OUTLINE: SITE OF FIRST MASS IN THE PHILIPPINES

EXCERPT FROM ANTONIO PIGAFETTA’S FIRST VOYAGE AROUND THE AROUND

SOURCE: Pigafetta, A. & Maximilianus,T. (1969). First Voyage
Around the World and De Moluccis Insulis. Manila: Filipiniana
Book Guild (pp. 23-32)

Saturday, March sixteen, 1521

 Came from a high land at a distance of three hundred leagues

 Ladroni—an island named Zamal [Samar]
The following day

 The captain-general desired to land on another island which

was uninhabited and lay to the right of the above-mentioned
island, in order to be more secure, and to get water and to
have rest
Monday afternoon, March 18

 Boat coming towards with nine (9) men

 Five of the most ornately adorned of them remained with us,
 Red caps, mirrors, combs, bells, ivory, bocasine, and other
things. When they saw the captain’s courtesy, they presented
fish, a jar of palm wine which they call uraca [arrack],
figs more than one palm long [bananas], and others which
were smaller and more delicate, and two coconuts
- They would bring umay or rice, and coconuts and many other
articles of food within four days.
- Coconuts are the fruit of the palm tree
- Bread, wine, oil, and vinegar, so those people got everything
from that tree
- “Palmito” - bore a hole into the heart of the said palm at the
top from distils a liquor which resembles white mist
- Liquor is sweet but somewhat tart, and [is gathered] in canes
[of bamboo] as thick as the leg and thicker.
- Palm bears a fruit, namely the coconut, which is as large as
the head or thereabouts. Its outside husk is green and thicker
than two fingers
- Certain filaments are found in that husk, whence is made cord
for binding together their boats
- Family of 10 persons can be supported on two trees, by
utilizing one of them during one week and the other during the
 other 8 days for the wine; for if they did otherwise, the
trees would dry up. They last a century.
Zuluan

 Their own island

- In order to show them greater honor, the captain-general took
them to his ship and showed them all his merchandise—cloves,
cinnamon, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, mace, gold and all the
things in the ship
Humunu

 Now called Homonhon

 Found two springs there of the clearest water
- Acquada da li buoni Segnalli (“the great Watering-place of
Good Signs”), for there were the first signs of gold which we
found in those districts. We found a great quantity of white
coral there, and large trees with fruit a trifle smaller than
the almond and resembling pine seeds. There are many islands
in that district, and therefore we called them the archipelago
of San Lazaro
Sunday of St. Lazarus

 They lie in 10 degrees of latitude toward the Arctic Pole,

and in a longitude of one hundred and sixty-one degrees from
the line of demarcation.
Noon on Friday, March 22,

 They had promised us in two boats with coconuts, sweet

oranges, a jar of palm-wine and a cock
 Their signor was an old man who was painted [tattooed]
 Wore two gold earrings in his ears
 Many gold armlets on their arms and kerchiefs about their
heads
o Stayed one week
 The captain went ashore daily to visit the sick
 Every morning gave them coconut water from his own
hand
 There are people living near that island who have
earrings in their ears so large that they can pass
their arms through them
o Caphri – heathen
  They go naked, with a cloth woven from the bark of
a tree about their privies, except some of the
chiefs who wear cotton cloth embroidered with silk
at the ends by means of a needle.
 They are dark, fat, and painted. They anoint
themselves with coconut and with beneseed oil, as
a protection against sun and wind.
 They have very black hair that falls to the waist,
and use daggers, knives, and spears ornamented
with gold, large shields, fascines,1 javelins, and
fishing nets that resemble rizali; and their boats
are like ours
Afternoon of Holy Monday, the day of our Lady, March 25,

 Putting my feet upon a yard leading down into the storeroom,

they slipped, for it was rainy, and consequently I fell into
the sea, so that no one saw me
 My left hand happened to catch hold of the clew-garnet of
the mainsail, which was dangling in the water
 west southwest between four islands, namely Cenalo,
Hiunanghan, Ibusson, and Abarien.
Thursday Morning, March 28,

 Small boat which the natives call boloto [baroto] with eight
men in it
 A slave belonging to the captain-general, who was a native
of Zamatra [Sumatra], which was formerly called “Taprobana”
 The captain, seeing that they would not trust us, threw them
out a red cap and other things tied to a bit of wood
Two hour later

