about surigao first mass

LIMASAWA ISLAD IS BETWEEN SURIGAO AND SOUTHERN LEYTE

gigaquit surigao norte

http://maharlikan.blogspot.com/2013_09_01_archive.html

MAHARLIKAN

Freeing oneself from national mediocrity

Saturday, September 28, 2013

of Magellan, Zamal island, and the Golden Fleece

(This is in continuation with the previous blog, click here)

On the 16th of March, 1521, the Portugese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his fleet of Spanish vessels finally reached the fabled island of Zamal in Mindanao of the Maharlikan lands after 10 days of uneventful trip from the place he dubbed as Ladrones islands (Guam). Had the fleet sailed to Samar as conventionaly believed, the deep and treacherous currents of the Philippine Trench that they must traverse would surely twist and churn the wooden galleons making its harrowing crossing definitely far from uneventful, if the fleet dared that which, contrary to what mainstream history may had misled mainstream society to believe far too long, it less likely didn’t.

As the silhouette of the land of their destiny unfolded before them, the crew that had traveled halfway across the World to reach the place felt both excitement and foreboding, for these mysterious lands where lived the Maharlikans, the Free Peoples, exuded both the enchanting, the danger and adventures, the promise of fabulous wealth that the ancients had since known as the Isles of Gold, and of myths and legends recounted through generations with celebrated voyage of ancient heroes of renown.

from http://developmentcatalyst.blogspot.com 

Magellan had deemed it prudent not to immediately dock in Zamal, for who among them knew of what fate awaited their place in history beyond those enigmatic shores and its ancient dwellers. Instead, he commanded to anchor overnight in the nearby island of Talikod. The island was dearth of water for neither rivers or creeks could be found, but like blessing poured from heaven would they discover two springs with the freshest, limestone filtered water springing forth its life nourishment even to this present day. As Pigafetta wrote hundreds of years ago, Magellan and his crew celebrated such blessing that greeted them and thus named it as the “Watering Place of good signs.” It was on this island that Pigafetta first reported sighting of the precious metal that they had traveled for thousands of leagues for: gold.

Two days after the fleet had docked, the native inhabitants on their bancas from nearby Zamal sought to interact with the pale-skinned visitors and their large wooden ships. Pigafetta mentioned how one of the inhabitants expressed “demonstrations of being very joyous at our arrival,”  while five of the “most showy” of the folks remained to interact with them. Indeed, the elaborately dressed Bagobo peoples from the mainland, whom a historian once referred as the “most handsomely dressed” among tribes, had reasons to be very joyful.

Above the yonder mountain ranges of the mainland, the Bagobo inhabitants that lived along the foothills and mountain ranges of the grand ancient peak, Mt. Apo that Pigafetta described as a “high land,” had their watchtower in Catigan that overlooked the vast Davao Gulf; vigilant village watchers must had seen the strange large ships that sought anchor in Talikod island near Samal, and so they traveled down to Davoh and crossed towards the island with their Sama brethrens to meet the visitors. Magellan, finding the natives to be gracious and reasonable, offered gifts and in return his crew were given provisions as figs a foot long (bananas), umai (rice), the highly versatile coconut that the locals called cochi from where sourced sweet water, oil, meat, vinegar, and of course wine.

from http://isabellesofia.wordpress.com/tag/filipino-tribes/

Long had the ancient Bagobo tribe waited through the ages with the prophecy of their ancestors who spoke of offsprings of the very first children, their long separated brethren that traveled to faraway lands conceived from their foreparents, Humanity’s first man and woman, Toglai ang Toglibon, who shall one day return. That eventful day had come, the offsprings had finally reached the Maharlikan lands. The prophecy of their ancestors was finally fulfilled, and they were very joyous indeed (albeit the offsprings wearing paler skin). 

Eventually, Pigafetta was told of the small island adjacent of Samal where they first sought to land, presently known as Talikod island, by its ancient heavy set name,Humunu. As old as it sounded, the word may had been a remnant language of an extinct, unusual race that once lived in nearby Samal island and wrought havoc among the mainland inhabitants, and even of ancient heroes of yore from faraway lands lost in their voyage thousands of years ago. This mysterious, long extinct tribe was known as the Dinagat; they were the ancient race of giants of whose skeletal remains have even been discreetly dug up and witnessed by not a few people in modern times, their first hand testimonies attest that indeed such entities had once existed.

Pigafetta by then had amassed further knowledge of the scenic geographical vicinity of the Davao Gulf. He later found out that the Samal he initially saw was “not large,” hence it dawned that it was indeed an island surrounded by the “circumjacent islands” of Davao Gulf. The natives also referred to the island as Zuluam, attesting the influence of the Sultanate of Sulu on this side of Mindanao by the 16th Century. By this description of Pigafetta the mainstream position of Samar where Magellan allegedly landed should further be challenged for unlike Samal island, Samar was definitely not a separate but rather an integral part of one of Visayas’ largest islands, hence Pigafetta could never describe the latter as such for it will contradict his statement being “not large,” which mainstream history may had erred all along.

from http://samaloutrigger.lakbayjuan.com

Such error committed had misled generations of Humanity and reduced mainstream history to misdirected position, particularly on the argument that after Samar, Magellan performed the first mass in Limasawa island. It was in 1667 that an alleged Jesuit “historian,” Francisco Combes, may had turned out the culprit. Neither in any earlier documents before Combes would there be heard the name Limasawa. In fact ,it was another Jesuit priest, Fr. Francisco Colins who coined the word in Visayan as he pointed to an island as “Dili Masaua” meaning NOT Masaua (the real Mazzaua was in Butuan, still in Mindanao). Unfortunately the term was misinterpreted by Manila-centric, non-Visayan speaking “historians,” timid to not even scrutinize its veracity  and so stuck unchallenged by prevailing mediocrity in mainstream with warped version established as historical “fact.” As if such twisted contribution were not enough, Combes neither mentioned of any mass held and, despite how Pigafetta otherwise admirably described the Zamal natives to be “with very good manners and gracefulness,”  the contemptible Combes branded them as “barbarians” instead. Worsened still by mediocre mindsets, no considerable figure dared to even challenge the unceremonious and inaccurate description of our noble ancestors by an