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🔸 "Luék, sao mi ditoy.”
The Ilokano voice was clear: Lequios is us. Historians just weren’t listening.

[Click to zoom the proof yourself.]

🪶 THE SMOKING QUILL | May 21, 2025

The Chronicler and the Lequii: Pigafetta's Unedited Geography

Exposing the Real Islands Before the Jesuit Shift

🔰 INTRODUCTION:

Before the Jesuits, before the propaganda maps, and before the geographic shell game that buried Ophir… there was Antonio Pigafetta. His firsthand account of Magellan’s circumnavigation used a spelling that undermines centuries of manipulation — Lequii.

This is not Ryukyu. This is not speculation. This is a smoking quill in Pigafetta’s own hand.

🧭 SECTION 1: Pigafetta’s “Lequii” — The Unfiltered Name

• Original Usage:
Pigafetta refers to the islands as “Lequii” — not Lequios, not Ryukyu.

• Context of Use:
Placed near the final leg before their fateful encounter in Mactan (Cebu), these islands appear to be part of the same northern Luzon arc, possibly Zambales, Pangasinan, or Batanes.

• Spelling Matters:
Unlike “Lequios,” which later appears on Jesuit-era maps and translations, “Lequii” has no correlation with Okinawan phonetics or political divisions.

📜 Pigafetta’s own words bear the truth before the truth was rebranded.

🗺️ SECTION 2: Lequii and the Map Trail

• Lequii’s Latitude:
The Zambales coast sits around 15–17°N, matching Pigafetta’s sailing arc. Ryukyu sits far north of this — disconnected from their route entirely.

• Confirmed by Other Maps:

  • 1502 Cantino Map: Lequios at Zambales

  • 1535 Penrose Chart: Lequios 17°–20°N

  • 1544 Cabot Map: Lequios Canal west of Luzon

• Modern Correlation:
The Ilocos Sur government page places ancient “Samtoy” territory from 16°–18°30’N — an exact match to Pigafetta’s possible Lequii.

Ignoring the cartography of the era is not a position. In order to placate the Colonial propaganda of Ryukyu as Lequios, one must ignore the Philippines because it fits everything and Ryukyu nothing.

1602 Cantino Planisphere
1535 Penrose Chart
1544 Cabot Map

🧬 SECTION 3: The Ilocano Linguistic Match

• “Lequii” and Ilocano Roots:

  • Luék = bay

  • Gúlod = mountain

  • Samtoy = “our dialect”

  • Ilóko = “from the bay”
    These match Pigafetta’s descriptions of people, terrain, and coastal dynamics.

• Samtoy Origin:
Documented by the official government of Ilocos Sur as pre-Spanish, this adds massive credibility to the indigenous etymology of Lequii. When arriving in Ilocos, Ilokanos told Capt. Salcedo that their language was the origin of the word Lequios he was using, not Portuguese, Chinese, nor especially Spanish. Historians and linguists have ignored that for far too long.

📚 Historical Note:
The Ilocanos’ phrase “sao mi ditoy,” meaning “our language here,” was recorded by Spanish explorers during their early expeditions in Northern Luzon. When Captain Don Juan de Salcedo arrived in what is now Ilocos Sur in 1572, the locals identified themselves using this expression. The Spaniards adapted it as “Samtoy,” referring to both the people and their language. This encounter is documented in The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898, Vol. 2 by Blair and Robertson.

“The natives called their language sao mi ditoy, meaning ‘our language here.’ The Spaniards called them Samtoy from this expression.”
— Blair & Robertson, The Philippine Islands, Vol. 2, A.H. Clark Company, 1903

This is a direct native declaration of identity, from their own mouths—linking the term Lequios to a proudly Ilocano linguistic root.

⚔️ SECTION 4: The Jesuit Rebrand Begins

• Later Maps Switch the Narrative:
By the mid- to late-16th century, “Lequios” gets pushed north, and Japan is renamed “Cipangu.”

• Jesuit Involvement:
With Pinto, Ricci, and other Jesuits embedding themselves into China and Japan, a strategic reframing of Zipangu and Lequios begins — stripping the Philippines of its legacy.

• Why?
To elevate Japan as a foothold for Catholic expansion and bury the Philippines' Biblical past (Ophir, Tarshish, Chryse).

🔎 SECTION 5: Why “Lequii” Destroys the Modern Narrative

• Pre-dates Colonial Shift
Pigafetta’s spelling is before the manipulation — pure data from a primary source.

• Violates Ryukyu Theory
Ryukyu fails all criteria: distance, latitude, gold resources, ethnographic match, and even the name.

• Reinforces Filipino Heritage
The name, the people, the language, and the geography all match Luzon — not Okinawa.

