The God Culture: Only the Philippines Has Resources

Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture does not do history. He does myth-making. The most persistent myth in all of Tim's oeuvre is that the Philippines was the centre of all trade and commerce because it has been blessed with every valuable resource under the sun. That includes mineral wealth, botanical wealth, and animal wealth. In comparison to the Philippines every other nation is a desert which is why the Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians, Arabs, Chinese, and Israelites sailed vast distances to trade with the archipelago. That includes circumnavigating Africa at a time when no one was circumnavigating Africa. Japan doesn't have any resources which is proof it is not Cipangu. 

📖 Nippon on the Behaim Globe 

What about the islands north of the Tropic of Cancer? They’re on the map too—but they are not Zipangu. 

Nippon (or Nihon), known as Rìběn in Chinese, was the name used in the Grand Khan’s letter to the King of Japan—not Zipangu. The nation we now call Japan has no linguistic connection to “Zipangu” whatsoever—a fact acknowledged even by several Japanese scholars. 

Yes, Japan does appear on the Behaim Globe—but without honor or distinction. 

• It is merely identified as part of “Indies Cathay”, i.e., the Indies east of China. 

• There is no special annotation, no gold, no pearls, no spices. 

• No mention of Zipangu, Lequios, or the legendary wealth described by Marco Polo. 

In other words, Japan is not the target of Columbus, Magellan, or the explorers of the Age of Discovery. 

Columbus, in his own journals, clearly places Zipangu at 20°–22°N—coordinates that perfectly match Luzon in the Philippines, not a single Japanese island. 

Anyone claiming that Japan lies south of the Tropic of Cancer—displacing Luzon to do so—is not a scholar. 

They are a propagandist. 

📍The Geographic Problem: 

• Japan’s major islands fall far north of Zipangu’s mapped location. 

• The large, richly annotated island below the Tropic of Cancer on Behaim’s globe matches Luzon—in both latitude and description. 

• Attempts to conflate tiny Ryukyu into that island have no scholarly merit. Ryukyu is clearly marked elsewhere on historical maps—and never as Zipangu.

https://thegodculturephilippines.com/the-true-cipangu-how-gebhard-s-behaim-globe-places-zipangu-in-the-philippines-not-japan/

That's right. Cipangu or Zipangu on older maps was not Japan but Luzon, the Philippines. While Luzon was depicted on Behaim's 1492 Globe as being loaded with resources, Japan was depicted as just a few teeny-tiny islands "without honor or distinction." Tim knows Cipangu is not Japan because it is located in the general area of Luzon on Behaim's map. Get the idea out of your head that European maps were wrong for many years and needed correction based on evolving knowledge because that is "colonial revisionism." 

Let’s be clear: 

• Japan is on the map—labeled as Indies Cathay, without distinction.

• There is no Zipangu label on Japan.

• There is no note of gold, spice, or resource wealth. 

Any modern attempt to move Zipangu northward and displace Luzon with Japan is not academic work—it is colonial revisionism dressed in scholarly robes.

15th and 16th century European maps of East Asia were 100% correct and did not need any revisions according to Tim. Behaim's 1492 globe showed everything in its right place. Cipangu is placed in Luzon's location ergo it is Luzon. No backsies or corrections allowed. How did a map from 1492 depict discoveries from 1521? Stop scoffing, you agitator!

Compare that to a fake scholar who claims to know all about European cartography as it relates to Japan.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3634221

By the middle of the sixteenth century the Pacific was gradually taking its correct shape as more expeditions course the seas between the Philippines and more traders and missionaries penet great Oriental kingdoms. In 1549, Francis Xavier began his famous mission in Japan. Yet it was a long time before correct concept and the northern Pacific appeared on European maps. The main reason was, of course, the false concepts inherited from Marinus, Ptolemy, and  Marco Polo which made the earth too small and Asia too big. Other factors entered into it, however. For one thing, these missionaries were generally poor cartographers. Furthermore, the situation was complicated by the dispute that arose when the advance of Spain and Portugal in opposite directions east and west from Europe met on the other side of the globe. This dispute centered around the ownership of the Moluccas. Both Spain and Portugal claimed the islands as in their portion of the world between the two Lines of Demarcation. Before the position of these islands became a subject of controversy, the Portuguese had always placed them much further east (from the Cape of Good Hope) than their actual position warranted, apparently as a result of a continuing error by Portuguese navigators. 

pg. 233-234

But while such map makers were continuing to misplace Japan, others were producing the first maps based on systematic cartographical material from persons who were well acquainted with Japan. The Portuguese were naturally the leaders in this field, having maintained the most intimate connections with the island kingdom in the early period of European acquaintance. Diogo Homem's map of 1558, although very defective in its depiction of the islands, at least puts them in their true relation to the continent of Asia and gives the coast of the southernmost island, Kyushu, in great detail. 

pg. 234

The rest of the story consists of an uneven but effective progress in the delineation of Japan's boundaries and her location with respect to Asia. 

p. 235

It was not until the expeditions of Vitus Bering, 1725-1728 and 1742, for the Russian government, that some semblance of geograp accuracy was obtained in the northern Pacific. Bering demonstrated the existence of a strait between North America and Asia, reduced Yezo to its true size, and charted much of the Kurile chain. Japan had lost her last hiding place.

Thus, finally, did "the shuttlecock of the Pacific" come to rest. The eye of inquiring, hypothesizing, Western cartographical science had variously placed her according to rumor, hope, or knowledge. Tied by lines of longitude and latitude, Marco Polo's mystery isle was finally subjected to the stare of the Western world. The early maps enable us to see in capsule form the whole history of the age of discovery. We see the Japan described on these maps luring Europeans to discovery and conquest by her proximity to Europe and by her great wealth. We find her ability to avoid the fate of the island first mistaken for her foreshadowed on these maps by their conceptions of her size and power. Here, in brief, captured in the few lines and letters of these early maps, is the picture of a past age.

p. 236

Suck it Washburn. You're a colonial propagandist. European maps placing Cipangu in the south were correct until the Jesuits conspired to alter them and remove the name of Cipangu from Luzon north to Japan. Oh, and if you think Cipangu was never a name for Luzon, you're also a colonial propagandist. Chinese history be damned!

