A column of smoke-puffs was used as a warning signal, its meaning being:  Look out, the enemy is near.  One smoke-puff was a signal for attention; two puffs indicated that the sender would camp at that place.  Three puffs showed that the sender was in danger, as the enemy was near.

Fire-arrows shot across the sky at night had a similar meaning.  The head of the arrow was dipped in some highly inflammable substance and then set on fire at the instant before it was discharged from the bow.  One fire-arrow shot into the sky meant that the enemy were near; two signaled danger, and three great danger.  When the Indian shot many fire-arrows up in rapid succession he was signaling to his friends that his enemies were too many for him.  Two arrows discharged into the air at the same time indicated that the party sending them was about to attack.  Three indicated an immediate attack.  A fire-arrow discharged diagonally across the sky indicated the direction in which the sender would travel.  Such were the methods which the Indians used, working out different meanings for the signals in the various tribes.

Very slight progress was made in message-sending in medieval times, and it was the middle of the seventeenth century before even signal systems were attained which were in any sense an improvement.  For many centuries the people of the world existed, devising nothing better than the primitive methods outlined above.

II

SIGNALS PAST AND PRESENT

    Marine and Military Signals—­Code Flags—­Wig-wag—­Semaphore
    Telegraphs—­Heliographs—­Ardois Signals—­Submarine Signals.

In naval affairs some kind of an effective signal system is imperative.  Even in the ordinary evolutions of a fleet the commander needs some better way of communicating with the ship captains than despatching a messenger in a small boat.  The necessity of quick and sure signals in time of battle is obvious.  Yet for many centuries naval signals were of the crudest.

The first distinct advance over the primitive methods by which the commander of one Roman galley communicated with another came with the introduction of cannon as a naval arm.  The use of signal-guns was soon thought of, and war-ships used their guns for signal purposes as early as the sixteenth century.  Not long after came the square-rigged ship, and it soon occurred to some one that signals could be made by dropping a sail from the yard-arm a certain number of times.

Up to the middle of the seventeenth century the possibilities of the naval signal systems were limited indeed.  Only a few prearranged orders and messages could be conveyed.  Unlimited communication at a distance was still impossible, and there were no means of sending a message to meet an unforeseen emergency.  So cumbersome were the signal systems in use that even though they would convey the intelligence desired, the speaking-trumpet or a courier was employed wherever possible.