There is a story about the matchlock musket and a battle between conquistadors. Narvaez had landed on the Gulf coast of Mexico with an order to arrest Cortez. Cortez struck at night. As Narvaez' soldiers rushed to defend their position with sleep still in their eyes, they were faced with a frightening spectacle. The deep tropical night was filled with the lit fuses of matchlock muskets. It is said that the sight of all those muskets unnerved the soldiers and they gave up with little resistance. In the daylight, it was discovered that the fuses had been the lights of fireflies.

Although the arquebus (are-ka-bus) was the first gun to resemble a modern rifle, like an old time cannon, it still used a lit fuse, called a match, to ignite the powder in the barrel.

In those long ago days, everything was handmade. No two of anything were alike. Every gun had its own look. Like those guns, words grew and were molded by the needs of the time and the country they passed through. Arquebus, harquebus, hakebus, or hackbut, all describe a small, long barreled, cannon which was attached to a stock, shot from the shoulder, and could be fired by a triggering mechanism.

When I say "triggering mechanism", remember that each of these guns was a kind of experiment. The usual item found on the battle fields of Europe in the early 1500's had a thingy called a serpentine. Sometimes formed like a dragon's head, the serpentine held a length of fuse. When the soldier pulled the opposite end of the serpentine, it dipped the burning fuse into a pan of power. "Poof," through a small hole in the barrel, it ignited the main charge, and "boom," the gun went off.

Don’t think, "an almost harmless toy." The size of the barrel was large. The gun often produced a sixteen-foot flame and could punch a hole in a man wearing armor at the other end of the field, 240 feet away. It was a bad little cannon which could do terrible damage in the right hands. Its problem was that it was dangerous to the person using it. Imagine handling a bunch of black powder while fiddling around with a lit fuse. "Bang!"

Julius II, the Warrior Pope, used these matchlock guns in ranks. He was very successful in his war against other Italian states and the French. Now and again though, an entire rank of the Pope’s army would just explode. He felt it was better to use green soldiers behind the trigger of these early guns. That way Julius didn't waste his hardened veterans.

In the Battle of Pavia in 1525, the arquebus gained real status. Pavia had served as the capital of the Lombard Kings around the middle of the 1300's. Facing the Ticino River and tucked between two streams, the city of Pavia was a gem. Its large castle garden, designed for strolling royalty, was ringed with a 15-foot wall.

On a dark and bitterly cold night, the army of Charles V, broke through that wall. King Francis I, with his knights, was camped inside. They were the very flower of French nobility. The French had trapped a Spanish force inside the castle. The Imperial Army came to save the trapped Spanish force.
In the morning, German soldiers, carrying arquebuses, stormed a small bastion—the Castello Mirabello. The French heard the fighting. Squires readied their French knights. The knights swung up onto battle horses, lances at the ready. Francis I rode with his nobles.

A little creek cut across the garden battlefield. The creek was lined by a forest. The forest hemmed the knights in as they rode toward their enemy. The men in shining armor atop their mighty steeds were pressed ever closer together. When Francis was just about to smash into the Army of Charles V, arquebusers stepped out of the forest. The crash of their guns turned the scene into one of terrible destruction. Dying horses crashed into the living. Knights tumbled from their saddles and the thunder of shot roared on. The battlefield went wild. German soldiers shoved their arquebuses under the French armor and fired. In the end, 10,000 men, the flower of French nobility, lay dead. The French King was taken prisoner by Charles V and the personal gun had come of age.

Certainly the arquebus came to the New World. A few were used by Cortez in the conquest of Mexico and the Pizzaro Brothers in the conquest of Peru. Although Narvaez was well aware of the arquebus, they are not mentioned as being used on his expedition into the Tampa Bay area in 1528.

De Soto is assumed to have had at least a few with his expedition in 1539. He was very well equipped.

Pedro Menéndez de Aviles, the governor of Florida had his first meeting with Carlos, the leader of the Calusa people in February of 1566. "The cacique (ka-see-k = leader), hearing of the small number of men the Adelantado (Menéndez) had with him, came the next day in the morning with about 300 Indian archers, near the brigantines, down to the shore; while the prow of one touched the stern of the other, and the artillery in them was placed on the land side, with much hail-shot ready for whatever might offer itself; and the Adelantado (A-de-lan-ta-do) had a platform set up, that the cacique might sit there upon, and he did so with his principal Indians around him. The Adelantado disembarked from the brigantines, with 30 arquebusiers with their fuses lighted, and seated himself near him, the cacique and his principal men paying much homage to him."

Their second meeting is described: "And the day following that on which Cacique Carlos departed from the brigantines, the Adelantado went to dine with him, taking 200 arquebusiers with him and a flag, 2 fifers and drummers, 3 trumpeters, one harp, one violin and one psalterry, and a very small dwarf, a great singer and dancer, whom he brought with him. The Caciques house was about two arquebus shots from where they landed and 2,000 men might gather therein without being very crowded."

From the emphasis on the arquebus, it is apparent that this weapon had gained a lot of importance in the struggle for Florida.