• Ma-i. According to the Zhao Rugua's (趙汝适) book Zhu Fan Zhi (诸蕃志/諸蕃誌) written around the 13th century during the Song dynasty, there was a group of islands found in southern South China Sea called Ma-i (麻逸, Hokkien POJ: Mâ-i̍t, Mandarin Pinyin: Máyì). The islands groups were later invaded and renamed and identified by the Spanish to be the island of Mindoro. This was further proved by Ferdinand Blumentritt in his 1882 book, Versuch einer Ethnographie der Philippinen (An Attempt to the Study of Ethnography of the Philippines) that Ma-i was the Chinese local name of present-day Mindoro.On the other hand, historians claimed that Ma-i was not an island, but all the south of South Sea islands groups and Manila itself, which was known to be an overseas Chinese settlement which was in constant contact with the Chinese mainland as early as the 9th century AD.
  • Ma-i consists of the 三洲 (Hokkien POJ: Sam-chiu, Mandarin Pinyin: Sānzhōu, lit. "Three islands") group of islands: Kia-ma-yen (卡拉棉, Hokkien POJ: Khá-la-miân, Mandarin Pinyin: Kǎlāmián, "Calamian"), 巴拉望 (Hokkien POJ: Pa-la-bāng, Mandarin Pinyin: Bālāwàng, "Palawan") and Pa-ki-nung (布桑加, Hokkien POJ: Pò͘-song-ka, Mandarin Pinyin: Bùsāngjiā, "Busuanga").
    • Aside from 三洲, Ma-i also consists of the islands of Pai-p'u-yen (巴布延, Hokkien POJ: Pa-pò͘-iân, Mandarin Pinyin: Bābùyán, "Babuyan"), P'u-li-lu (波利略, Hokkien POJ: Po-lī-lio̍k, Mandarin Pinyin: Bōlìlüè, "Polillo"), Lim-kia-tung (林加延, Hokkien POJ: Lîm-ka-iân, Mandarin Pinyin: Línjiāyán, "Lingayen"), Liu-sung (呂宋, Hokkien POJ: Lū-sòng, MandarinPinyin: Lǚsòng, "Luzon") and Li-ban (盧邦, Hokkien POJ: Lô͘-pang, Mandarin Pinyin: Lúbāng, "Lubang").^[23] It was said that these islands had contacts with Chinese traders from Canton (Guangdong) as early as 982 AD.
  • Liusung (呂宋, Hokkien POJ: Lū-sòng, Mandarin Pinyin: Lǚsòng) was the name ascribed by the Chinese to the present-day island of Luzon. It originated from the Tagalog word lusong, a wooden mortar that is used to pound rice. When the Spanish produced maps of the Philippines during the early 17th century, they called the island Luçonia which was later respelled as Luzonia, then Luzon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Philippines

Not only is Wikipedia in on the cover-up but so is the 13th century book Chau Ju-Kua: his work on the Chinese and Arab trade in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, entitled Chu-fan-chï."

https://archive.org/details/cu31924023289345/page/n185/mode/2up

The country of Wo is to the north-east of Ts'uan-(chou). It is at present called Ji-pon (日本), which name has arisen from the fact that this country is situated near the place where the sun rises. Some people say that they changed the old name because they disliked it.

There are some who would say Zipangu is Marco Polo's mispronunciation or transliteration of Ji-pon (日本).

 Marco Polo called Japan 'Cipangu' around 1300, based on the Chinese enunciation of the name, probably 日本國; 'sun source country' (compare modern Min Nan pronunciation ji̍t pún kok).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Japan

They are wrong!! Zipangu is Zipangu. Marco Polo wrote what he meant. There is no such thing as Europeans mispronouncing or transliterating foreign words. Duh! The Pangu in Zipangu identifies it as the Philippines. 

On the chapter cover pages, we offered Marco Polo’s description of the amazing island of gold he refers to as the Chinese words Zi Pangu. These already identify much one can test settling this debate which academia seems incapable of simple logic. Let us begin with the word. What does it mean? For this is two words and one is a god in their pantheon which gets overlooked by most.

“Pangu (Chinese: 盤古, PAN-koo) is a primordial being and creation figure in Chinese mythology and Taoism who separated heaven and earth, and his body later became geographic features such as mountains and rivers.” 2

Is it really possible that academics are so incapable? Not likely. Their forgetting who Pangu is to the Chinese demonstrates they are committing propaganda. Pangu is the creator god in their religion and legends. After he created, he literally became the land. We are not Taoists, and this is a twisting of the Genesis Creation account but one can quickly observe how such a legend can gain its origin. Yahuah, the actual Creator, went into the Earth with His physical presence in His Holy of Holies in the Garden of Eden. Genesis is clear on this and Jubilees very directly. For when one locates this land of gold and Garden of Eden, they also pinpoint ground zero for the Creation event itself.

Pangu is geography. He became geographic features of the Earth, and the Land of Creation is the same as Havilah and the Garden of Eden which is the same as the isles of gold. This is not a mystery. Pangu can be found in interpretation as this land. Oddly, we have not found a single scholar who figured out this elementary detail.

The Garden of Eden Revealed, pgs. 128, 130

If you aren't familiar with Tim's books and videos, the Land of Creation, Havilah, the Garden of Eden, and isles of gold are various names of the Philippines. 

But back to the resources. Japan has NONE! 

• There is no note of gold, spice, or resource wealth.

13th century Chinese scholar Chau Ju-Kua says differently because he is a propagandist. 

The country yields all kinds of cereals, but little wheat. For purposes of exchange they use copper cash bearing the inscription Kien-yiian-ta-pau. They have water-buffalo, donkeys, sheep, (but neither) rhinoceros (nor) elephants, also gold and silver, fine silks and fancy cotton cloth.

https://archive.org/details/cu31924023289345/page/n185/mode/2up

See! They didn't even have rhinoceroses and Japan Today says Marco Polo said Zipangu has rhinoceroses!

In an article well explaining this, Japan Today admits there is no credible track in history to Zipangu as a name for Japan. Many have fabricated theories or guesses without any knowledge or facts to support. That is Pharisee leaven, not academics.

“While Japanese people usually refer to their country as Nihon or Nippon these days, in early texts, the names Oyashima (mother island) or Yamato (which was written with the Chinese characters for great and wa, see below) were used. However, evenin those early days, there is evidence that Japan had other names in other countries such as Wakoku (a name for identifying Japan at the time) by the Chinese.”

“The origin of the “wa” in Wakoku is hotly debated. The most likely theory is that the Japanese words waga (oneself) and ware (ourself) formed it.” 

