Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture is going to great lengths to prove the Lequios Islands are the Philippines. He is pulling out all the stops. He is even pulling things from out of the air. Take this newly discovered citation from Antonio Galvao.
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| https://thegodculturephilippines.com/galv%C3%A3o-s-maritime-flow-the-true-geography-of-ophir-lequios-and-japon%C3%AAs/ |
In this yeere 1545 and in the moneth of June, there went a junk from the citie of Borneo, wherein went a Portugall called Peter Fidalgo, and by contrary windes he was driuen towards the north ; where he founde an island standing in 9 or 10 degrees, that stretched it selfe to 22 degrees of latitude, which is called The Isle of the Lucones, because the inhabitants thereof were so named. It may haue some other name and harborowes, which as yet we know not : it runneth from the north vnto the south-west, and standeth betweene Mindanao and China. They say they sailed along by it 250 leagues, where the land was fruitfull1 and well couered,- and they affirmme, that there they will giue two pezos of sold for one of siluer : and yet it standeth not farre from the countrey of China.
https://archive.org/details/discoveriesofwor00galvrich/page/238/mode/2up
About this passage, Tim claims this is confirmation of Fernado Pinto's shipwreck in the Lequios Islands.
That means he was shipwrecked in 1544 unlike Fidalgo whose journey to Luzon occurred in 1545. And Fidalgo wasn't even shipwrecked, he was blown off course! There is no account of a shipwreck in this passage from Galvao.
The second problem is the direction Fidalgo was traveling.
there went a junk from the citie of Borneo, wherein went a Portugall called Peter Fidalgo, and by contrary windes he was driuen towards the north
Fidalgo was sailing from Borneo heading north while Pinto was sailing from China and heading south.
Let me post Pinto's account again:
First of all the story follows the healing of the King of Bungo's son. The King of Bungo was a Japanese Feudal Lord who had converted to Catholicism. Pinto then sails to a port in China.
I besought the King of Bungo to give me leave to go back, which he readily granted me, and with much acknowledgement of the curing of his Son he willed a Funce to be made ready for me, furnished with all things necessary, wherein commanded a man of quality, that was attended by twenty of the Kings ser∣vants, with whom I departed one Saturday morning from the City of Fucheo, and the Friday following about Sun-set I arrived at Tanixumaa, where I found my two Comrades, who received me with much joy. Here we continued fifteen days longer, till such time as the Junck was quite ready, and then we set Sail for Liampoo, which is a Sea-port of the Kingdom of China, whereof I have spoken at large heretofore, and where at that time the Portugals tra∣ded. Having continued our voyage with a prosperous wind, it pleased God that we arrived safe at our desired Port, where it is not to be believed how much we were welcome by the Inhabitants of the place.
Liampoo is also known as Ningbo and is translated as Ning-po by Rebecca Catz. Pinto leaves Ningbo, China, and is promptly overcome by a storm and shipwrecked. He was absolutely not going north through the Malay Archipelago as Cheock and Timothy Jay Schwab claim. He was headed east out of the Chinese port with the intent of going south.
Thus by the means of this unreasonable desire of gain nine Juncks, which were then in the Port, were in fifteen days ready to set Sail, though to say the truth they were all in such disorder, and so unprovided, that some amongst them had no other Pilots then the Masters themselves, who had but little understanding in Navigation. In this bad order they departed all in company together one Sunday morning, not withstanding that they had the wind, the season, the sea, and all things else contrary, not suffer∣ing themselves to be guided by reason, or the consideration of the dangers which they are subject unto that commit themselves to this Element; For they were so obstinate and so blinded as they would not represent any inconvenience to themselves, and I my self was so infortunate, that I went along with them in one of their Vessels. In this manner they sailed all that same day as it were groping between the Islands and the firm Land, but about midnight there arose in the dark so mighty a Storm, accompanied with such horrible rain, that suffering themselves to be carried at the mercy of the wind, they ran upon the Sands of Gotom, whereof the nine Juncks two only, as it were by miracle, were saved, so that the other seven were lost out of which not so much as one man escaped. This loss was thought to amount unto above three hundred thousand Crowns in commodities, besides the greater, which was of six hundred persons that left their lives there, whereof there were an hundred and forty Portugals, all rich men, and of quality. As for the other two Juncks in one of the which by good hap I was, joyning in comfort together, they followed the course they had begun, until such time as they arrived at the Island of the Lequios;
Pinto, pg. 179-180
He describes the land and says the people rode on horseback. Where is there any account of Filipinos being horsemen?
