Moro kampilan (?) Spanish American war era

[Jim McDougall]

For those reading I wanted to add this, which is an actual 'KAMPILAN' (I do know this much on Filipino swords) to illustrate the form referred to.
I presume it is Moro, but am aware these were used elsewhere in the archipelagos from the Philippines into Indonesian areas in degree.

As I have understood, the term 'kampilan' may be a term for 'sword' in Filipino dialects which perhaps was used more collectively in earlier times.
When Ferdinand Magellan was killed in altercation with native tribes at Mactan in the Philippines April 27,1521, a period account states he was killed with a 'cutlass' resembling a 'scimitar'. These vague terms seem to have been embellished later using the term 'kampilan' but may have been adjusted using this Filipino term. Modern literature uses this term in noting this event.
Very much an example of how terms for local ethnographic weapon forms can be mistranslated and transliterated causing notable confusion semantically in research.