“In the West around the 14th century, Japan was likely going by “the noble island of Chipangu,” which was given to it by none other than the famous explorer Marco Polo. Although it seems likely that Chipangu was Japan, it is not confirmed as Marco Polo included some very fanciful tales about these isles including the presence of rhinos, cannibalistic natives and private houses made of gold.” – Japan Today 

Oops! Japan does not have rhinos meaning this country Marco Polo referred to did, says Japan Today, meaning Zipangu was not Japan.

The Garden of Eden Revealed, pgs. 127

Further research, like reading the footnote on Chau Ju-Kua's text mentioning the original text of  the Sung-shi affirming the presence of rhinoceroses and elephants is corrupt, is totally unnecessary. 

11. The bronze Chōnen said: “The soil produces the five kinds of cereals, but little wheat. For purposes of barter (or exchange) we use copper cash bearing the inscription Kien-wēn-tai-pau (乾文(元)大寶). We have water-buffalo, donkeys and sheep in abundance, also rhinoceros and elephants. The native product is much silk, from which we weave a fine, soft silk, most pleasant to wear. Sung-shi, loc. cit. The correct superscription of these coins is Kien-yüan-ta-pau, in Japanese Ken-gen-tai-ho. Both our author and Sung-shi write the second character erroneously wēn. This coin, which was in use in the second year of Tentoku (A.D. 958), was the last of the antique coins issued in Japan. No coins were made by Government during the six hundred and odd years which separate the period of Tentoku from the fifteenth year of Tensho (A.D. 1587). W. G. Munro, Coins of Japan, 75, 79. The earliest mention of coin in Japan appears to be in the year 486 A. D. Copper coins were first made in Japan in A. D. 708. Aston, Nihonji, I, 360, 391, II, 414.
    
    
    The text of Chōnen’s statement concerning Japan contained in the Sung-shi was presumably taken from an original in which there were a number of undoubted clerical errors, as for example, in the superscription of the coins of Japan, and in the phrase 西別島出白銀, which should unquestionably read 西對島出白銀. We are justified, therefore, in thinking that the text used by Chau Ju-kua and the author of Sung-shi, and which makes Chōnen say that there were rhinoceros and elephants in Japan, was corrupt also in this case, and that he really told T’ai-tsung the simple truth, that there were neither rhinoceros nor elephants in Japan.

If you think Marco Polo wrote there were rhinos in Zipangu but that was based on an error in the Sung-shi because he never visited Japan, well you're basically a bigot. A "colonial propagandist." Marco Polo wrote what he wrote and he was right. Japan has no rhinos therefore it's not Zipangu. Away with nuance in understanding textual transmission. 

Even further research like reading Marco Polo's actual journal instead of relying on an internet article from Japan Today and noticing he does not mention rhinoceroses in connection with Zipangu but with Java and other countries is also something one does not need to do. 

There are wild elephants in the country, and numerous unicorns, which are very nearly as big. They have hair like that of a buffalo, feet like those of an elephant, and a horn in the middle of the forehead, which is black and very thick.  

Marco Polo, Book 3, Chapter 9

Japan Today's commentary about Marco Polo is much more reliable than Marco Polo's actual words. 

Cipangu is actually one of many names of the Philippines. 

• Chryse, Maniola, Sabadibae, Argye, Aurea, Lequios, Zipangu / Cipangu, Ophir, Aurea, Uphaz, Zipangu, Paradise, and Tarshish  

• In other words: same place, different names, which should be no surprise for an archipelago rich in gold and every resource fitting all these designations on its 7,000 islands.

https://thegodculturephilippines.com/bananas-behaim-behold----zipangu-was-never-japan/

This article started off by claiming Tim's overarching narrative is that only the Philippines has the resources the world wanted. So far only his claims about Japan have been examined but this also extends to India. 

In his testing the resources of Ophir The God Culture admits that India has all the resources attributed to Ophir. 

#33: Is India Ophir? 100 Clues The Philippines Is Ophir

2:29 One such claim is that India must be Ophir. Now we will give them that India does in fact have the resources on Solomon's list. Yes it does.

In his book The Search for King Solomon's Treasure he says the same thing. 

The only other coherent claim as far as resources are concerned is India yet it’s own history says it had a source of ancient gold and silver, isles to the East thus none of these make any sense except the Philippines. 

 Every resource of Solomon tests as native to the Philippines and all other claims fail in this chapter except India whose claim already failed the test of it’s own history. 

Solomon's Treasure, pgs. 110 and 115

Notice how in the same sentence Tim contradicts himself by saying India's claim does not fail but also fails the test of history despite Josephus claiming India is Ophir. What is important to note is that Tim admits India has all the resources of Ophir which affirms the historical claim of Josephus that Ophir is in India. 

https://thegodculturephilippines.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-god-culture-philippines-is-not-ophir.html

The point of all this is that Tim's resource test is misguided. First of all, the Philippines is not the only land in the world that had minerals, plants, and animals coveted by other nations. Second of all, Tim's resource test concerning gold particularly is about the currently untapped lodes sitting in the ground. 

Philippines Valid, Credible Archeology: Isle of Gold and Garden of Eden. Solomon's Gold Series 16H

27:30 The question for the land of gold is who has the most gold in the ground now. 

38:09 But we don't need this. We don't need it to show on mining gold reports for production. The report that matters is untapped gold in the ground now.

That does not account for depletion of resources over millennia. It's the resource test and the subsequent restriction of the most coveted resources to the Philippines which leads Tim into myth-making by declaring the Philippines is every wonderful and fabulous land ever spoken of by other nations. It’s not that other nations had no resources. It's that the resources of those nations were ignored for the superior resources of the Philippines. In a very real way the history of the world is being denied and erased by Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture. 

The God Culture: Bananas And Behaim

Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture is absolutely positive the Philippines is Japan, Cipangu or Zipangu on older maps. His proof this time? Banana trees. You see, Japan is not tropical thus banana trees cannot grow there. Ergo, Japan is the Philippines. He gets this information from a French translation of the  inscriptions on Martin Behaim's 1492 globe. 

https://thegodculturephilippines.com/bananas-behaim-behold----zipangu-was-never-japan/

Bananas, Behaim & Behold — Zipangu Was Never Japan

🍌 The French Edition That Accidentally Exposed the Truth

In 1801, French editors released a new edition of Premier Voyage autour du Monde (p. 61 origin), translating accounts of Pigafetta and incorporating commentary on the Magellan voyage, Martin Behaim’s globe, and early Portuguese navigation. We will cite a historic publishing from 1802 noting this as well. Tucked in this scholarly prologue lies a devastating truth — one the editors themselves never fully grasped:

“...on en doit lire à l’Isle Cipangu: il y a de l’or et des arbres de Pisang.”

