I light of recent talk in the Hu-die-dao thread, I'd like to revive this.
Here is the link to a preview of
Pirates of the South China Coast, 1790-1810 by Dian H. Murray.
I've decided to highlight a few things to make it easier (since there's a lot of readable text there).
Does anyone have pictures or examples of any of these weapons?
They are definitely a bit different than your classic Chinese weapons...
Yao-tao? Curved billhook-like blade? Now thats quite different than your normal Chinese weaponry, in fact that reminds me of Taiwanese machetes (開山刀) more than anything else...