It's been awhile since I've last posted. As I approach retirement age, my reenactment activities have greatly diminished, but still do hang around in armor. I also read a lot of Hernando de Soto and other conquistador related books. Rather than just mutter to myself about something I just read, perhaps I should write this stuff down.
So I'm currently reading, Modeling Entradas: Sixteenth-Century Assemblages in North America, edited by Clay Mathers. University of Florida Press 2020. In chapter 3 :
Garcilaso relates that one participant recalled that a Chicalla they "set up our forge with two cannons that we brought along" p.45
A couple of pages later discussing a small iron ball found at the Stark Farm site in Missisppi:
...two guns were supposedly employed somehow in the forge operation at Chicalla... p50
I know how! The small pieces of artillery were likely breech-loading swivel guns. Called "Versos" in Spanish. The inventory of his goods in Cuba after his death was reported included 3 iron versos with their chambers. With the chambers removed you have basically heavy pipes.
The traditional Spanish bellows uses a pair of pipes and bellows into the forge pot. This allows for a more constant stream of air into than the fire the single bellows you always see in film and in "Ye Old Shope" nailed to the wall. See the forge at Mission San Luis, in Tallahassee for an example of the Spanish style forge in action.