("...one should read on the island of Cipangu: there is gold and banana trees.”)

Wait — banana trees?

That’s right. And just like that, Japan is eliminated as Marco Polo’s legendary “Zipangu.” Because bananas didn’t grow in 13th-century Japan — but they thrived in one place Marco Polo’s sources knew well:

🇵🇭 The Philippines.

Tim says a French translation of Pigafetta's journal, along with commentary, mentions bananas growing in Cipangu and this proves Japan is the Philippines. However, Pigafetta says they passed Cipangu shortly after traversing the Strait of Magellan and long before they reached the Philippines. 

During those days we sailed west northwest, northwest by west, and northwest, until we reached the equinoctial line at the distance of one hundred and twenty-two degrees from the line of demarcation. The line of demarcation is thirty degrees from the meridian, and the meridian is three degrees eastward from Capo Verde. We passed while on that course, a short distance from two exceedingly rich islands, one in twenty degrees of the latitude of the Antarctic Pole, by name Cipangu, and the other in fifteen degrees, by name Sumbdit Pradit.

Magellan's Voyage Around the World, Charles Nowell, pg, 128

The first source Tim provides he has not actually cited. He has provided a link to it but he does not cite it. The actual text and translation is:

"(2) Ces figues sont les bananes, ou les fruits de la Musa. (Musa pisang, Linn. Dans la suite je me servirai toujours du nom de banane au lieu de celui de figue qu'emploie l'auteur."

"(2) These figs are bananas, or the fruits of the Musa. (Musa pisang, Linn. Hereafter I will always use the name banana instead of that of fig which the author employs."  

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015062204436&seq=141&q1=pisang

That is on page 61 of this book it is a reference to the Lardones or Isle of Thieves. Here is the full citation of the paragraph which contains that footnote. 

This people feeds on birds, flying fish, potatoes, a type of fig half a foot long (2), sugar canes, and other similar fruits. Their houses are made of wood, covered with planks, on which they spread the leaves of their fig trees, four feet long (3). They have fairly clean rooms with joists and windows; and their beds, quite soft, are made of very fine palm mats, spread over fairly soft straw. They have for their only weapon only spears, tipped with a pointed fish bone. The inhabitants of these islands are poor, but very skillful and especially adept thieves; that is why we called them the Isles of Thieves (1).

 Cipangu is mentioned on page 56 and has a very long footnote. 

On our route, we passed along the coasts of two very tall islands, one located at the 20th° south latitude, and the other at the 15th°. The first is called Cipangu, and the second Sumbdit-Pradit (2)

2) Cipangu is Japan, which has this same name on the globe of Behaim, where it is said to be the richest island of the East. Sumbdit-Pradit may be Antilia on the same globe, also called Septemtrionate. But on this globe these two islands are in the northern hemisphere, one at the 20th° and the other at the 24th°. Ramusio (tome I, tab. III) places Cipangu at 25°, but in the 19th map of Urbain Monti, I find Sumbdit at the 9th° south latitude. Delisle — I don’t know on what basis — places it at the 17th° and 20th° south latitude. One must, however, observe that Pigafetta does not say he saw it, but that he passed near it — that is to say, he thought he had come close; and because Marco Polo had made people believe that Cipangu was the easternmost island of the Indies, navigators, not having found it to the west, expected to encounter it first going east; but not finding it, it is assumed he must have passed near it. On his return to Spain (lib. IV), he speaks of Sumbdit-Praditas an island situated near the coasts of China.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015062204436&seq=136&q1=pisang

It is simply impossible that Pigafetta and Magellan came anywhere near Japan at that latitude in that region of the world. Remember, this is long before they reached the Philippines. The mention of Cipangu at this stage of the voyage and passing it by means Cipangu was not their destination. Whatever Pigafetta thought he saw it was neither Japan nor the Philippines. 

This book also contains the a description of Cipangu though it is not the exact inscription on Behaim's Globe.

Isle of Zipangu (2) (r). "The island of Zipangu is located in the eastern part of the globe. The people of the country are idolaters. The king of the island is dependent on no one. The island produces an extraordinary quantity of gold; and there are all sorts of precious stones and oriental pearls. This is what Marco Polo of Venice says about it, in his book III, chapter 2. "Marco Polo also reports, in his IIIrd book, chapter 42, that navigators have truly observed that in this Indian Sea there are more than twelve thousand seven hundred inhabited islands, and in several of which are found precious stones, fine pearls and gold mines; others abound in all sorts of spices, and the inhabitants are extraordinary men; but that would be too long to describe here. "There are here in the sea several marvelous things, such as mermaids and other fish. "If one wishes to learn about these singular peoples and these extraordinary fish of the sea, as well as the terrestrial animals, one must consult the books of Pliny, Isidore, Aristotle, Strabo, the Specula of Vincent de Beauvais, and several other authors. "In these books are found the description of the inhabitants of the islands and of the sea, as well as several other marvels, and terrestrial animals that reside in these islands; roots, precious stones, etc."

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015062204436&seq=405&q1=pisang

Again, no mention of pisang or bananas. 

Tim has another source for the banana tree metric which is also French. 

Refined English Translation:

"After the first edition of this Diplomatic History in 1778, which I present here in a much expanded form, a French translation was published in Paris by Mr. H. J. Jansen, in the Collection of Interesting Pieces Translated from Different Languages, Volumes I and II, Paris, 1787, in octavo format, including the plate of the Hemisphere of the Globe, where one reads at the Isle of Cipangu: there is gold and banana (pisang) trees.

Published by Barrois the elder, bookseller, Quai des Augustins.

The translator later included it with the translation by Citizen Charles Amoretti of the First Voyage Around the World, by the Knight Pigafetta, aboard Magellan’s squadron during the years 1519, 1520, 1521, and 1522. (Paris, H. J. Jansen, Printer-Bookseller, Rue des Maçons, No. 406, Place Sorbonne, Year IX [1801], in octavo format.)

Published under the title: Notice on the Knight M. Behaim, Famous Portuguese Navigator; with the Description of His Terrestrial Globe, by M. de Murr. Translated from the German by H. J. Jansen, pp. 287–384."

Pisang is not Japanese, nor from Ryukyuan, but a tropical fruit endemic below the Tropic of Cancer where Japan is not. This translator, as many, failed to read Behaim's Globe he referenced here and did not bother to test the resources as is typical with such an uneducated conclusion.

