 Kunasawa us a 6th class Island municipality in

Southern Leyte. It is considered as the smallest

mnicipality in the said province. The island is also
known as Sarangani Island.
 The place is kwon for the first mass in the Philippines
officiated on Esater Sunday of March 31, 1521, by Father
Pedre de Valderrama under the fleet of Ferdinand
Magellan. The mass was celebrated along the shores of
Limasawa at the tip of Southern Leyte.
 Limasawa is kwon to be the birthplace of the Church
in the Philippines.
 Rajah Kolambu, the Rajah of the Island has 5 wives,
that is why the place was called Limasawa which
means lima asawa (5 wives).
The First Catholic Mass in the
Philippines was held on March 31,
1521 by the Priest Father Pedro de
Valderrama.
 “Magellan did not go to Butuan. Rather, from the
island of Limasawa he proceeded directly to Cebu.
In that island he had dealings with Rajah Siagu,
chieftain of Butuan; and this would explain the
author’s [i.e. Colin’s] error. See the “voyage” of
Pigafetta and the diary of Albo, both of whom who
were eyewitnesses.”

 James Robertson concluded in Pastell’s

footnote that “Mazaua” was actually Limasawa.
1. The evidence of Albo’s Log-book
2. The evidence of Pigafetta
a. Pigafetta’s testimony regarding the route;
b. The two native kings
c. The seven days at “Mazaua”;
d. An argument from omission.
3. Summary of the evidence of Albo and Pigafetta.
 Francisco Albo’s joined the Magellan expedition as a
pilot in Magellan’s flagship “Trinidad” He was one of
the 18 survivors who returned with Sebastian El cano
on the “Victoria” after having circumnavigated the
world.
 1. On the 16th of March (1521) as they sailed in a
westerly course from the Ladrones, they saw land
towards the northwest; bit owing to many shallow
places they did not approach it. They found later that
its name was Yunagan.
 2. They went instead that same day southwards to
another small island named Suluan, and there they
anchored. There they saw some canoes but these fled
at the Spaniards’s approach. This island was at 9 two-
thirds degrees North latitude.
 3. Departing from those two islands, they sailed
westward to an uninhabited island of “Gada” where
they look in a supply of wood and water. The sea
around that island was free from shallows. (Albo does
not give the latitude of this island, but from Pigafetta’s
testimony this seems to be the “acquada” or
Homonhon, at 10 degrees North latitude.)
 4. From that island they sailed westwards towards a
large island named. Seilani which was inhabited and
was known to have gold. (Seilani – or, as Pigafetta calls
it, “Ceylon” – was the island of Leyte.
 5, Sailing southwards along the coast of that large
island o f Seilani, they turned southwest to a small
island called “Mazava”. That island is also at a lattitude
of 9 and two-thirds degrees North.
 6. The people of that island of Mazava were very good.
There the Spaniards planted a cross upon a mountain-
top, and from there they were shown three islands to
the west and southwest, where they were told there
was much gold. “They showed us how the gold was
gathered, which came in small pieces like peas and
lentils”.
 7. From Mazava they sailed northwards again towards
Seilani. They followed the coast of Seilani in a
northwesterly direction, ascending up to 10 degrees of
latitude where they saw three small islands.
 8. From there they sailed westwards some ten leagues,
and there they saw three islets, where they dropped
anchor or the night. In the morning they sailed
southwest some 12 leagues, down to a latitude of 10
and one-diird degree. There they entered a channel
between two islands, one of which was called “Matan”
and the other “Subu”.
 It must be noted that in Albo’s account, the location of
Mazava fits the location of the island of Limasawa, at
the southern tip of Leyte.
 Albo does not mention the first mass, but only the
planting of the cross upon a mountain-top from which
could be seen three islands to the west and southwest,
which also fits the southern end of Limawasa.
 The most complete account of the Magellan
expedition is that by Antonio Pigafetta entitled Primo
viaggio intomo al mondo ( First Voyage Around the
World). Like Albo, he was a member of the expedition
and was therefore an eyewitness of the principal
events which he describes, including the first Mass in
what is now known as the Philippine Archipelago, but
which Magellan called the Islands of Saint Lazarus. Of
Pigafetta’s work there are two excellent English
translations, one by Robertson (from the Italian) and
another by Skelton (from the French).
 1. Saturday, 16 March 1521. – Magellan;s expedition
sighted a “high land” named “Zamal” which was some
300 leagues westward of the Ladrones (now the
Marianas) Islands.
 2. Sunday, March 17. – “The following day” after
sighting Zamal Island, they landed on “another island
which was uninhabited” and which lay “to the right” of
the above mentioned island of “Zamal”. (To
southwest.) There they set up two tents for the sick
members of the crew and had a sow killed for them.
The ame of this island was “Humunu” (Homonhon).
This island was located at 10 degrees North latitude.