Now as soon as it was day we perceived by the sight of the Island of fire, and of the Mountain of Taydacano, that the Land where we were was the great Lequio....
...until at last we were espyed by a boy that was keeping of cattel, who as soon as he had dis∣covered us, ran to the next Village, which was some quarter of a league off, for to give notice of it to the inhabitants there; who presently thereupon with the sound of Drums and Cornets assembled all their Neighbours round about them, so that within three or four hours they were a Company of about two hundred men, whereof there were fourteen on horsback.pg. 180
In her translation of this text Rebecca Catz has this note for Island of fire:
“Fire Island: Cortesão says that Fire Island appears for the first time on Lopo Homem’s map of 1554 and that it corresponds to Nakano-shima or Suwanose-shima, two islands with active volcanoes. The former is described in Webster’s Geographical Dictionary (1966) as a volcanic island 3,215 feet high, Tokara Island, in north Ryukyu Islands, Japan. Suwanose-Shima is not listed. See Cortesão, Suma Oriental, 128–29 n. 2.”
Fernão Mendes Pinto. “The Travels of Mendes Pinto," Translated by Rebecca Catz, pg. 2,323 epub
Pinto and his companions are tied up and taken to the town of Pungor. They are next taken to a town called Gundexilau and left to rot in a dungeon full of water and leeches. The next day they are brought back to Pungor and given a trial before a judge. They are accused of being pirates but they insist they are merchants. They are not believed and are left to rot in prison for two months.The king then sends a spy pretending to be a merchant to visit Pinto and his men to ask them how they ended up in Lequios. They repeat the same story and the spy reports back to the king. However a Chinese pirate arrives and testifies against Pinto and his men that they are indeed pirates who pose as merchants in order to conquer a country. The king believes the pirate and sentences Pinto and his men to death.
By providence the man set to deliver this decree and make sure it was carried out lodged with his sister who was a widow. Staying with her was the wife and children of one of the prisoners. When she heard the decree she fainted and then scratched her face so hard that it bled. News of this got around to the women who wrote a letter to the Queen demanding that as an act of charity the foreigners be released. Through a further series of events including a prophetic dream Pinto and his men are released. Following that story is a description of Lequios for the express purpose of inspiring the Portuguese to conquer the island.
In this manner we departed from Pungor the capital City of the Island of Lequios, of which I will here make a brief relation, to the end that if it shall one day please God to inspire the Portugal Nation, principally for the exaltation and increase of the Catholick faith, and next for the great benefit that may redound thereof, to undertake the Conquest of this Island, they may know where first to begin, as also the commodities of it, and the easiness of this Conquest. We must understand then that this Island of Lequios, scituated in nine and twenty degrees, is two hundred leagues in circuit, threescore in length, and thirty in bredth.
https://thegodculturephilippines.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-god-culture-lequios-and-lucoes-are.html
None of that fits the story of Peter Fidalgo. Was he imprisoned for months? Did he meet the King of Pungor? Did he observe horsemen or an island of fire? No part of Pinto's account of his shipwreck in the Lequios Islands is a match for Fidalgo's being blown off course to Luzon. It's a lie plain and simple. A flagrant, blatant, obvious lie. There is no coherent explanation for conflating Fidalgo and Pinto except that Tim is lying, unless he really is that dumb. With apologies to Hank Williams, no matter how hard he struggles and strives, Tim's equating Lequios and Luzon is all lies.
Edit: Tim has added an update to his article.
Upon further review and deeper scholarly testing, we acknowledge that Peter Fidalgo and Fernão Mendes Pinto were distinct individuals, based on Galvão’s text. Peter Fidalgo was blown toward Luzon around 1545, while Pinto recorded a separate shipwreck event in what he called the "Lequios" Islands.
However, this correction only strengthens our overall case:
Though he appears to have retracted this obvious lie he has not deleted the original article and he attempts to diminish my criticism by saying "this correction only strengthens our overall case." He is merely conducting damage control and repackaging his thesis that the Lequios Islands and the Philippines are identical by saying Pinto and Fidalgo lead to the same place. They aren't the same. No amount of misreading maps or 16th century sources will ever change that fact. Deeper scholarly testing!? Yeah right, buddy! Who is he trying to fool?