This is a reference to the previous book already cited which has been analyzed and found to have no references about pisang in Japan. This book contains the already cited inscription from Behaim's Globe on pages 40-41.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b141124&seq=54

There is no mention of pisang or banana trees in this section. 

Page 145 contains the original German inscription on Behaim's map though it is not exact. 

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b141124&seq=157

Isle of Zipangu 

This island of Zipangu lies in the Orient of the world. The people of the land worship idols. Their King is subject to no one. In the island grows exceedingly much gold, also there grow all sorts of precious stones, oriental pearls. This writes Marco Polo of Venice in the 3rd book. 

Marco Polo writes to us in the third book in chapter 42, that it has truly been found by the sailors that in this Indian Sea, there are more than 12700 islands that are inhabited, and in which are found many precious stones, fine pearls and gold mountains. Others are full of 12 kinds of spices and wondrous people, of which it would be too long to write. 

Here one finds many sea wonders of mermaids and other fish.

And if anyone desires to know about these wondrous people and strange fish in the sea or animals on earth: let him read the books of Pliny, Isidore, Aristotle, Strabo, and Specula Vincenzi, and many other teachers.

There one finds about the wondrous people in the islands and in the sea from sea wonders, and what strange animals on earth and in the islands of spices and precious stones grow.

No mention of Pisang trees. 

This citation of Murr also references another book by Jansen titled, "Recueil de Pièces intéressantes concernant les antiquités, les beaux-arts, les belles-lettres et la philosophie, traduites de différentes langues."  Volume 1 has the same citation from Behaim. 

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ien.35556008982969&seq=365&q1=pisang

Again, no reference to Pisang or bananas.

Murr's book  mentions a plate of Behaim's Globe where pisang is mentioned on Cipangu. Here is a high resolution image of that map.  There is a very faint outline of a map in images 173-174 but the full map is not visible. 

https://www.geographicus.com/P/AntiqueMap/atlantic-murrbehaim-1787

At the very bottom of Japan it reads:

Cipangu est la plus riche Ile de l'orient en Epiceries en Pierres fines, il y a de l'Or a Pisangboum

Cipangu is the richest Island of the orient in Spices in Fine stones, there is Gold of Pisangbeum

Finally the reference to Pisang or Pisangbeum has been found. It is not exactly clear which edition of the book this is from. There is another version of this map from the original 1778 edition which looks slightly different. 

https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/68828/martin-behaim-globe-book-pars-globi-terrestris-ao-1492-de-murr

Cipanga di edelst und reichste Infel in orient von fpecerei und edelgestein gold hat pisangbeum

Cipangu, the noblest and richest island in the orient, has spices and precious stones, gold, (and) banana trees.

Slightly different but with the seem meaning. The page numbers are also different. 

Whatever the reason for the differences this is not the same inscription on Behaim's Globe. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/RavensteinBehaim.jpg

Here is Behaim's original text with a translation. 

https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008398949/page/88/mode/2up

Off the Southern extremity we read:-

jn difer inful do wechft gold und gewürz stauden.  In this island are found gold and shrubs yielding spices.

As can be seen there is no reference to Pisangbeum but to gewürz stauden, shrubs yielding spices. How that became Pisangbeum is not clear. Why is Pisangbeum only on the map and absent from the two description of Zipangu on pages 40-41 and 145?

In this same article Tim mentions the map of Johann Gebhard.

In this 1853 reconstruction by science rockstar Johann Gebhard, Gebhard even describes this is the Philippines. Wow!!! Coming soon!

That article can be read here. It isn't worth going over in detail because it all hinges on Tim's misinterpretation of the inscriptions on Behaim's Globe. However there are two things to note. One is Tim finally recognizes Ernst Ravenstein who wrote Martin Behaim: His Life and Globe. In that book Ravenstein meticulously proves that the City of Nuremberg commissioned and paid for the Globe. He even shows the receipts and instructions. Tim is very adamant the King of Portugal commissioned the Globe which is flat out wrong. However, Tim's attitude toward Ravenstein is revealed when he calls him a propagandist. 

Behaim places Argyra at Mindanao, yet Ravenstein claims it’s Arakan (modern-day Myanmar). How does one confuse Mindanao, the large island just north of Borneo, with a mainland region hundreds of miles away? That is either grossly incompetent geography or deliberate colonial propaganda.

This is colonial paradigm enforcement in action. Ravenstein applies dislocated identities to known islands simply to redirect glory and biblical memory away from Southeast Asia—particularly the Philippines.

Tim still refuses to understand that a map from 1492 cannot possibly show ANY islands of the Philippines because they had not been discovered. 

The second thing to note is Tim continues to propagate the banana disinformation. 

The following translations come directly from Gebhard’s 1853 facsimile performed by AI and affirmed. Each shows that Cipangu was imagined not as temperate Japan, but as a tropical island brimming with bananas, spices, gold, and precious gems — all consistent with the Philippines.

Funny that Tim says the translations of Gebhard's map are "performed by AI and affirmed" when nearly every translation in his article is attributed to Ernst Ravenstein. It's just another way for Tim to hypocritically disparage the actual scholarship of Ravenstein while simultaneously relying on it.

Bananas are not on the Cipangu inscription on Gebhard's map.

"in diser insul do wechsl gold und gewurz stauden."

English Translation: (Ravenstein, click link)
“In this island are found gold and shrubs yielding spices.”

Tim's own notes on this map confirms the absence of bananas yet he has nothing to say about it. Why does Murr's map from 1787 have Pisangbeum and Gebahrd's map from 1853 not have Pisangbeum? Because it's not original to Behaim. The question remains, what is the origin of Pisangbeum?

So, what does this all mean? It means Tim is relying on an obscure note in an obscure book to build his case for the Philippines being Japan. There is no mention in Jansen, Behaim, Gebhard, or Pigafetta of Cipangu having bananas. The description of Cipangu in Murr's book does not mention bananas yet the map in the same book has an inscription that says Pisangbeum which differs from Behaim's original text of "shrubs yielding spices." All in all this article relying on an unexplained inscription further reveals the intellectually bankrupt methodology of Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture. 

The God Culture: A City Founded In The 16th Century Is On A 2nd Century Map

Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture is writing a new book about the Philippines. Or maybe he is going to update his book The Search For King Solomon's Treasure. Either way, something deeply flawed this way comes from the computer of Timothy Jay Schwab. If he does have a research team they will need to step up their game and stop manipulating their sources. Of course, picking through his obvious lies makes it so much easier to critique Tim.

https://thegodculturephilippines.com/maniolas-lequios-luzon----and-the-golden-isles-unveiled/

The Misunderstood Geography of Ptolemy.  

