Thank you, Jim and Manolo, for your comments on the article. I happened to stumble across it quite by accident recently and I'm very glad I did.
Manolo, you mention that you've never heard the term 'espingole' before and I was wondering where this term could have derived from. It is used frequently when referring to deck-mounted swivel muskets and "fort guns" usually with an iron yoke for securing in place. I suspect that it is a corrupted adaptation of another term or gun, perhaps this espingarda you mentioned. Wall guns were extremely long, heavy guns, so perhaps they are named after the bedouin gun?
Jim, good to hear from you. I agree now in retrospect that Neumann was right on with including so many weapons from other countries (Dutch, German, Spanish, etc). It was another "world war" starting to brew, with America the fuse. Shocking to see just how much money the Spanish government invested in the little upstart colonies.
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