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History Divided Luzon into 2 Distinct Regions.

🪶 THE SMOKING QUILL | May 18, 2025

The Bifurcated Island of Luzon: Lequios and Lucoes Rediscovered

🔍 Introduction:

For centuries, the island of Luzon has been spoken of as a singular unit. Yet the earliest European sources, maps, and explorers did not describe Luzon this way. Rather, they documented two distinct peoples occupying the northern and southern halves of the island—known separately as the Lequios and the Lucoes. What we uncover today is not mere geographic labeling but a forgotten cultural fracture, one later blurred by colonial centralization in Manila.

This is the Smoking Quill—and the ink reveals far more than we’ve been told.

1. Lequios of the North: Mapping a Forgotten People

The 1794 Spanish-British map that labels the Cagayan River as the "Lequios River" provides one of the most striking confirmations that Lequios referred to the people of Northern Luzon. The Cagayan River, flowing through what is now the Cagayan Valley, served as a major artery for northern trade and inland civilization. The surrounding regions—including the West coast of Ilocos, Pangasinan, Tarlac, and Zambales—were culturally and geographically distinct from Manila and the south.

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Lequios of Zambales

In fact, Zambales itself is marked as part of Lequios territory on this 1502 Cantino map, offering a broader regional scope. This is not isolated evidence but part of a pattern repeated across multiple accounts from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

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2. Pinto and the Northern Islands: The Lequios Archipelago

Portuguese explorer Fernao Mendes Pinto, in his extensive travels throughout Asia, records shipwreck and maritime encounters in the northern islands of Luzon—clearly identifying these as part of Lequios. These include islands such as those in today’s Batanes and the Babuyan group. Pinto's use of Lequios in this context reinforces that the identity was tied not merely to mainland northern Luzon, but to the entire northern maritime corridor. This is clearly marked on maps over centuries that even include elements of Pinto's 5 Islands distinctly including this Spanish-British Map, and those from Venetian, French, and Dutch origin. Europe knew this, but the Colonial propaganda took root.

This strengthens the case for Lequios as the indigenous highland and island peoples—distinct from the southern seafarers of Manila.

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3. Linguistic Link: Lequios and the Ilocano

The linguistic roots also suggest a compelling tie. The term Lequios shares etymological similarities with "Iloco" or "Ilocano", the name of the dominant people of Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur including all of Northern Luzon up to Batanes, matching the Lequios of Barbosa, Pinto, and others. Early Spanish writers often interchanged terms based on phonetic transliterations, and "Lequios" may be a foreign rendering of a native root related to "Iloco", especially considering that the Ilocano regions were the most dominant and accessible in the north via early maritime routes.

Further, Ilocano highland isolation and cultural preservation align with Lequios being seen as a distinct and somewhat autonomous people by the Portuguese and Spanish.

🧠 Linguistic Observations:

The shift from “Iloco” to “Lequios” is not phonetically far-fetched. The consonant sounds L, K/Q, and vowel variations (i, e, o) are all within expected phonetic drift during oral-to-written transfer in a multilingual setting.
The Greek root “leukos” (λευκός), meaning “white,” was often used in European references to “white peoples” or noble peoples. This may have contributed to the exoticized rendering of northern Luzon highlanders as “Lequios,” reinforcing the perceived distinction from the darker-complexioned seafaring peoples of the south (Lucoes).
This hypothesis aligns with the known Spanish practice of rebranding peoples and places with European-sounding names for categorization and control.

🧠 Clarifying Linguistic Origins: Rethinking Spanish Etymology Claims

Modern academic etymologies often assert Spanish origins for words that clearly predate Spanish colonial contact, creating a historical contradiction. It is logically inconsistent to call a pre-Spanish term “Spanish”—yet this is routinely done in mainstream etymological claims.

In the case of Lequios, the earliest documented uses are Portuguese, not Spanish:

1502 Cantino Map
1512 Rodrigues Chart
1516 Barbosa’s Journal

These precede Magellan and the standardized Spanish rendering of Iloco or Ilocos. Even the official Royal Spanish map of 1539 (Santa Cruz) maintains the Lequios variant—not Ylocos—suggesting that Spain did not originate the term and adopted it from prior Portuguese usage.

Conclusion: It is time for academia to reevaluate linguistic assumptions rooted in colonial narratives. Not all that Spain adopted was Spanish in origin—and Lequios proves it.

🧭 Conclusion:

The term “Lequios” was likely not a name invented by Europeans, but a phonetic mirror of what they heard—a rendering of Iloco, passed through Iberian ears and colonial orthographies. When seen this way, the Ilocano-Lequios link isn’t just possible—it’s probable.

🚫 Debunking the Ryukyu Misdirection: Colonial Wordplay vs. Geographic Truth

Much of the modern misassociation of Lequios with Ryukyu stems not from credible geography or consistent historical usage—but from selective wordplay and post-colonial reinterpretation. Terms like Luichi, Luikui, or Liu-Kiu are not etymologically or cartographically synonymous with Lequios—and certainly never led solely to Ryukyu in the early maps.