 Two balanghai coming

 They are large boats and are so called [by those people
 Full of men, and their king was in the larger of them, being
seated under an awning of mats
 The captain-general showed great honor to the men who
entered the ship, and gave them some presents, for which the
king wished before his departure to give the captain a large
bar of gold and a basketful of ginger
In the afternoon

 the ships [and anchored] near the dwellings of the king

Next day, holy Friday,

 The captain-general sent his slave, who acted as our

interpreter
 Ask the king if he had any food to have it carried to the
ships
 The king came with six or eight men
 He gave three porcelain jars covered with leaves and full of
raw rice, two very large dorado and other things
 The captain-general gave the king a garment of red and
yellow cloth made in the Turkish fashion, and a fine red cap
 (the king’s men), some knives and to others, mirrors
 Captain showed him cloth of various colors, linen, coral
[ornaments], and many other articles of merchandise, and all
the artillery, some of which he had discharged for him,
whereat the natives were greatly frightened.
- The captain-general had a man armed as a soldier
- Placed him in the midst of three armed with swords and daggers
- two hundred men in each ship who were armed in that manner
- He showed the king cuirasses, swords, and bucklers, and had a
review made for him
- Deck of the ship, that is located above at the stern
- Led us under a bamboo covering, where there was a balanghai,
as long as eighty of my palm lengths, and resembling a fusta
- The king’s men stood about us in a circle with swords,
daggers, spears, and bucklers
- Before the supper hour I gave the king many things which I had
brought
- Two large porcelain dishes were brought in, one full of rice
and the other of pork with its gravy.
- The king which was built like a hayloft & thatched with fig
and palm leaves
- They used the gum of a tree called anime wrapped in palm or
fig leaves for lights. The king made us a sign that he was
going to sleep. He left the prince with us, and we slept with
the latter on a bamboo mat with pillows made of leaves
- Before we left, the king kissed our hands with great joy and
we his
- Pieces of gold, of the size of walnuts and eggs
- All the dishes of that king are of gold and also some portion
of his house, as we were told by that king himself
- His hair was exceedingly black, and hung to his shoulders. He
had a covering of silk in his head, and wore two large golden
 earrings fastened in his ears. He wore a cotton cloth all
embroidered with silk, which covered him from the waist to the
knees. At his side hung a dagger, the haft of which was
somewhat long and all of gold, and its scabbard of carved wood
He had three spots of gold on every tooth, and his teeth
appeared as if bound with gold. He was perfumed with storax
and benzoin.
The island of his was called Butuan and Calagan
- The name of the first king is Raia Colambu
- The second Raia Siaui
Early on the morning of Sunday, the last of March and Easter-day

 The king sent us two swine that he had killed

 We landed with about fifty men, without our body armor, but
carrying our arms, and dressed in our best clothes. Before
the commencement of Mass, the captain sprinkled the entire
bodies of the two kings with musk water
 When the body of our Lord was elevated, they remained on
their knees and worshipped Him with clasped hands. The ships
fired all their artillery at once when the body of Christ
was elevated, the signal having been given from the shore
with muskets
- If any of their men were captured, they would be set free
immediately on that sign being shown. It was necessary to set
that cross on the summit of the highest mountain, so that on
seeing it every morning, they might adore it; and if they did
that, neither thunder, lightning, nor storms would harm them
in the least
- “Abba” is what they call their god
- The captain told him that if God would again allow him to
return to those districts, he would bring so many men that he
would make the king’s enemies subject to him by force.
- On asking them which port was the best to get food, they
replied that there were three, namely, Ceylon, Zubu, and
Calaghann
- Zubu was the largest and the one with most trade
- After the cross was erected in position, each of us repeated a
Pater Noster and an Ave Maria
- One of those people brought us aboard a porringer full of rice
and also eight or ten figs fastened together to barter them
for a knife which at the most was worth three catrini
- The captain tried to give him a doppione worth two ducats, but
he would take nothing but a knife; and accordingly the captain
had one of those people wanted to give him a pointed crown of
massive gold, of the size of a colona, for six strings of
glass beads
- Constantly chewing a fruit which they call areca
- They cut that fruit into four parts, and then wrap it in the
leaves of their tree which they call betre [betel]
- It lies in a latitude of nine and two-thirds degrees toward
the Arctic Pole, and in a longitude of one hundred and sixty-
two degrees from the line of demarcation. It is twenty-five
leagues from the Acquada, and is called Mazaua.
Remained seven days,

 five islands; namely, Ceylon, Bohol, Canighan, Baybai, and

Gatighan
 Awaited him near three island; namely, Polo, Ticobon, and
Pozon
Seilani
- Large Island
- Inhabited and contains gold
Mazaba
- Small inhabited island
Butuan holds Easter Sunday Mass to reinforce contentious
historical claim
By: Mozart Pastrano
Philippine Daily Inquirer/01:04 AM Aprirl 08, 2013
Retrieved from Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.

