Java arquebus
The weapon was used by Javanese armies, albeit in low number compared to total fighting men,[1]: 387 before the arrival of Iberian explorers (Portuguese and Spaniards) in the 16th century.
However, this term has a broad meaning — it may refer to various types of firearms and gunpowder weapons, from small pistols to large siege guns.
But after being absorbed into bedil in the Malay language, and in a number of other cultures in the archipelago, that Tamil vocabulary is used to refer to all types of weapons that use gunpowder.
[2][18] Tome Pires' 1513 account tells the army of Gusti Pati (Patih Udara), viceroy of Batara Vojyaya (probably Brawijaya or Ranawijaya), numbered 200,000 men, 2,000 of which are horsemen and 4,000 musketeers.
[27] Guangdong Tongzhi (廣東通志), which was compiled as early as 1535, recorded that Java's armored soldiers and guns are the best amongst the Eastern people.
The Malay chronicle, Sejarah Melayu, mentioned that in 1509 they do not understand “why bullets killed”, indicating their unfamiliarity with using firearms in battle, if not in ceremony.
[29]: 3 Lendas da India by Gaspar Correia and Asia Portuguesa by Manuel de Faria y Sousa confirmed Sejarah Melayu's account.
Then the Moors began to fire upon them with their artillery, which was posted in the stockades, and with their large matchlocks wounded some of our men.They are also used when the Portuguese were withdrawing in the first attack:[33]: 108 When the Moors perceived that they were withdrawing, they began to open fire with large matchlocks, arrows, and blowing-tubes, and wounded some of our men, yet with all the haste they made Afonso Dalboquerque ordered the men to carry off with them fifty large bombards[Note 3] that had been captured in the stockades upon the bridgeJoao de Barros described a scene of the conquest in Da Asia:[34][14]: 22 As soon as the junk had passed the sand-bank and had come to an anchor, a short way from the bridge, the Moorish artillery opened a fire on her.
In the heat of the action Antonio d'Abreu, the commander, was struck in the cheek from a fusil (espingardão), carrying off the greater number of his teeth.The matchlocks that shoot through both sides of their vessel, had very long barrel and were 18 mm in caliber.
[35] Historian Fernão Lopes de Castanheda mentions matchlocks (espingardão—large espingarda / arquebus), he says that they threw balls, some of stone, and some of iron covered with lead.
[39]: 69 Đại Việt was considered by the Ming to have produced particularly advanced matchlocks during the 16–17th century, surpassing even Ottoman, Japanese, and European firearms.
The Vietnamese matchlock was said to have been able to pierce several layers of iron armour, kill two to five men in one shot, yet also fire quietly for a weapon of its caliber.