To exclude Ilocos—a region clearly aligned phonetically, geographically, and culturally with Lequios—from scholarly consideration is to willfully ignore the broader regional context. This exclusion exemplifies a colonial mindset that distorts and reshapes indigenous identities to fit European narratives.

This is not scholarship; it’s propaganda by omission. True linguistic and geographic analysis must restore what was erased—not reinforce what was rewritten.

🔥 Bottom Line:

“Any academic claiming Lequios = Ryukyu based solely on terms like ‘Luiki’—without addressing Ilocos, Pinto’s Five Isles, or centuries of maps placing Lequios in the Philippines—is not reconstructing history. They’re echoing colonial propaganda, not correcting it.”
— The Smoking Quill

4. The Southern Lucoes: Traders, Mercenaries, Diplomats

By contrast, Barbosa (1516) and Galvão (1555) describe the Lucoes (Luçones) as traders and mercenaries—highly engaged with Malacca, India, and the Sultanates. These were the Tagalog and Kapampangan groups of South Luzon, based around Manila, Mindoro, and surrounding areas.

Barbosa even praises the Lucoes as being better merchants than the Chinese, while Galvão highlights their foreign employment in regional politics and warfare.

5. Pigafetta's Confirmation: Luzon Royalty in Sulu

Explorer Antonio Pigafetta, chronicler of Magellan’s voyage, records that the son of the King of Luzon was serving as captain of a junk under the Sultan of Sulu. This fascinating detail confirms that southern Luzon nobility were active in foreign service, particularly in Muslim sultanates, demonstrating both diplomatic reach and seafaring expertise.

This diplomatic identity contrasts strongly with the autonomous, internal trade and highland identity of the Lequios.

6. The Smoking Quill: Restoring the Divided Luzon

These converging lines—maps, explorer accounts, language, and geopolitical roles—all point to a Luzon that was historically bifurcated:

Lequios: North Luzon (Cagayan, Ilocos, Zambales, Batanes); highland, autonomous, gold-rich, culturally distinct
Lucoes: South Luzon (Manila, Mindoro); maritime, mercenary, trade-driven, politically entangled in regional powers

Over time, colonial mapping and Manila’s administrative dominance buried this duality under a singular label: "Luzon." But the smoking quill still writes in the margins of old maps and forgotten chronicles.

#SmokingQuill #Lequios #Lucoes #LuzonHistory #PhilippineHistory #ColonialErasure #IlocanoRoots #BiblicalGeography #AncientLuzon #TheGodCulture

"In the silence of colonial maps lies the memory of a divided island. The Lequios and the Lucoes were not the same—and the past remembered is the truth restored."

📝 Editor’s Note — May 8, 2025

“Proof Posted by the Opposition: Samtoy Nation Confirmed”

Even the map shared to oppose our thesis ends up affirming it—clearly marking the distinct Ilocano (Samtoy) territory in the north. That’s what we call a smoking quill.

When even your critic’s own visual aid confirms your research, the case speaks for itself. Samtoy refers not only to the Ilocano language but also to the identity of a northern people group whose territory extended well beyond Ilocos into northern Luzon, Babuyan, and Batanes. Tribal maps show dominant regions—not exclusivity. Learn how to read a map.

Even more ironic: the blogger failed to read the original disclaimer by the map’s creators, who openly admit these zones are “estimates” with no exact methodology provided. Meanwhile, the 1502 Cantino Map, which the blogger conveniently ignores, does offer clear historical data, identifying Lequios in precisely the region we’ve documented.

Additionally, the same map refutes his prior Muslim-illiteracy claim. Muslim influence is shown in scattered coastal pockets—not a majority, not even close. His own map undercuts his previous blog.

Worse still, he fails to grasp that the 1602 map places the Lequios of Zambales (Sambalas) at 17°N, directly aligning with our identification of Lequios as originating in Zambales, Babuyan, and Batanes—not Ryukyu. The spelling is accurate and historically valid.

The map he praises is unofficial, non-historical, and acknowledged by its own creators as an artistic ethnographic estimate—yet he treats it as a primary source while dismissing actual 16th-century maps, in a classic display of selective hypocrisy. We’re confident the map’s creators would not appreciate being used in a defamatory attack blog under false pretenses.

As for the rest of the blog? Rambling, reactive, and absent of substance—aside from confirming our position yet again. Regarding, dismissal of almost all of the evidence we have put forth claiming to even reveiw our position, it is truly the definition of insanity to continue to pontificate in ignorance with the same points never addressed. The grotesque dismissal of the 20+ maps we have put forth is proof this not an actual blogger, certainly not an academic or scholar, but a hack who thrives on defamation, bullying and cyber libel. Well, we don't back down to bullies. The law will deal with him soon.

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