It is an indisputable fact that J.G. Cheock falsely attributed the nonsense coordinate of 9N20 to Fernando Pinto as his location of the Lequios Islands. Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture has done his level best to explain 9N20 away as 9 and 20 meaning a range of latitudes. He also claims that Cheock's original meaning of 9N20 is a range of latitudes between 9 and 20. "The Smoking Quill writes again," says Tim.
Let's take a look at what he writes.
5. Claim: "Cheock Never Said 9N20 Meant a Latitude Range"
(Section 5 Revised April 30 after reviewing Cheock's video again where she further explains what is written in her book and why) False and Ignorantly Misleading. J.G. Cheock’s phrase “nine ‘n twenty” is best understood as shorthand for “nine and twenty” — a phrasing consistent with early modern navigation and also common in Southeast Asian English, where “’n” is a colloquial abbreviation for “and.” This does not indicate a fixed coordinate such as 9°20′ N, but rather a latitude range between 9° and 20° North. In fact in her video explaining her view on Pinto, which TGC watched years ago and understood, Cheock contextualizes this range geographically — stretching from North Mindanao through Luzon — which aligns precisely with the Philippine archipelago between nine and twenty degrees as must be the case, as 29 is contrary to the rest of the account as we have proven.
✅ Clarification: Our interpretation was clear, marked, and labeled as such. This was not fabrication but contextual analysis of her ambiguous phrasing. Cheock’s prose leaves room for range-based interpretation. Our assessment proves accurate.Her expression matches both local linguistic habits and Renaissance-era navigational styles, reinforcing the interpretation that Pinto referred to a broad region, not a pinpoint coordinate. If the blogger would have watched her video which breaks this down in an entire section on Pinto, he would have known there is nothing strange about the shorthand, as she reads it "nine and twenty" as Pinto did. Since he hates Filipinos and only desires to spew defamation and racism it appears seeking an excuse to do so, no wonder this would not matter to this blogger. Once again, the ignorance is bad enough, but using such ignorance to commit cyber libel is criminal, and this criminal will be dealt with.
Tim claims J.G. Cheock clarifed 9N20 as being 9 'n 20 "a phrasing consistent with early modern navigation and also common in Southeast Asian English, where “’n” is a colloquial abbreviation for “and.” He mentions that this colloquialism is explained in an older video. He does not give the title of the video or provide a link to the video making it impossible for anyone to verify his claim.
The only video on J.G. Cheock's YouTube channel referencing Pinto is titled "5 Things Give Directions to the Lands of Gold," suggesting this is the source to which Tim alludes.
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| 5 Things Give Directions to the Lands of Gold |
Islas de Lucois and Philipinas.
Yet, this section about Pinto from her video doesn't say anything close to what Tim is claiming. At no point does she say 9N20 is 9 and 20 and means a range of latitudes. She says Pinto's directions lead specifically to Butuan. She also repeatedly mispronounces Lequios as Luçoes. She is conflating two regions, Lequios and Luzon, which Fernando Pinto clearly differentiates in his journal.
Nor does Cheock say any such thing as 9N20 is a range of latitudes in her book.
Explorer and writer Ferdinand Mendes Pinto who travelled in service to the Portugese crown and in association with the Jesuit Missionaries, recounted in his journal, how he had been shipwrecked on the island of Lequois while passing through the Malay Archipelago. He described the Lequios as a land belonging to a large group of islands that had abundant resources of gold and silver. In his journal he had the audacity to give details on Lequois, putting it in the latitude of 9N20 on a meridian similar to that of Japan. Given these directions, Lequois would be at the very heart of the Philippines. The story of his shipwreck on Lequios was deemed so outrageous that it was omitted from his book when it was first published.
Phoenicians in the Lands of Gold, pg. 11
J.G. Cheock might have offered such a clarification elsewhere but Tim deliberately chose not to name or provide a link to the video. That's because Tim has decided to stop sharing his methodology.
Full testing methodology is available to qualified academics who engage with us directly—not to bloggers who fail to read the criteria, ridicule the Philippines (which matches all 15), and defend Ryukyu (which matches none).
https://thegodculturephilippines.com/lequios-was-never-ryukyu-15-tests.-15-failures./
Even if she did make the clarification in a different video that would not change the fact that J.G. Cheock is wrong. Pinto said the Lequios Islands were located specifically at 29°N. Pinto also says he could see Japan from the Lequios Islands which is not possible from any point in the Philippines. Not only does a colloquial pronunciation not explain why she replaced 29° with 9N20 or 9 'N 20 but it also contradicts the totality of what Pinto has to say about the Lequios Islands.
