Talk:Limasawa, Southern Leyte

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The merging will force a fundamental review of Limasawa's true identity. Limasawa, a skerry west of the island of Panaon, southmost island of Leyte, Central Philippines, is believed to be Mazaua, port of the Magellan fleet of March-April 1521. Carlo Amoretti, who discovered in 1797-98 the Ambrosiana codex of the Antonio Pigafetta account of Magellan's expedition, surmised Limasawa was Mazaua. He based it on a map of Jacques N. Bellin, French hydrographer-cartographer, which was a copy of a map of the Philippine made in 1734 by Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde, S.J. The map contains an island named Limasawa which is phonetically close to Mazaua. What Amoretti did not know is that this island was named Dimasawa in 1663 combining the Bisayan article, Di, meaning not and the placename Mazaua, to signify this island is not where an Easter mass--missa--was held on 31 March 1521. Five years later, it was renamed Limasawa by Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J. who followed another version of an account by Gian Battista Ramusio that mentions no mass at all. Combés renamed Dimasawa Limasawa since he did not have to negate a mass that is not mentioned in his main source.

There are some 32 properties possessed by and data connected to Mazaua from firsthand accounts by Antonio Pigafetta, Ginés de Mafra, Francisco Albo, the so-called Genoese Pilot, and Martín de Ayamonte. Two of these will suffice to prove Mazaua and Limasawa are not one and the same. Mazaua was an excellent port; Limasawa has no anchorage. From west of Mazaua it took one whole day and 80 nautical miles sailing towards Panaon to reach 10°N latitude. From Limasawa at 9°56' N it's only 4 nautical miles and less than 30 minutes sailing to reach 10°N. Just as instructive, it is an absurdity--and a physical impossibility--to sail towards Panaon from west Limasawa when the destination is Cebu. The track must be westward, sailing away from not towards Panaon.