I decided to shift gears and instead of focusing on the names, I am going to figure out what I can on all of this stuff..
First things first.
The maps. As far as I can tell, most are authentic and were published.
But there is one that is hand drawn. There are a bunch of notes in French, and apparently either Uncle Nick hid his knowledge of French or... he had someone do some translation. NOT that I know enough to say it is right or wrong. I don't know what some parts even refer to, but I do know that there is a big number 9 neuf
right there as plain as day. I don't know why. Maybe it was JP's favorite number.
I decided to refer to them as JP and IV.
The next thing I pulled out of the box, was a hunk of metal. To hold it, it feels like the handle of a sword, but to look at it, there doesn't seem to be a blade, or even the remains of a blade... From what I can tell most swords from the era that JP came up would have been made from one piece of steel, thicker at the hilt, and hammered thin and shaped to a point at the blade. This doesn't really appear to have even had a blade. OR... it was broken or cut and filed for some reason.... These two holes are also a little strange. Everything I read indicates that the handle would have been wrapped and formed with wire and leather and the like, the concept of putting wood on either side came later... so these wouldn't be for the handle. Gosh, does it even matter?! OF COURSE IT DOES
