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Archaeological Evidence of Ophir’s Gold

In 1946, archaeologists discovered inscribed pottery shards referencing Ophir's gold...

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1752 Map by Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville. Seconde Partie De la Carte D'Asie Contenant La Chine et partie de la Tartarie, L'Inde au dela du
Gange, Les Isles Sumatrai, Java, Borneo, Moluques, Philippines et Japon. Paris. [View in Full Zoom Mode at Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, Inc.]

🪶 THE SMOKING QUILL | May 16, 2025

The French Knew Too: “Les 5 Isles” West of Bashee = Pinto’s Lequios

How an 18th-Century French Map Shatters the Ryukyu Myth and Restores Luzon’s Identity

A full 47 years before Zatta’s Venetian chart and over a century after Pinto’s famous voyage, this 1752 French map silently affirms a truth colonial revisionists tried to erase: the Lequios Isles were the Philippines.

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

“Les 5 Isles” — The Five Islands

They are plotted where no separate islands exist today, because they were never meant as literal, isolated rocks. Instead, they memorialize Pinto’s “Five Very Large Islands” — Luzon, Palawan, Mindoro, Panay, and Mindanao — recounted in sequence after his shipwreck and trial in Batanes.

📍 Geographic Alignment:

  • “Les 5 Isles” are placed west of Batanes, just as Pinto narrates.

  • They match the directional logic of his journey, not strict coordinates.

  • The Ilocanos of Luzon, whom Pinto calls Lequios, were his destination — confirming he drifted west then south, arriving in what is now Ilocos.

🗝️ Interpretive Insight

France, like Spain, Britain, and Italy, preserved this truth before colonial mapwashing began. “Les 5 Isles” are not Ryukyuan. They are Philippine — massive, native, and remembered.

🪶 “When the smoke clears, the ink still speaks.”
1752 French Map
Philippine Isles With Points West of Batanes
1769 Durch Map

📍 Still There, Still Lequios: When Even the Propaganda Couldn't Erase Batanes

Maps from 1613 and 1659 preserve Batanes as the Lequios Isles—even as geopolitical agendas crept north.

  • 1613 Hondius, Jodocus Globe. Flemish and Dutch engraver and cartographer.

  • 1659 Nova et Accuratissima Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula, Amsterdam: Joan Blaeu.

“When even the opposition maps can't delete the truth, you've won the war of memory.”

🗺️ 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

Italian Cantino World Map Originally Created in Portugal

1502 

[See above]

Lequios of Zambales at 17N. Affirmed within.

1512 Francisco Rodrigues' Sketches

Portuguese Jorge Reinel/Rodriguez Chart from Spain

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

Portuguese 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

Spanish Santa Cruz Map

1539 

[See above]

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

 
1544 Sebastian Cabot Map

British Sebastian Cabot Map Also Hired By Spain

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

Portuguese 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

Italian Giacomo Gastaldi Map

1561

Lequios Canal continues to be recognized near Palawan, and labels North Luzon as "Cangu", the likely Zipangu of Marco Polo.
1587 Urbano Monte 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 Maris Pacifici Ortelius Map

Spanish Maris Pacifici: Abraham Ortelius

1589

[Click Image for Blog Link]

Ortelius’ 1589 map silently reversed Portuguese propaganda by restoring the Philippines’ true heritage.
1613 Honsius 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.
1659 Dutch Map

Dutch Nova et Accuratissima Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula

1659

[Click Image for Blog Link]

Dutch Mapmaker Joan Blaeu maintains Batanes as Pinto's Lequios also offering the new Colonial bias of Ryukyu which fails.

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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