Modern scholarship often stumbles when interpreting Ptolemy’s maps, offering colonial-era opinions without engaging the corrections made by Magellan, Pigafetta, or even Columbus. Few realize that Ptolemy’s knowledge ended east of India — he never mapped the Philippines, as confirmed by Magellan himself. Instead, he skipped directly to regions like Taprobane (which classical sources and maps correctly equate with Sumatra, not Sri Lanka) and Maniolas, a clear reference to Manila.  

The result? A cartographic void filled with guesses — while Magellan and other explorers offered the course correction. Yet academia, in Colonial British propaganda, continues to anchor itself to the South and West, ignoring the obvious: the Region of Gold was the Philippines. It still is. 

We introduce this correction here — but the full breakdown comes in upcoming blogs. This is not our position but that will be forthcoming, and overwhelming. 

This blog centers on one of them — Lequios — and its undeniable Philippine identity. While other legendary places like Maniolas and Chryse are mentioned in the same breath, we will not unpack those positions here. That evidence, vast and overwhelming, will be addressed in a dedicated series and one of our next books coming soon. 

• Maniolas was Manila — not metaphorically, but directly and cartographically, as many scholars, maps, and colonial-era sources have affirmed. [a plethera of sources say so, we will cover these, not in this article]

Maniolas on Ptolemy's world map is Manila says Tim. That is true because other people said it is true. Never mind the fact that it is impossible a second century map could reference a city founded in 1571. It is true that some people did speculate that Maniolas and Manila are related but that does not make it so. Connecting a second century map detail and a city founded in the 16th century is the height of absurdity. 

Here is what Tim writes concerning Domingo Fernández Navarrete's comments on Maniolas. 

In the late 17th century, in the midst of Jesuit propaganda, a high-ranking Spanish Dominican Archbishop, theologian, writer, and missionary named Domingo Fernández Navarrete dared to write what others would not: that the islands known as Ptolemy's Maniolas are none other than Luzon and the Philippines, and that the Biblical lands of Ophir, Tarshish, and Havilah are found in these same islands. Another Navarrete, Martín Fernández de Navarrete (1765–1844), Spanish naval officer and historian, also placed Lequios at 21 degrees North (Philippine waters) a couple of centuries later. The ancient names of the bifurcated isle of Luzon were clearly Lequios (North) and Maniolas (Manila/South).

✒️ Literal Translation & Analysis:

🗺️ Page 429–430

"Lib. 1, p.2, prueba con Tholomeo, que las Islas Philipinas eran las Maniolas, por la semejanza grande de este nombre, con el nombre Manila..."

Translation:

“Book 1, page 2, proves with Ptolemy that the Philippine Islands are the Maniolas, due to the strong similarity of that name with Manila…”

🔍 This is a direct identification of Ptolemy’s “Maniolas” with the city of Manila and its surrounding isles. Navarrete points out what modern scholars pretend not to see: linguistic, geographic, and historical continuity.

“...si Manila fuera, o hubiera sido en algún tiempo nombre de aquella isla…”

Analysis:

He acknowledges that if Manila was a name for the island as a whole (as several maps indicate), or derived from it, then Ptolemy's identification makes perfect sense — because it is the same region. He was clearly aware of Magellan's corrections of Ptolemy, as modern scholars should be. He also emphasizes the Tagalog root names and the logic of these derivations. This utterly obliterates modern denials that Maniolas = Manila = Luzon.

Navarrete also affirms the ships fashioned without nails fitting Ptolemy's account of Maniola and that magnetic lodestone (magnetite) was very abundant throughout the Philippines which remains so today according to mining reports and the National Museum of the Philippines. 

Indeed, he doubts the legend that the lodestone could literally stop a ship which we do as well. However, the legend remained there all along regardless. Magnetic anomalies however, are factual around the Philippine waters and likely, it is the Maniola shoals that spawned such legend which is why we see them called magnetic in Behaim's 1492 inscription next to Mindanao. 

Yes, maps affirm Maniola as a name for Luzon or a portion. More on that soon. All affirm that is what Ptolemy meant all along when he labeled Maniola which Magellan, Behaim, Columbus and others adjust correcting Ptolemy's Golden Isles (NONE are Peninsulas) to the Philippines.

This is wrong. First of all it should be noted, and Tim does not note this, that Navarrete is citing Father Fransisco Colin. 

After having finished these drafts, I accidentally found the history that the very Reverend Father Francisco Colín wrote about the progress, Christianities, and labors of his Sacred Family of the Company of Jesus in the Philippine Islands, and since I lived among them, I had a particular knowledge of this great man, and of his many talents, which I do not praise so as not to exaggerate them, as Tacitus said regarding Agricola: "His integrity and abstinence, in such a man, would have been injured by virtues." 

pg. 429

Second of all, these:

"Lib. 1, p.2, prueba con Tholomeo, que las Islas Philipinas eran las Maniolas, por la semejanza grande de este nombre, con el nombre Manila..."

“...si Manila fuera, o hubiera sido en algún tiempo nombre de aquella isla…”

are half quotes. Here is the full quote in English. The bolded text is what Tim leaves on the cutting room floor. 

2 Lib. 1, p. 2, proves with Ptolemy that the Philippine Islands are the Maniolas, due to the great resemblance of this name to the name Manila; but the foundation is so flimsy that it cannot even generate probability: if Manila had ever been the name of that Island, or of any other in that Archipelago, that opinion could still be tolerated; but it being certain that it is a name imposed for the site of the City, because it is mostly swampy and muddy land, although it is now otherwise, which the Tagalog calls Mainila, as I already wrote in treatise 1, c. 1, section 1, it follows that no inference can be drawn from that name for the purpose he intends.

While Colin supposed Ptolemy's Maniolas was Manila, Navarrete says "the foundation is so flimsy that is cannot even generate probability." Ptolemy's own text links Maniolae not with a city or magnets but with cannibals!

There are said to be other islands here adjoining, ten in number, called Maniolae, from which they say that boats, in which there are nails, are kept away, lest at any time the magnetic stone which is found near these islands should draw them to destruction. For this reason they say that these boats are drawn up on the shore and that they are strengthened with beams of wood. They also say that these islands are occupied by cannibals called Manioli. There are means of approach from these islands to the mainland.

