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“One Atlas. Four Maps. One Lie.”
Who Moved the Land of Gold?

Albernaz, João Teixeira, Active, Jeronimo De Attayde, and Francisco De Seixas Y Lovera. Taboas Geraes De Toda a Navegação. 1630. Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/78653638/>. [Full View with Zoom Available at this link for each map]

🪶 THE SMOKING QUILL | May 20, 2025

The Governor Who Rewrote Ophir — Jesuit Manipulation in a 1630 Atlas

Introduction: The Atlas with a Double Tongue

In the 1630 publication Taboas geraes de toda a navegação ("General Tables of All Navigation"), Portuguese cartographer João Teixeira Albernaz I compiled a detailed atlas covering major maritime routes and lands of the known world. But within its pages lies a smoking quill of manipulation: four maps of the same era contradict each other regarding the true location of "Lequios."

At first glance, the maps appear consistent with the cartographic standards of their time. But under scrutiny, a glaring inconsistency emerges—only one map in the atlas attempts to shift Lequios from the Philippines (Batanes) to Japan (Ryukyu), while the other three identify Batanes as Lequio Grande or Lequio Pequeño.

🗺️ The Contradiction Within the Atlas

This atlas, archived by the Library of Congress, contains four relevant maps:

1. Indian Ocean Map

  • Labels Batanes as Lequio Grande (Where Pinto was Shipwrecked)

  • Ryukyu is not prominently labeled on this map as it ends at Formosa (Taiwan)
1630 Taboas geraes de toda a navegação_Indian Ocean

2. Asia Map

  • Again labels Batanes as Lequio Grande (Where Pinto was Shipwrecked)

  • Includes Lequio Pequeño just above in Ryukyu which is not Lequios and history is rewritten in assumption.
1630 Taboas geraes de toda a navegação_Indian Ocean

3. North Pacific Map

  • Reiterates Lequio Grande as Batanes

  • Formosa shown correctly above with Lequio Pequeño just above in Ryukyu transforming history.

1630 Taboas geraes de toda a navegação_Indian Ocean

4. World Map (front of book)

  • The outlier: attempts to move Lequio Grande to Ryukyu when the other maps in this same book conflict.

  • Still labels Batanes as Lequio Pequeño, thereby admitting Batanes is Lequios regardless.

This creates a scenario in which three maps agree and one deviates. If the atlas were consistent, such a discrepancy would not exist.
1630 Taboas geraes de toda a navegação_Indian Ocean

🎭 Enter the "Corrector": Jerónimo de Ataíde

Strangely, this atlas was "divided and corrected" by Jerónimo de Ataíde, a Portuguese noble and colonial administrator who later served as Governor-General of Brazil (1654–1657).

What business does a colonial politician have editing the cartographic record of East Asia?

Ataíde lived during the height of Jesuit geopolitical influence, a period when maps were power and theology masked imperial agendas. Was he a Jesuit confessor? A loyal pawn? Either way, his "correction" inverts one of the most important geographic identifiers of the biblical land of gold—Lequios.
Jerónimo Ataíde

🧭 Cartographic Shell Game: What Is Being Hidden?

The implications are staggering:

  • Three maps identify Batanes as Lequio Grande

  • Even the altered world map labels Batanes as Lequio Pequeño

This means Batanes is always Lequios, no matter the attempt to redirect it to Japan. Thus:

"Any theory that ignores Batanes in its testing is not a theory."

This isn’t just cartographic confusion; this is historical erasure.

🕵️ Smoking Quill Summary

  • Source: Taboas geraes de toda a navegação, 1630 (LOC Archive)

  • Cartographer: João Teixeira Albernaz I

  • "Corrector": Jerónimo de Ataíde, Jesuit-era political operative

  • Discrepancy: Three maps say Lequios = Batanes, one world map tries to move it to Ryukyu

This contradiction embedded in the same atlas is a clear Jesuit-era overwrite. The maps were changed not by error but by intent. And in doing so, the land of gold—Ophir, Chryse, Lequios—was buried under layers of colonial fraud.

"Because when the truth is inconvenient, cartographers of control draw lies instead."
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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