I. Limasawa Island, Southern Leyte.

The most famous is Limasawa Island, an island

town in Southern Leyte, which the Philippine government recognized as the actual site
of the First Mass. Limasawa Island was also known by the powerful Roman Catholic
Church as the site of the first mass landed by Magellan with his crew. The Spanish
Embassy also acknowledged Limasawa as a landing site for Magellan and that it also
dispatched the Galleon of Andalusia for five days to Maasin City and about three hours
to Limasawa. Limasawa has been recognized by the Embassy of Portugal in Metro
Manila as the' Mazzaua,' written by Pigafetta on which Magellan and his soldiers
observed the first mass in Easter or introduced the people of the island to Christianity.
“The Teaty of Tordesillas on June 7, 1494, virtually divided the unknown world
between Spain and Portugal with the approval of the Holy See. Did you know
that Magellan, in a previous expedition, had [landed] in the Moluccas, just south
of Mindanao? In those days, Portugal had something that the Spanish didn't
have: cartographic maps of the so-called Spice Islands. Therefore, since he was
a Portuguese, it is safe to assume that Magellan used Portuguese cartographic
maps during his historic expedition that brought him to Cebu on March 16, 1521
(this is a wrong date)." •With the Treaty of Tordesillas, prof. De Sousa said the
Philippine ardipelagofell under the jurisdiction of Portugal... but Magellan made
his daim for the King of Spain who paid for his expedition. nus in 1750, Spain and
Portugal signed the Treaty of Madrid whereby the Portuguese exchanged the
Philippines for the South Frontier of Brazil, which gave Portugal control of Rio de
la Plata. Again this is something wewe never read in our history books. History
tdls us that Spain sold the Philippines to the United States for a measly sum of
$20 million, but we never knew about this exchange deal between Spain and
Portugal for Brazil!" "Talkingabout rewriting history, we all know about the claim
made by some Butuanons that a place called Mazaua was allegedly the site of
the first Holy Mass instead of Limasawa Island off Southern Leyte. Well, Prof De
Sousa has another insight on this, which I'm sureputs an end to this endless
debate and enrich our pre-Spanish history. It turned out that the ill-fated Magellan
expedition ended Spanish exploration of these Islands. But Portuguese
navigators like Joäo de Barros, Gaspar Correia, Diogo do Couto, Francisco de
Castro, and Antonio Galväo have been exploring Mindanao from 1520 to 1565
until the Spaniards resumed its conquest of the Philippines through another
expedition led by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi."