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Originally Posted by Jeff D
Well the world really is a small place. I haven't seen this article before but I have seen this kastane before. In around 2006 I ran into a gentleman who said he found this sword with a metal detector on a historic ranch about 7 miles from where I live. I told him that it was a kastane, he didn't believe me  . He seemed sincere. So out of curiosity over the years I have dug into it a little. The Spanish connection in the article is possible but I always thought it got here by trade. This area was first explored by Europeans in the early 1800's by the Pacific Fur Company. Other companies operated in this area as well. I suspected this sword was a trade item brought here by one of the companies from the surplus stock of a European manufacturer. This seems to be bore out as I came across this inventory from the Rocky Mountain Outfit that operated east of here.
https://user.xmission.com/~drudy/mtm...l/rmo1836.html
The "12 dragon Swords" listed would have been a perfect description of the original Kastane. I always meant to tell him this but I never ran into him again.
Jeff |
This one really has me intrigued, and I entirely agree this kastane ended up in British Columbia through trade in one way or another. What always baffles me is the often unusual or tenuous assumptions presented in news items supposedly from interviews with persons of standing in museums and such organizations.
The notion of Spanish presence in these regions has some degree of validity. There were a number of Spanish voyages to secure Spanish interests in the Pacific Northwest in the last quarter of the 18th c. and they had claimed Nootka in attempt to control these from Russian dominance. By the 1780s apparently local tribes offered both Russian and Spanish materials in their trade. The Spanish also had a fort at Vancouver for a time.
The news item claims that there was a Spanish sword of 16th century located in these areas, but unclear about this 'kastane' which they assume is Spanish. The note on the Dutch influence on the Ceylonese swords is well placed and probably correct in degree regarding the knuckleguard, and these were most often fashioned with Dutch or German hanger blades (as on this one). There were many of these with VOC blades, and brought back to the Netherlands by their ships.
So why would Spaniards have these Ceylonese swords? Possibly due to the Netherlands being under Spanish control in the 18th century.
There was considerable traffic between England and the Netherlands in these times as well.
To consider that some of these kastane, as an exotic novelty, entering British trade stores from Dutch sources, which may have travelled to America, the Dutch areas of New York seems plausible. These may have entered American Indian tribal context, which could account for the curious note that this sword was of the 'turtle people' (perhaps the Eastern Woodland tribes whose mythology and clan names were deeply rooted with turtle totemism).
This may have accounted for a transcontinental intertribal trade system/ route for this sword or swords of kastane form moving westward into these regions.
On the other hand, a Spanish arrival through trade contact in the East Indies via Asian sources might have brought these to Spanish ports in North America via Philippine routes.
What is also curious is that this kastane, while intact other than the grip alteration, would seem to be unusual, and such 'custom' alterations of what appears to be staghorn grip not too likely for as many as 12 swords of such exotic nature.
It seems the Spanish presence, though relatively limited and brief in these Northwest regions, is somewhat well established in the coastal regions. However there is really no support for more profound colonial activity inland, and the case for the armed Spanish force remains unproven. This sword (kastane) really is not instrumental for these situations as far as proof.
But it surely is interesting, and strongly suggests probable American Indian context, though circumstances unclear.