🔚 CONCLUSION:

Pigafetta told the truth.

Centuries later, that truth still whispers from the page — Lequii was never Ryukyu. It was Luzon.

We have just rediscovered it.

“When maps lie, the chronicles must speak.”

📎 SOURCES & REFERENCES:

Yah Bless.

The God Culture Team
ADDITION:

🗺️ A Colonial Trail of Tears
The visual record of how truth was displaced, overwritten, and erased.

🎉 “The maps were never lost… only silenced. Now, the silenced speak.”
1502 Cantino Map

Cantino World Map

1502 

[See above]

Lequios of Zambales at 17N. Affirmed within.

1512 Francisco Rodrigues' Sketches

Jorge Reinel/Rodriguez Chart 

1512

[Click Image for Blog Link]

"The Main Island of Lequios" is charted and noted geographically near Luzon, not near Okinawa.
1527 Diogo Ribeiro Map

Diogo Ribeiro Map

1527

[Click Image for Blog Link]

Locates Lequios near Luzon, reinforcing the Philippines as the center of early Southeast Asian trade routes.
1535 Penrose Chart

Anonymous Penrose Chart

1535

[Click Image for Blog Link]

Lequios plotted between 17°–20° North Latitude, matching Northern Philippines, not Okinawa.

1539 Santa Cruz SPanish Government Map

Santa Cruz Map

1539 

[See above]

SPANISH GOVERNMENT MAP! Luquios as Luzon, Philippines With Visayas and Mindanao Charted With It.

 
1544 Sebastian Cabot Map

Sebastian Cabot Map

1544

[Click Image for Blog Link]

Cabot's 'Canal of Lequios' flows into the West Philippine Sea, cementing Lequios’ geographic tie to the Philippines. 10-15N.
1554 Lopo Homem Map

Lopo Homem Planisphere

1554

[Click Image for Blog Link]

Colonial Propaganda Begins! Homem still places Lequios closer to the Philippines; later maps begin shifting it northward under colonial reinterpretations.
1561 Giacomo Gastaldi Map

Giacomo Gastaldi

1561

Lequios Canal continues to be recognized near Palawan, and labels North Luzon as "Cangu", the likely Zipangu of Marco Polo.
1561 Munster Map

Italian Urbano Monti Map

1587 

Canal route for major trade between Palawan and Borneo still referenced where Lequios Canal is on previous maps.

 
1589 Ortelius Maris Pacifici

Spanish Maris Pacifici: Abraham Ortelius

1589

[Click Image for Blog Link]

Ortelius’ 1589 map silently reversed Portuguese propaganda by restoring the Philippines’ true heritage.
1607 Mercator Map

Mercator Map

1607

[Click Image for Blog Link]

The famous Mercator labels Batanes just South of Taiwan as Lequio Major where Pinto was shipwrecked.

1613 Dutch Globe

Dutch Globe

1613

[Click Image for Blog Link]

Flemish and Dutch engraver and cartographer preserves Batanes as Pintos' location for Lequios while bending to Colonial pressure for Ryukyu.
1615 Jodocus Rossi Map

Hondius, Jodocus, and Giuseppe Di Rossi.

1615

Batanes maintained as Lequio and Ryukyu as Lequi Grand.

1627 Bertius Map

P. Bertius Map

1627

Lequios Minor and Pequeno are both place in the Batanes Islands in the Philippines, while moving Lequeo Grande to Ryukyu in error.

1630 Albernaz Map

Albernaz Map

1630

4 Maps include Lequios in one Atlas. All equate Batanes Islands, Philippines as Lequeo–3 of them as Grande (main) and 1 confuses it with Ryukyu. One can see the mindset waffling into Colonial propaganda.

1640 Bleau Map

Bleau Map

1640

The 5 Isles of Pinto's legend appear just to the West of Batanes defining it as Lequios. This same dynamic occurs on the:

1676 Speed Map

1700 Visscher Map
1587 Urbano Monte Map

French Map

1752 

Just west of the Bashee Isles (Batanes), the map boldly labels:

“Les 5 Isles” — The Five Islands

Relating the legend from Pinto's shipreck with Batanes as Lequios.

 
1794 Spanish-British Map

Spanish-British Map

1794

[Click Image for Blog Link]

Lequios River, Batanes as Pinto's Shipwreck, Five Isles, and the Final Blow to Ryukyu Theory.
1799 Italian Map Lequios River, Pinto Account

Italian Map

1799

[Click Image for Blog Link]

Pinto's legend of The 5 Isles appears West of Batanes, as Lequios.
1589 Maris Pacifici: Abraham Ortelius

🪶 “History didn’t just speak — it sang… and the world finally listened.”
“The final page wasn’t colonial ink — it was joy, justice, and memory.”

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