In Pinto's plain and unambiguous words the Lequios Islands are situated at 29°N.
this Island of Lequios, scituated in nine and twenty degrees, is two hundred leagues in circuit, threescore in length, and thirty in bredth.
The Portuguese says:
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| https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.a0005237771&seq=264&q1=lequia |
Esta ilha léquia jaz situada em vinte & nove graos
Vinte & nove graos means 29 degrees. There is no room for interpreting this as a place between 20 and 9 degrees. Here is a modern Portuguese version:
Essa ilha léquia jaz situada em vinte e nove graus
https://fundar.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/peregrinacao-vol-ii.pdf pg. 53
Rebecca Catz, whom Checok lists as her source for Pinto's coordinate, writes:
This Ryukyu island is situated at twenty-nine degrees latitude.
pg. 300
It is only after posting those facts multiple times that Tim decided to respond by saying 9N20 means a range of degrees and Pinto's "vinte e nove" is ambiguous. If that is true why has he neglected this information until now? Why did he not make it clear in his early videos and book The Search For King Solomon's Treasure that 9N20 means a range of latitudes? Was it not important?
Tim was either familiar with this information and refused to discuss it or he is making it all up as he goes. Both possibilities cast serious doubt on Tim's reliability. Tim might counter by saying he has grown in understanding but that is not the case. For years he said nothing about 9N20 meaning a range of latitudes. Instead he said 9N20 points to Luzon specifically. This shift has come all of a sudden and has no historical or linguistic justification. It is purely a reaction against the many articles I have written proving beyond all doubt Pinto situated the Lequios Islands at 29°N.
The first time Tim mentioned the Lequios Islands and Ferdinand Pinto, which was in 2017, he did not cite any coordinates.
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| Solomon's Gold Series - Part 6: Little Known History of Ophir. Philippines History |
8:25 Ferdinand Pinto's Journal describes Lequios Islands as "belonging to a large group of islands many of which were rich in gold and silver." Pinto even goes as far as to give the exact latitude of the main Lequios Island as modern day Luzon Philippines multitude of islands rich in Gold no need to guess though because he gives the actual exact location of Lequios which is Ophir and Tarshish and Sheba as Luzon, Philippines.
The lack of any coordinates is odd because Tim is cribbing from ancientphilippines.blogspot.com though instead of acknowledging that fact on his slide he makes it appear he is citing from Fernando Pinto's journal.
Pinto was traveling through the Malay Archipelago at the time and he describes the Lequios islands as belonging to large group of islands many of which were rich in gold and silver. He mentions that at that time the Portugese were familiar with Japan and China, and also with the island of "Mindanaus" or Mindanao, so the Lequois islands must have been somewhere between these two areas. Furthermore, Pinto even goes as far as to give the exact latitude of the main Lequios island. He states that is was situated at 9N20 latitude and that the island was on a meridian similar to that of Japan.
http://ancientphilippines.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-lost-tribe-of-israel-is-found.html
This blog from AncientPhilippines was written in 2013 and is quoting verbatim a book written in 2004 by Abraham Tabilog.
Pinto was traveling through the Malay Archipelago at the time and he describes the Lequios islands as belonging to large group of islands many of which were rich in gold and silver. He mentions that at that time the Portugese were familiar with Japan and China, and also with the island of "Mindanaus" or Mindanao, so the Lequois islands must have been somewhere between these two areas. Furthermore, Pinto even goes as far as to give the exact latitude of the main Lequios island. He states that is was situated at 9N20 latitude and that the island was on a merdian similar to that of Japan.
Pilipinas Ay Nasa Biblia, pg. 57
In 2005 on the Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan Blog, Paul Kekai Manansala mentions Pinto's alleged coordinate of 9N20 for the Lequios Islands.
Mendes Pinto, writing about a decade earlier, tells of the kingdom of the Lequios, the Liu-Kiu of the Chinese, located between the coast of China and Mindanao to the south. He gives a latitude of 9N20 for this kingdom and strongly suggests that the kings of Europe make an expedition there.
