THE SMOKING QUILL | APRIL 29, 2025

The Smoking Quill Series – Case File SQ-006
Title: Forgotten No More: Barbosa, Magellan, and the Gold Route of the Lequios

Case Summary:

This exposé uncovers and compiles suppressed records from a 1907 French academic journal—long buried yet profoundly authoritative. Drawing from Barbosa, Pigafetta, Magellan, Cabot, and official Spanish and Portuguese documentation, this case proves that the islands of the Lequios were formally identified as Ophir and Tarshish, and that this gold-rich maritime region referred to the Philippines—not Japan.

1. Barbosa’s Bold Statement: Lequios > China

“They are better people, more important and more respected traders than the Chinese.”

✅ Barbosa elevates the Lequios above the Chinese in terms of prestige and trading power. This destroys modern narratives that downplay the Philippines in favor of East Asian dominance, including China’s 9-dash line.

2. Pigafetta’s Confirmation: Lequios Traded With Luzon

“They sent six to eight junks to Luzon every year.”

✅ Luzon wasn’t just known—it was a recognized hub of trade for the Lequios, who were associated with the northwest (Ilocos, Babuyan and Batanes prior to Formosa/Taiwan) and linked to Ophir.

3. Magellan’s Restraint: Nearing Ophir

“He refused gold... Was it because of the certainty of finally reaching the land of gold?”

✅ Magellan’s behavior confirmed belief he was approaching Ophir itself. He forbade trading not out of suspicion, but reverence for prophecy.

4. The Cabot Map and Canal of the Lequios

• Shows geographic labeling placing Lequios squarely within Philippine territory.

• Canals and shallows associated with Palawan, Batanes, and Suluan match Pigafetta’s record.

5. Official Records: Document #98 and Seville Manuscripts

Barbosa’s Seville version names “Ophir and Tarshish” where Lisbon replaced them with “Lequios.”

✅ The Spanish Crown received Magellan’s correction placing Ophir in the Philippines—a formal endorsement buried under later editions.

6. Cartographic Gold Trail

Maps by Desceliers (1546), Gastaldi (1561), Linschoten (1599), Cabot (1544), and Ribero (1529) reflect Lequios in the Philippines. The Spanish perspective was always the Philippines portion of Lequios and never Ryukyu which it associated as South Japan, Xipon. The notion that the original use of the term Lequios ever meant Ryukyu requires a spaceship instead of ancient sailing methods, forgetting one passed that big island of Taiwan, and a profound ignorance of the resources of Ryukyu which is not aywhere near as abundant as the Philippines is gold and has no such history except these Colonial missteps.

✅ These maps show a clear cartographic lineage affirming the Lequios as part of the Philippines—until later Jesuit or colonial efforts began relocating them to Formosa or Ryukyu. Initially, Lequios only referred to North Luzon and the 22 islands above it still in the Philippines. These references clearly do not pass Taiwan. For maps to then begin to locate Lequios as Babuyan and Batanes, then, Formosa (not Lequios), yet then, add the term to the Ryukyu's is nothing short of Colonial rewriting of history. To the Portuguese Barbosa, Magellan and the maps that accompany their Portuguese paradigm into Spain all the way through Sebastian Cabot who followed Magellan, Lequios was specifically Philippines and nothing else. This is the age old propaganda ploy. Maps began to show both areas as Lequios and then, they moved it to only the Ryukyu Islands in Colonial bias covering up the only true original Lequios. It is the Spanish paradigm that matters as they were equated Lequios as Ophir because they only viewed it as the Philippines.

7. Herrera’s 1601 Confirmation

“There is more gold than in all the others of the said sea.”

✅ Written long after initial contact, Spanish chronicler Antonio de Herrera affirms the Philippines—Lequios region—as the richest in gold.

Conclusion:

The claim that Lequios refers to Japan is not only unsupported—it is historically false. From Barbosa to Herrera, the Spanish and Portuguese explorers knew exactly where Ophir was—and they called it the Philippine Isles. The gold route, trade records, and cartographic evidence all converge in one place: the Lequios of Luzon, the gold-bearing land of Ophir.

Yah Bless.

The God Culture Team