In volume 32 of Blair and Robertson's Philippine Islands there are several mentions of the Lequios Islands. One mention says directly that the Lequios Islands are subject to the Japanese. Several mentions are stories of priests clandestinely making their way to Japan via the Lequios Islands.
They could not have done that if the Lequios Islands were the Philippines. These firsthand narratives confirm Pinto’s claim that Japan could be seen from the Lequios. Tim’s attempt to collapse the distinct regions of the Lequios Islands and Luzon into one is not only historically unfounded, it is geographically incoherent. He ignores the testimony of those who sailed these seas and the geopolitical realities of the time in favor of a revisionist fantasy built on speculation, not evidence.
I know Tim will dismiss all these eyewitness testimonies by responding:
Over time, colonial mapping and Manila’s administrative dominance buried this duality under a singular label: "Luzon." But the smoking quill still writes in the margins of old maps and forgotten chronicles.
https://thegodculturephilippines.com/the-bifurcated-island-of-luzon-lequios-and-lucoes-rediscovered/
However, there is no documentary evidence for such a cartographic or administrative conspiracy. Tim may also allege that the original Spanish is ambiguous or that the English translations are unreliable. Yet there is no linguistic or historical analysis to support this, and such speculation would indicate a refusal to engage seriously with the texts themselves.
Here are all the references to the Lequios Islands from volume 32. All of these citations are from a document dated to 1640 which begins in volume 30.
There are near the province of Nueva Segovia certain islands, called Babuianes, following each other in a line toward the northeast until they approach near those which are called Lequios, which are near Japon. These latter are innumerable, and some of them are very large and very fertile. Their inhabitants are of excellent natural dispositions, so that, being heathen, they cause wonder in all of those who go there
pg. 91
A note on this section says the following.
The Babuyan and Batan Islands, groups lying north of Luzon, extend northward to near the southern end of Formosa. From near the northern end of that island, the Riu-Kiu Island stretches in a long northeastward curve to the vicinity of Kiushiu Island, in southern Japan.
They followed the course by the Babuyanes and the islands of the Lequios, from which they were driven by a storm to the coast of China, where they took on water and wood at a point named Sombor.
pg. 139
Father Fray Juan de Rueda was a native of the mountains of Burgos, and had assumed the habit in San Pablo at Valladolid, whence he came to the Philippinas in the year 1603, being sent, as soon as he arrived, to the kingdom of Japon. Here he assumed the name of Fray Juan de los Angeles. When the priests were banished, father Fray Juan was one of those who remained in hiding to aid and fortify the Christians there. In 1619 he came to Manila in order to obtain more religious. He reaped a great harvest in Arima. He was devoted to the holy rosary. He translated into Japanese the devotion of the holy rosary while he was in Manila. His anxiety to return was such that he strove to make his way back by the islands of the Lequios, where his arguments in favor of Christianity convinced those who heard them that he was a Spanish priest. He was therefore imprisoned for a time in an island called Avaguni, where he profaned a thicket which was dedicated to an idol, and for this suffered death, but on what day was never known.
pg. 146
The emperor of Japon in 1615, after his victory over Fideyori, sent an expedition against the island. It left Nangasaque in 1616 and wintered in the Lequios Islands.
pg. 155
Among the fathers in Japon at this time was a native Japanese, who had completed his course in arts and theology in the college of Sancto Thomas at Manila. He profited well by his studies, and had been given the habit, had professed, and had passed through all the orders. He had been taken by father Fray Bartholome Martinez, during his term as provincial, to the island of Hermosa-not to remain, but to make his way from there to Japan, if possible, by the islands of the Lequios. He was dressed after the Japanese fashion, with two swords, and succeeded in making his entry into Japon, from which he wrote a letter to the provincial, dated January 3, 1630. In this he says that he reached his country on the eve of St. Martin; but that he has been unable to get into communication with his superior, who was at that time father Fray Domingo de Erquicia. He later writes that it is dangerous to send letters, because of the severe punishment of those who are caught with letters of the fathers upon them. If it had not been for the return of this father in this way, no information would have been received with regard to the fate of Father Juan de Rueda in the islands of the Lequios.
pg. 181
Father Fray Jacobo de Sancta Maria, a Japanese by nation, who had assumed the habit in our convent of Manila, August 15, 1624, was martyred in this year. He had returned to Japon in 1632. He went by way of the islands of the Lequios; and the champan in which he traveled with some Japanese fathers of the Society encountered storms, and was cast upon the shores of Coria.
pg. 218-219
There was great difficulty in sending religious to Japon; but father Fray Thomas went, disguised in Japanese dress, to the island of the Lequios, which is subject to the Japanese. Here by the death of his companion he was left alone, with ornaments and money, and with the direction to go to Japon at the first opportunity and to present himself to his superior, at that time the holy martyr Fray Domingo de Erquicia. In the letter which father Fray Thomas wrote back, he briefly mentions being in the island of the Lequios, making no allusion to the great sufferings which he must have passed through on this journey
pg. 241
There was great difficulty in sending these four religious to Japon, which was finally overcome by the determination of the religious. In the year 1634, some Spaniards had been cast on shore on the islands of the Lequios, which are subject to Japon. They were examined to see if they were religious or no; but, as it did not appear that they were, they were set free. Many Japanese came to them by night, asking them if they were priests to hear their confessions; and, being assured that they were not, they begged for priests to come to them. Father Fray Vincente de la Cruz and a Christian Japanese offered to take the religious whom the province might send and to make their way from the Lequios Islands to Japon. The governor, learning that the expedition was about to be equipped, burned the vessel which had been prepared, and set sentinels at the mouth of the bay to prevent the religious from setting out. By God's aid they succeeded in eluding him, and after meeting with storms made their way to the islands of the Lequios, where they landed July 11, 1636. No certain reports have been received as to what occurred in the islands; but the fathers seem to have been arrested as soon as they revealed themselves, and to have been sent as prisoners to Japon.
pg. 286
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