BUTUAN CITY—Easter Sunday fell on March 31—exactly as it was in

1521

 Ferdinand went ashore on an island called Mazaua

March 31, eight years shy of the 500th anniversary of Magellan’s
Easter Mass, was the Diocese of Butuan.

 Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos at 9 a.m. at the Cathedral-

Shrine of St. Joseph in this city’s downtown area
- , Amalla zeroed in on the primary and secondary
historiographic documents, which he sourced from his first-
hand research around the world, namely, Museo Naval de Madrid
and Archivo General de Indias in Sevilla (Spain)
- “I read almost all the extant manuscripts of Antonio
Pigafetta, who documented Magellan’s journey, and of Fransisco
Albo, Magellan’s pilot,” said Amalla. “I read and touched and
prayed over the handwritten pages.”
- “Limasawa,” Amalla pointed out. “Instead,” he said, “what the
primary sources recorded was that the first Mass was held in a
place called Mazaua. The Butuan City Heritage Society, of which
Amalla is a leading member, contends that Mazaua was a deltaic
island at the mouth of the Agusan River in Butuan in 1521
- “Early maps put Mazaua and its variants—such as Mazagua,
Massana and Messana—as an island beside Butuan, which was also
characterized as an island by such early cartographers as
Giacomo Gastaldi, whose map was published in 1554, and
Giovanni Battista Ramusio, whose map appeared in 1563. By the
time Abraham Ortelius’ map came out in 1570, Butuan and a
place called Messana
In 1986, ASEAN

 Separated Pinamanculan Hills

 Beside Barangay Masao and where the current Butuan airport
is located, from the main landmass of Mt. Mayapay in the
southwest.
Discovery
IN 2001,
 local experts made another confirmatory
 People that testifies that Pinamanculan Hills were but an
island during Episode V of its geological formation, between
500 years AD and until the 18th century
 Wilfredo Ronquillo, chief archaeologist of the National
Museum of the Philippines;
 Dr. Yolanda Aguilar, geologist and paleontologist;
Roberto de Ocampo, chief geologist of the National
Museum; and
 Dr. Ricarte Javelosa, chief geomorphologist of the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources
Amalla’ observation
 In 1521 - and the island they found is exactly at 9ºN as
pinpointed by Magellan’s pilot, Francisco Albo
For 300 years during the Spanish colonial period
 The Catholic Church in the Philippines believed in the
Butuan tradition
- “Labor Evangelica” in 1663, Jesuit superior Fr. Francisco
Colin wrote, “On Easter Day, in the Territory of Butuan, the
First Mass ever offered in these parts was celebrated and a
cross planted. Magellan then took possession of the Islands in
the name of the Emperor and of the Crown of Castile.”
- Amalla he supported his Butuan claim for the first Mass
- The “Anales Ecclesiasticos de Philipinas 1574-1683.” Said
Amalla, “This document stated that the Easter Sunday Mass in
1521 was celebrated by the Chaplain of Magellan in Butuan.”
- “They are Butuanon brother-kings,” Amalla claimed
Trading harbor, gold
- “Butuan of a Thousand Years” (printed by Ateneo de Manila
University Press for the Butuan City Historical and Cultural
Foundation in 2004), another prominent Butuan historian, Greg
Hontiveros, contended that the Masao estuary in today’s Butuan
“was once the site of the ancient trading harbor and well-
respected kingdom of Butuan.”
- In a paper issued by the Butuan City Heritage Society last
year, “The Quest for the Mazaua Landfall: Latest Navigational
and Cartographic Updates,” Hontiveros further discussed “the
ecosystem of Mazaua, gold as its definitive marker, traces of
a trading polity, tribal identity of Raja Siaui of Mazaua and
his brother, Raja Calambu of Butuan and Calaghan, the geology
of the Butuan Delta of which Mazaua was part, the location of
Gatighan [a navigational marker as mentioned in the Pigafetta
accounts], and the 300-year-old Butuan Tradition during the
Spanish colonial era”
- They looked for an island whose name sounded like Mazaua—and
they found Limasawa. “And politicians seized the moment
- “But the data in the firsthand sources negate this,” said
Amalla. “The distances and time and directions travelled by
Magellan do not point to Limasawa at all. Besides, Limasawa
has a rocky shoreline which cannot be a natural harbor as
mentioned in the journals. And it is too small and rough to
have rice fields which would take two days to harvest. And it
has no gold mines, no kingdoms, no oral tradition documenting
such an encounter—unlike in Butuan.”
- “Did you know that Limasawa has been inaccessible and hardly
been inhabited that it became a parish only in 1994? But the
first Christian settlement in Mindanao was in Butuan in 1596?”
- The National Historical Institute, however, upholds the
Limasawa claim