[migueldiaz]

here's more info, from william henry scott's 'cracks in the parchment curtain' (pp. 3 & 4), an excellent book on philippine history -

"especially interesting [in the spanish archives/accounts] is the reference to artilleria which is made by most of the witnesses, and even more so the word ARCABUSES which appears in one of the testimonies:

'in the said journey and exploration, he passed through many hardships, wars, hunger, and deprivations, and was observed to have really risked his life both by sea, sailing along the opposite coast which is rough, and by land among many enemies [filipinos] who took up arms against him and gave attack, GENERALLY WITH ARQUEBUSES, poisoned arrows, spears, and other offensive hand arms.' [archivo general de indias seccion patronato, 75 no. 2, ramo 2]

by artilleria we are presumably made to understand such weaponry as the well-known moro lantakas, but by ARCABUSES some sort of handguns must be meant, if not actual arquebuses - that is, large-bore, unrifled muskets ignited by matchlocks. published accounts establish the presence of such firearms in muslim-controlled areas of the philippines - e.g., the 1613 san buenaventura tagalog dictionary defines astingal as 'arquebus, of the kind they used to use in olden times in their wars and which came from borneo' - but this appears to be the first reference to them in northern luzon. of course both chinese and japanese traders and corsairs, who were armed with such weapons, were frequenting the area in juan de salcedo's day, so there is no reason why filipinos should not have had firearms there, too."

i'll post next filipino terms for gun, as found in old spanish-filipino dictionaries ...