GRAN, JAZMINH JULIA D.

BS ARCHITECTURE 2

Excerpt from Antonio Pigafetta’s First Voyage Around the World

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

- March 16,1521, as the captain-general’s expedition landed on a highland called Zamal (Samar) at a
distance of three hundred leagues from islands of Ladroni.
- Based on the Narrative of Pigafetta
- In Pigafetta’s narrative, the island is called Humunu (Homohon. But their given description of the
island is the same as that which contains gold. That Pigafetta named the island “Acquada da li buoni
Segnalli” (The Great Water place of Positive Signs).
- On the afternoon of Holy Monday which is dated March 25, four islands, namely Cenalo,
Hiunanghan, Ibusson, and Abarien.
- On Thursday morning, March 28, as we had seen a fire on an island the night before, we anchored
near it.
- Early on the morning of Sunday, the last of March and Easter-day, the captain-general sent the priest
with some men to prepare the place where Mass was to be said; together with the interpreter to tell
the king that we were not going to land in order to dine with him, but to say Mass. From there, the
kings showed them three ports on which is best to get food namely Ceylon, Zubu, and Calaghan.
Zubu was the largest and most commercial.
- In Pigafetta’s account they have landed in s 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.
- After staying in Mazaua, we remained there seven days, after which we laid our course toward the
northwest, passing among five islands; namely, Ceylon, Bohol, Canighan, Baybai, and Gatighan. In
the last-named island of Gatighan, there are bats as large as eagles.
- The island of Mazaua has a distance of twenty-five leagues from the island of Seilani.
- We set out westward from Gatighan, but the king of Mazaua could not follow us [closely], and
consequently, we awaited him near three island; namely, Polo, Ticobon, and Pozon. When he caught
up with us he was greatly astonished at the rapidity with which we sailed. The captain-general had
him come into his ship with several of his chiefs at which they were pleased. Thus did we go to Zubu
from Gatighan, the distance to Zubu being fifteen leagues.

REPUBLIC ACT 2733 (https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/2/21477#:~:text=June

%2019%2C%201960%20%5D-,AN%20ACT%20TO%20DECLARE%20THE%20SITE%20IN
%20MAGALLANES%2C%20LIMASAWA%20ISLAND,THEREAT%2C%20AND%20FOR%20OTHER
%20PURPOSES.)
AN ACT TO DECLARE THE SITE IN MAGALLANES, LIMASAWA ISLAND IN THE PROVINCE OF LEYTE,
WHERE THE FIRST MASS IN THE PHILIPPINES WAS HELD AS A NATIONAL SHRINE, TO PROVIDE FOR
THE PRESERVATION OF HISTORICAL MONUMENTS AND LANDMARKS THEREAT, AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PHILIPPINES IN

CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

SECTION 1. THE SITE IN MAGALLANES, LIMASAWA ISLAND IN THE PROVINCE OF LEYTE, WHERE
THE FIRST MASS IN THE PHILIPPINES WAS HELD IS HEREBY DECLARED A NATIONAL SHRINE TO
COMMEMORATE THE BIRTH OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE PHILIPPINES.
SEC. 2. ALL HISTORICAL MONUMENTS AND LANDMARKS IN SAID SITE SHALL BE PRESERVED
AND/OR RECONSTRUCTED WHENEVER NECESSARY AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE IN THEIR ORIGINAL
FORM AND ARE HEREBY DECLARED NATIONAL HISTORICAL MONUMENTS AND LANDMARKS.

SEC. 3. THE NATIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION SHALL EXERCISE SUPERVISION AND CONTROL
OVER THE RECONSTRUCTION AND/OR PRESERVATION OF THE AFORESAID SITE AND MONUMENTS,
AND SHALL ISSUE RULES AND REGULATIONS TO EFFECTUATE THE PRECEDING SECTIONS OF THIS
ACT.

SEC. 4. NECESSARY FUNDS FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS ACT SHALL BE PROVIDED FOR IN THE
ANNUAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR PUBLIC WORKS AND DISBURSEMENTS SHALL BE MADE BY THE
NATIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION UNDER SUCH RULES AND REGULATIONS AS THE AUDITOR
GENERAL MAY PRESCRIBE.

SEC 5. THIS ACT SHALL TAKE EFFECT UPON ITS APPROVAL.

ENACTED WITHOUT EXECUTIVE APPROVAL, JUNE 19, 1960.

Arguments in Favor of Butuan as the Site of First Mass

- Nowhere in Pigafetta’s account or narrative was there any mention of the word Limasawa, Fr.
Amalla pointed out. Instead, he dictated, “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 the Mazaua was a deltaic island at the mouth of the Agusan River in Butuan
in 1521. Through the years, siltation and other geologic factors fused the island into the Mindanao
mainland.
- Noted Amalla, “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 were depicted side by side inside the Mindanao mainland.”
- Using an interdisciplinary approach in his historical investigation, Amalla said, “Alone among the
different Philippine languages, only Butuanon and its derivative language, Tausug, has the word
masawa, which means ‘bright light.’” It was the island’s bright light the night before that prompted
Magellan to land in Mazaua.
- In the northern shores of today’s Butuan is a barangay called Masao.
- In 1986, Asean scientists found a “graben” in Butuan. A graben is a valley-like depression of the
land caused by the subsidence, or sinking, of a series of blocks of the earth’s crust. This graben
separated Pinamanculan Hills, which is beside Barangay Masao and where the current Butuan airport
is located, from the main landmass of Mt. Mayapay in the southwest.
- In his “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 disclosed that when the late Jaime Cardinal Sin of Manila was still alive, he told Amalla he
supported his Butuan claim for the first Mass. He said Cardinal Sin allowed him to see the original
copy of 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.”
- Pigafetta wrote that two kings attended the Mass: “His island was called Butuan and Calaghan. And
that island is called Mazaua… Of these kings, the aforesaid painted one is named Raia Colambu and
the other Raia Siaui.” “They are Butuanon brother-kings,” Amalla claimed.
- Gold, Hontiveros pointed out, was the currency of the Butuan kingdom before the Spaniards came.
In fact most of the gold pieces in the Central Bank’s gold collection, on permanent exhibit at the
Metropolitan Museum of Manila, are from the archaeological findings in Butuan.
- “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.”
-Amalla further said: “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?”

GENERALIZATION:
On Pigafetta’s narrative it is more on the biased side since there are no proper sources like
artifacts and proper dictation of places. Hence, Pigafetta’s narrative was recognized by the
government and the National Historical Institute and given the Republic Act 2733 without the
executive approval. Hence, that concretized that Limasawa was the site of the first mass. We can
argue about this by giving the claims and artifacts provided by Fr. Amalla, Butuan City Heritage
Society and Diocese of Butuan.