 3. On that same day (Sunday, 17 March) Magellan
named the entire archipelago the “Islands of Saint
Lazarus”. The reason being that it was the Sunday in
the Lenten season when the Gospel assigned ffor the
Mass and the liturgical Office was the eleventh chapter
of St. John, which tells of the raisingg of Lazarus from
the dead.
 4. Monday, 18 March – In the afternoon of their second
day on that island, they saw a boat coming towards
them with nine men in it. A exchange of gifts was
effected. Magellan asked for food supplies, and the
men went away, promising to bring rice and other
supplies in “four days”.
 5. There were two springs of water on that island of
Homonhon. Also they saw there some indications that
there was gold in these islands Consequently Magellan
renamed the island and called it the “Watering Place
of Good Omen” (Aquda la di bouni segnialli).
 6. Friday, 22 March. – At noon the natives returned.
This time they were in two boats, and they brought
food supplies.
 7. Magellan;s expedition stayed eight days at
Homonhon: from Sunday, 17 March, to the Monday of
the followng week, 25 March.
 8. Monday, 25 March. – In the afternoon, the
expedition weighed anchor and left the island of
Homonhon, In the ecclesiastical calendar, this day (25
March) was the feast-day of the Incarnation, also
called the feast of the Annunciation and there fore
“Our Lady’s Day”. On this day, as they were about to
weigh anchor, and accident happened to Pigafetta: he
fell into the water but was rescued. He attributed his
narrow escape from death as a grace obtained through
the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary on her
feast-day.
 9. The route taken by the expedition after leaving Homonhon
was “toward the west southwest, between four islands: namely.
Cdenalo. Hiunanghan, Ibusson and Albarien.” “Very probably
“Cenalo” is a calls “Ceilon” and Albo calls “Seilani”: namely the
island of Leyte. “Hiunanghan” )a misspelling of Hinunangan)
seemed to Pigafetta to be a separate island, but it is actually on
the mainland of Leyte (i.e. “Celyon”). On the other hand,
Hibuson (Pigafetta’s Ibusson) is an island east of Leyte’s
southern tip.
Thus, it is easy to see what Pigafetta meant by sailing “toward west
southwest” past those islands. They left Homonhn sailing westward
towards Leyte, then followed the Leyte coast southward, passing
between the island of Hibuson on their portside and Hiunangan
Bay on their starboard, and then continued southward then turning
westward to “Mazaua”.
 10. Thursday, 28 March. – In the morning of Holy
Thursday, 28 they anchored off an island where the
previous night they had seen a light oor a bnfire. That
island “lies in a latitude of nine and two-thirds towards
the Arctic Pole [i.e. North] and in a longtirude of one
hundred andsixty-two degrees from the line of
demarcation. It is twenty-five leagues from the
Acquada, and is called Mazaua”.
 11. They remained seven days on Mazua Island. What
they did during those seven days, we shall discuss in a
separate section below, entitled “Seven Days at
Mazaua”.
 12. Thursday, 4 April. – They left Mazaua, bound for
Cebu. They were guided thither by the king of Mazaua
who saield in his own boat. Their route took them past
five “islands”: namely: “Ceylon, Bohol, Canighan,
Baibai, and Gatighan”.
 13. At Gatighan, they sailed westward to the three islands of
the Camotes Group, namely, Poro, Pasihan and Ponson,
(Pigafetta calls them “Polo, Ticobon, and Pozon”.) Here the
Spanish ships stopped to allow the king of Mazaua to catch
up with them, since the Spanish hsips wre much faster than
the native balanghai – a thing that excited the admiration
of the king of Mazaua.
 14. From the Cmotes Islands they sailed [southwestward]
towards “Zubu”.
 15. Sunday, 7 April. – At noon on Sunday, the 7th of April,
they entered the harbor of “zubu” (Cebu). It had taken
them three days to negotiate the journey from Mazaua
northwards to the Camotes Islands and then southwards to
Cebu.
 It must be pointed out that both Albo and Pigafetta’s
testimonies coincide and corrobarate each other.
Pigafetta gave more details on what they did during
their weeklong stay at Mazaua.
 If “Mazaua” were Butuan, or in the vicinity of Butuan,
there is curious omission in Pigafetta’s accuount which
would be difficult to explain. Butuan is a riverine
settlement. It is situated on the Agusan River. The
beach called Masao is in the delta of that river. If the
Magellan expedition were at the delta, and if the Mass
were celebrated there, why is there no mention of the
river?
 There is confirmatory evidence in the presence of two
native “kings” or rajahs at Mazaua during the Magellan
visit. One was the “king” of Mazaua – who later guided
the Magellan expedition to Cebu. The othwe was a
relative (“one of his brothers” as Pigafetta says),
namely the king of rajah of Butuan.
Of this latter individual, Pigafetta says that he was
“the finest looking man” that he had seen in those
parts. (Weh shall have more to say about him later.) At
the moment, the relevent fact is that he was a visitor to
Mazaua. His territory was Butuan, which was in
another island.