Geography pg. 157

Navarrete does not agree with Colin and is of no use to Tim. Yet for some reason Tim has decided to selectively edit the text to appear that he does. Why? Is this obvious nonsense, that a city founded in the 16th century shows up on a 2nd century map bolstered by a manipulated citation from Navarrete, going to make it into Tim's new book? I certainly hope so. Because if it does, it will serve as yet another glaring example of his deeply flawed and dishonest methodology.

In this next quote Tim claims Navarrete affirms Ophir, Tarshish, and Havilah founded the Philippines. 

🗺️ Page 430–431

“En el cap. 4.pagin.16. trata de los Fundadores, o Pobladores de aquellas Islas,y Archipielago, y dize fue Tharfis, hijo de lauan, y Ophir, y Heuilath de la India,de que fe trata en el capit. 10. del Genef. Grande antiguedad de morado-res dà aquella tierra. En auer fido faci-lifsimo poblaríe todas aquellas Islas,por eftar algunas cercanífsimas a la tierra Continente, para mi no tiene duda.”

Translation:

“In chapter 4, page 16, it deals with the Founders or Settlers of those Islands and Archipelago, and it is said that it was Tharsis, son of Javan, and Ophir, and Havilah of India, of whom it is dealt with in chapter 10 of Genesis. Great antiquity of inhabitants of that land. In succession it would be very easy to populate all those Islands, since some of them are very close to the Continent, for me there is no doubt.”

🔍 Navarrete is here stating plainly: the ancient biblical regions of Tarshish, Ophir, and Havilah were in the Philippines and he believes without doubt the Philippines fit that identity best. He uses Genesis 10, which lists descendants of Noah spreading into those regions, to anchor the idea that these islands were peopled in antiquity from that biblical dispersion.

This is once more wrong. It must be remembered that Navarrete is quoting Fr. Colin. Colin does not say Ophir founded the Philippines. 

Although these are islands, it won't be necessary to strain our understanding, speculating (as Saint Augustine and other authors do regarding other islands and the Americas) about how and from where people and animals came to them. Because if some of these were at some point a continent after the flood, then people and animals could have remained there since that time. And if they have always been islands, the proximity of some to others, and of some of them to the mainland of Asia—from where the propagation of the human lineage and the populating by Noah's descendants began—is sufficient for some of them to have been able to come and populate these parts. And that this was indeed the case, and the principal colonizer of these Archipelagos was Tarshish, son of Javan, with his brothers—just as Ophir and Havilah were for India—is founded in the tenth chapter of Genesis, which deals with the dispersion of peoples and the populating of lands, as we have established in detail elsewhere.

pg. 15

Navarette writes:

the Founders or Settlers of those Islands and Archipelago, and it is said that it was Tharsis, son of Javan, and Ophir, and Havilah of India, 

Clearly Tarshish founded the archipelago, the Philippines, while Ophir and Havilah founded India. That is how both texts groups them. Don't forget Tim previously manipulated this same quote from Colin.

📖 3. The Biblical Bombshell: Philippines as Ophir and Tarshish

Perhaps most stunning, Colin writes:

“Y el principal Poblador de estos Archipielagos fuese Tharsis, hijo de Javan... como lo fueron Ophir, y Hevilath…”

(Labor Evangelica, p. 16)

📌 Translation:

"And the principal settlers of these archipelagos was Tarshish, son of Javan... just as were Ophir and Havilah..."

Citing Genesis 10, Colin aligns the early Philippine settlers with the biblical sons of Javan, declaring the islands the biblical lands of gold.

He speaks not hypothetically — but with scriptural and ethnographic confidence.

Compare the original Spanish to Tim's edit. 

Y que con efecto fuesse assi, y el principal Poblador de estos Archipiélagos fuesse Tharsis, hijo de Iauan, con sus hermanos, como lo fueron Ophir, y Heuilath de la India, tiene fundamento en elcapitulo diez del Génesis, que trata de la dispersión de las gentes, y población de las tierras, como lo fundamos de proposito en otro lugar.

It's absolutely intolerable that Tim has manipulated Colin's text in this manner. It is thoroughly dishonest and underscores his total lack of integrity. This is more proof that Timothy Jay Schwab is not to be trusted and his research should be discarded.

https://thegodculturephilippines.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-god-culture-father-colin-confirms.html

It also does not appear that Navarrete is agreeing with Colin about Tarshish settling the Philippines. The sentence of concern here is:

Grande antiguedad de moradores dà aquella tierra. En auer fido facilifsimo poblaríe todas aquellas Islas, por eftar algunas cercanífsimas a la tierra Continente, para mi no tiene duda.

Tim has translated this particular sentence in a different manner than the one I am receiving. Let's ask Gemini.

Both translations convey the same core meaning, and the differences are very subtle. However, let's break them down to see which is a slightly more direct translation of the original Spanish:

Original Spanish: "Grande antiguedad de morado-res dà aquella tierra. En auer fido faci-lifsimo poblaríe todas aquellas Islas,por eftar algunas cercanífsimas a la tierra Continente, para mi no tiene duda."

Your provided alternative translation: "Great antiquity of inhabitants of that land. In succession it would be very easy to populate all those Islands, since some of them are very close to the Continent, for me there is no doubt."

My previous translation: "Great antiquity of inhabitants is given to that land. It is undoubtedly very easy to populate all those Islands, being some very close to the mainland."

Comparison:

1. "Great antiquity of inhabitants...":

   • Your version: "...of that land." - This is a very direct and accurate translation of "de morado-res dà aquella tierra" (inhabitants of that land).
   • My version: "...is given to that land." - Also correct, but perhaps slightly less direct in connecting "inhabitants" directly to "that land."

2. "In succession" vs. "It is undoubtedly":

   • Your version: "In succession it would be very easy..." - The phrase "En auer fido facilifsimo" literally means "having been very easy" or "it having been very easy." "In succession" is an interpretation and not a direct translation of any word in the Spanish.
   • My version: "It is undoubtedly very easy..." - I translated "para mi no tiene duda" (for me there is no doubt) as "undoubtedly" and integrated it earlier in the sentence.

3. "for me there is no doubt" vs. integrated "undoubtedly":

   • Your version ends with "...for me there is no doubt." - This is a very literal and accurate translation of "para mi no tiene duda" placed at the end of the clause as it is in Spanish.
   • My version integrates "undoubtedly" earlier, which is also a valid way to convey the meaning but changes the sentence structure slightly.