Given the timeline it appears that Abraham Tabilog was the first to transform Pinto's coordinate of 29° into 9N20. The trail does not appear to go back farther, though it very well could. Tabilog also gives no reason why he has 9N20 instead of 29. He does not indicate 9N20 is a range of latitudes. Searching Google for "Furthermore, Pinto even goes as far as to give the exact latitude of the main Lequios island. He states that is was situated at 9N20" reveals Tabilog's writing has spread to a number of websites without being checked for its accuracy.
Timothy Jay Schwab published The Search for King Solomon's Treasure in 2020. J.G. Cheock's book Phonecians In the Land Of Gold was published in 2017. AncientPhilippines published their blog in 2013. Paul Kekai Manansala published his blog in 2005. Abraham Tabilog published his book in 2004. They all have the same fallacious coordinate of 9N20. This a decades long game of telephone which did not begin with J.G. Cheock. Like everyone else she ultimately borrowed it from Abraham Tabilog even if she took it from elsewhere. That means Timothy Jay Schwab is citing Abraham Tabilog's fabricated coordinate of 9N20 entirely unaware of its origin and not having verified it.
Or maybe he does know. After all, Tim's first citation about Pinto, which was in 2017, was from AncientPhilippines which mentions 9N20 and was published four years before J.G. Cheock's book Phoenicians in the Land of Gold. AncientPhilippines extensively cites Abraham Tabilog. A Google search of the information on AncientPhilippines leads directly to Tabilog. Did Tim think to conduct such a search or did he take that blog at face value? Again, it's another either/or situation that undermines Tim's credibility.
It appears Tim's first citation of the coordinate 9N20 was in a 2020 video which is attributed to AncientPhilippines.
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| Clue#25: Philippines is Ophir: Magellan, Pinto, Barbosa, King of Spain, Cabot KNEW - Ophir, Tarshish |
6:15 Pinto even goes as far as to give the exact location latitude of the main Lequios Island as modern-day Luzon Philippines in fact if you follow his directions exactly and we'll do that later you will end up in Northwest Luzon or Ilocos specifically
Just a few months after uploading this video Tim changed the source for 9N20 to J.G. Cheock when he published his book The Search for King Solomon's Treasure. He completely eighty-sixed AncientPhilippines despite having relied on that website heavily for many of his early videos.
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| The Lequios of Luzon: Key to Finding Ophir and Chryse. Clue #52 |
21:19 For a while now we have used definition for the Hebrew for this word from ancient Philippines blogspot. We, in the beginning in fact, we tried to quote local sources and you'll see in the description box we mentioned those guys. We also mentioned Bob's blog as well. It's all there. It's been there for three years. We've always, you know, given them some credit and those are worth reading because really that's where we started with the history portion. We started reading their stuff and then we started branching out from there. Yes, we verified everything that we could and if there was something that we couldn't verify such as the gold found in first century Egypt as easily we took it from numerous sources so we felt pretty good with it and went with it and turns out it's proving to be fine as a reference. So far our sources by the way check out to be very good.
Thus, the real source for Tim's claim that Pinto located the Lequios Islands at 9N20 is Abraham Tabilog by way of AncientPhilippines, not J.G. Cheock. It just so happened that Cheock had written a book using the 9N20 coordinate, lending it a thin veneer of academic authenticity that made it ripe for Tim's use.
This consequential blunder highlights the necessity of citing primary sources. But Tim didn't want to quote a dead white man.
As we wanted to shout out with a plug to a local Filipino author, we maintained the secondary source, because it remained accurate.
The local author was preferred by our authors because she uncovered that truth, and deserved credit, which we continue to acknowledge.
https://thegodculturephilippines.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-god-culture-understanding-pintos.html
And now, too proud to admit both he and Cheock are wrong, Tim is saddled with the bugbear of 9N20 that he must reinterpret anyway he can in order to save face. This could all have been prevented had he consulted Fernando Pinto's journal in the first place. Whether out of ignorance or deception, Schwab’s redefinition of 29° first as 9N20 and then as a range of latitudes contradicts both Pinto’s original testimony and Cheock’s own published material. No amount of retroactive spin or alleged growth in understanding can reconcile this blatant distortion.
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