If one is searching branding irons, there are several reports of Cortes
and his men "branding" the Aztec women that they took as property when
they defeated the Aztecs in 1521, with 'ownership' marks. The way
historians write of the event, it makes it sound as if the Spaniards when
they broung in their lviestock, already had branding irons in their tool
inventory.
Dave Browman