Maasin City Description
Maasin City is the capital of Southern Leyte province, its commercial an cultural center. Inhabitants are mostly focused on the flat lands near the coastal line but rugged mountains spring on its background. The town of Maasin was converted into a Maasin City in the year 2000.The name Maasin was derived from the salty taste of the water and is said to be the oldest town in Southern Leyte. Already well established even before the arrival of Spanish missionaries. Farming and fishing is its residents prevalent source of income.
Maasin City Attraction
Maasin City is adorned with a variety of magnificence which captivates tourists. Beach bums could chose between Cuatro Islands, Esfa Beach, Kuting Beach Resort or Maamo beach. Mohon-San Juaqin Beach is mostly preferred. One major attraction is Limasawa Island, the setting of the first Christian Mass in the Philippines and also the site of the Blood Compact between Ferdinand Magellan and two local rulers. In 1700 the Society of Jesus missionaries built a parish in Maasin and called it as Nipa. A relic with the encryptions “Pa. De Tagnipa-aÑo” is what remains as its memory.
Maasin City Location
Maasin City is nested at the southwest tip of southern Leyte.
“First mass” at Limasawa?
Magellan didn’t go to Limasawa. Or Butuan.
The place where Magellan’s fleet anchored and where an Easter mass was celebrated on March 31, 1521 was not Butuan. Or, Limasawa.
It was in the island-port named Mazaua. Being an island, it was surrounded by sea water.
There is an article at Wikipedia on Mazaua where all the properties of Mazaua–its location, size, kind of port, shape, the name of its king, its flora and fauna, distances from Homonhon to the port, latitude, etc. etc.–are explicitly defined. Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazaua.
A fairly comprehensive but not exhaustive historiography of the Mazaua issue is contained in an article published in the website of the Italian nuclear scientist and Italian translator of Dr. Jose Rizal, Dr. Vasco Caini, at http://www.xeniaeditrice.it. When the page opens scroll down to the article Mazaua.
The notion the March 31, 1521 mass was held at Butuan comes from the garbled account by Giovanni Battista Ramusio. It is such a corrupted translation of the original that the account is not Antonio Pigafetta’s at all. In this translation, which Henry Harrisse says is a plagiarism by Ramusio of an anonymously published book that saw print in 1534 (no one has seen this edition) and republished in 1536 (which is extant), Ramusio removed “Mazaua” and replaced it with Butuan.
The Butuan error stayed uncorrected for 266 years from 1534 or 1536 until 1800. The error was detected in a book containing the authentic Pigafetta narration of the Magellan voyage, edited by the ex-Augustinian polymath Carlo Amoretti.
But in correcting the error, Amoretti made a colossal blunder which was only detected in 1996 by the author. Amoretti in two footnotes surmised that Mazaua (his exact names for the island was Massana and Mazzana) MAY be the “Limassava” island in the 1734 map of the Philippines by French mapmaker Jacques N. Bellin. This map was an exact copy of the most famous map ever made in the Philippines by Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde, the edition of 1734.
Amoretti, by way of offering proof to support his assertion, states Limasawa and Mazaua are in the latitude given by Pigafett, 9 degrees and 40 minutes North. This is wrong on three points: 1) Limasawa’s latitude is 9 deg. 56 min. N; 2) There is no island at Pigafetta’s latitude; 3) There are two other readings of latitude for Mazaua, 9 degrees North by The Genoese Pilot which is supported by the Portuguese squadron leader, Antonio de Brito, who embargoed all objects found at the flagship Trinidad including a number of logbooks and other papers, and 9 deg. 20 min. North by Francisco Albo, the Greek mariner who piloted the Victoria back to Spain on Sept. 6, 1522.
The notion Combes’ Limasawa was Magellan’s Mazaua where the “first mass” was held is a false notion. Combes nowhere says his Limasawa is the port where the fleet moored on March 28-April 3, 1521. Nowhere does Combes say there was any mass held in his Limasawa or anywhere in the Philippines for that matter on March 31, 1521. To verify this, go to the English translation of the 3-paragraph story by Combes of Magellan’s sojourn in Philippine waters. Click http://books.google.com/books?id=NbG7kHtBma8C&pg=PA1&dq=First+mass+in+Limasawa&ei=6w27SZi7IoLKlQS8neDVAg#PPA4,M1. The original Spanish text may be accessed at http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=philamer;cc=philamer;q1=Limasaua;rgn=full%20text;idno=ahz9273.0001.001;didno=ahz9273.0001.001;view=image;seq=00000134
Where then is Magellan’s port today? The answer may be found at the ff. Wikipedia articles:
1. First mass in the Philippines –http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_mass_in_the_Philippines
2. Carlo Amoretti — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Amoretti
3. Gines de Mafra — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gines_de_Mafra
4. Mazaua — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazaua
5. Francisco Combes — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Comb%C3%A9s
6. Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_de_Herrera_y_Tordesillas
7. Andres de San Martin — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_de_San_Mart%C3%ADn
8. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruy_Lopez_de_Villalobos
No serious scholar of Magellan historiography today still thinks Limasawa is Mazaua. Only the National Historical Institute and fanatic advocates (not scholars) of Amoretti’s Limasawa hypothesis still think the southern isle is or can be Mazaua.
Ironically, some writers from Butuan think in the same way as NHI itself. For what unexplained reason, it’s not clear.
The only remaining problem is whether the suspect isle of Pinamanculan-Bancasi is really Mazaua. This issue is not historiographical. It is archaeological, i.e., there is need to come up with artefacts directly traceable to Magellan, Gines de Mafra, and a number of other recorded visits by Europeans in the 16th century.
These artefacts cannot be produced by further historiographical conversation. It is only by digging that concrete evidence may be found.
VICENTE CALIBO DE JESUS
ginesdemafra@gmail.com
Wow VICENTE
Thanks for the enlightenment.
but with all due respect wikipedia as my professors say is not that reliable
but with all due respect Wikipedia as my professors say is not that reliable and besides it has been cleared through the show of senator Miguel Zubiri by the National Historical-something (too bad I can’t remember the name) that Magellan really landed on Limasawa.