrison were, by means of the information thus conveyed to them, induced to stand out till the enemy, despairing of reducing the place, withdrew. On the siege being raised, the Prince of Orange ordered that the pigeons which had rendered such essential service should be maintained at the public expense, and at their death they should be embalmed and preserved in the town-house as a perpetual token of gratitude.

At Antwerp, in 1819, one of the thirty-two pigeons belonging to that city, which had been conveyed to London and there let loose, made the transit back—being a distance in a direct line of one hundred and eighty miles—in six hours.

It is through the attachment of the animals to the place of their birth, and particularly to the spot where they had brought up their young, that they are thus rendered useful to mankind.

When a young one flies very hard at home, and is come to its full strength, it is carried in a basket or otherwise about half a mile from home and there turned out; after this it is carried a mile, two, four, eight, ten, twenty, &c., till at length it will return from the furthermost parts of the country.