The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 29 of 55, 1638–40 / Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

by Unknown

Firearms

	pesos
3	Vizcayan arquebuses	12
10½	Macao muskets	31
11	Vizcayan field muskets	66
1	Dutch arquebus	4
19	Macao arquebuses	57
16	Dutch muskets	64
1	musket de pinote of Macao	4
2	Vizcayan arquebuses	10
7	arquebuses from Macao	21
7	Japanese small guns [escopetillas]	21
2	Vizcayan field muskets	12
5	Dutch arquebuses	15
10	Dutch muskets	50
1	bit of a Vizcayan gun [escopeta]	1

Besides the above, in cloth or money, 2,866 [pesos]; in small darts and blowpipes, 50 [pesos].

Lastly, from 192 captive Indians—men, women, and children—sold as his Majesty’s slaves at royal auction, 20,815 pesos. Of this amount 10,375 pesos were in cash, in coin; and the 10,440 remaining were charged to the pay due the infantry and seamen.

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[1] Camaras were tubes or cylinders which received the charge and were introduced into the breech of the cannon, sometimes fitted by pressure, at other times by screwing (see Diego Ufano’s Treatise on military; Brussels, 1617). Some of the ancient pieces of ordnance had these spare chambers, so that, after a charge had been fired, the chamber could be changed and operations carried on more rapidly. Thus they served as do the cartridges of modern breech-loading guns. Some camaras were used independently of the cannon, for firing salutes. See Stanley’s Vasco da Gama (Hakluyt Society publications, London, 1869) pp. 226, 227, note.