Conclusion:

Your alternative translation is arguably slightly more "correct" in terms of its directness for "of that land" and its literal placement of "for me there is no doubt." However, the inclusion of "In succession" is not directly supported by the Spanish text.

My translation accurately conveys the meaning, but took a slightly more interpretative approach by integrating "undoubtedly" earlier and using "mainland" instead of "Continent."

Both are very good translations. If precision to sentence structure and literal word translation is paramount for "para mi no tiene duda," then your alternative is slightly better, if you remove "In succession." The phrase "In succession" is the only element that doesn't clearly map to a direct Spanish word in the provided snippet.

Now, let's ask ChatGpt.

Certainly. Here's the English translation of the Spanish sentence you provided:

"Great antiquity of inhabitants is given to that land. Since it would have been very easy to populate all those islands, because some are very close to the mainland, to me there is no doubt."

Modernized phrasing for clarity:

"That land is considered to have been inhabited since ancient times. Since many of those islands are very near the mainland, I have no doubt it was easy to populate them all."

Let me know if you'd like more context or the original source interpreted in full.

Gemini says, except for the added phrase "in succession," Tim's translation is "slightly better" because of its literalness.  However, both Gemini and ChatGPT give a translation in which the "no doubt" refers not to Navarrete agreeing with Colin but with the ease populating the Philippine archipelago would entail since it is close to the mainland. Tim's translation may be literal word-for-word but it appears to miss the meaning of the text. 

Maniolas is not the only Ptolemaic map place name Tim mentions. He claims Magellan found Catigara. 

🧭 Magellan: The Course Corrector

Ferdinand Magellan’s 1521 arrival didn’t “discover” the Philippines — it corrected Ptolemy. Cap Catigara of Ptolemy was actually Samar-Leyte according to Magellan who even directly corrected Ptolemy and others. Yet, few seem to even know this.

https://thegodculturephilippines.com/maniolas-lequios-luzon----and-the-golden-isles-unveiled/

This is completely wrong and I have written about it before. Pigafetta did not say they landed at Catigara. He said they set course for it. He absolutely does not claim Samar-Leyte or any other place in the Philippines is Catigara. 

Back in Spain the surviving crew were subject to interrogation. That testimony and a complete description of the voyage can be read at this link but it's all in Spanish. Maximilianus Transylvanus, a courtier of Emperor Charles V, actually interviewed the surviving crew members and wrote a summary of the voyage. 

Now, the book of the aforesaid Peter having disappeared, Fortune has not allowed the memory of so marvellous an enterprise to be entirely lost, inasmuch as a certain noble gentleman of Vicenza called Messer Antonio Pigafetta (who, having gone on the voyage and returned in the ship Vittoria, was made a Knight of Rhodes), wrote a very exact and full account of it in a book, one copy of which he presented to His Majesty the Emperor, and another he sent to the most Serene Mother of the most Christian King, the Lady Regent.

As this voyage may be considered marvellous, and not only unaccomplished, but even unattempted either in our age or in any previous one, I have resolved to write as truly as possible to your Reverence the course (of the expedition) and the sequence of the whole matter. I have taken care to have everything related to me most exactly by the captain and by the individual sailors who have returned with him. They have also related each separate event to Cæsar and to others with such good faith and sincerity, that they seemed not only to tell nothing fabulous themselves, but by their relation to disprove and refute all the fabulous stories which had been told by old authors. 

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_First_Voyage_Round_the_World/Letter_of_Maximilian,_the_Transylvan

In his introduction Maximilianus recognizes the importance and worth of Pigafetta's published journal and tells us that what is to follow was related to him by the surviving crew members. That is crucial for what he writes about concerning Cattigara.

When our men had set sail from Thedori, one of the ships, and that the larger one, having sprung a leak, began to make water, so that it became necessary to put back to Thedori. When the Spaniards saw that this mischief could not be remedied without great labour and much time, they agreed that the other ship should sail to the Cape of Cattigara, and afterwards through the deep as far as possible from the coast of India, lest it should be seen by the Portuguese, and until they saw the Promontory of Africa, which projects beyond the Tropic of Capricorn, and to which the Portuguese have given the name of Good Hope; and from that point the passage to Spain would be easy. But as soon as the other ship was refitted, it should direct its course through the archipelago, and that vast ocean towards the shores of the continent which we mentioned before, till it found that coast which was in the neighbourhood of Darien, and where the southern sea was separated from the western, in which are the Spanish Islands, by a very narrow space of land. So the ship sailed again from Thedori, and, having gone twelve degrees on the other side of the equinoctial line, they did not find the Cape of Cattigara, which Ptolemy supposed to extend even beyond the equinoctial line; but when they had traversed an immense space of sea, they came to the Cape of Good Hope and afterwards to the Islands of the Hesperides.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_First_Voyage_Round_the_World/Letter_of_Maximilian,_the_Transylvan

At this point in the voyage it is December 1521 and the crew are on the island of Tidore which is in the Moluccas. One of the ships springs a leak but it cannot be fixed. The other ship is told to press ahead to the Cape of Cattigara but they are never able to find it. 

There you go. Simple as that. Neither Pigafetta nor the surviving crew members claim Samar is the Cape of Cattigara or that they ever found its actual location. There is more to this story as those who listened to the testimony of these men decided that Gilolo island in the Moluccas was Cattigara.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=miun.afk2830.0001.001&view=1up&seq=219&skin=2021

Item: it can not be denied that the island of Gilolo, lying near the Maluco Islands, is the cape of Catigara, inasmuch as the companions of Magallanes journeyed westward upon leaving the strait discovered in fifty-four degrees of south latitude, sailing such a distance west and northeast that they arrived in twelve degrees of north latitude where were found certain islands, and one entrance to them. Then running southward four hundred leagues, they passed the Maluco islands and the coast of the island of Gilolo, without finding any cape on it. Then they took their course toward the Cabo Buena Esperanza [Good Hope] for Spain. Therefore then the cape of Catigara can only be the said island of Gilolo and the Malucos.

Are these men, who were well acquainted with the testimony of the entire crew dunderheads and ninny's who ignored actual history? Of course not. 

https://thegodculturephilippines.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-god-culture-100-lies-about_18.html

Though he reads this blog, Tim continues to ignore those facts.

As it stands Tim claims the Philippines is: The Garden of Eden, the Holy of Holies, the Land of Creation, Arsareth, Havilah, Sheba, Seba, Tarshish, Ophir, Lequios, Maniolas, Antillia, Thilis, Japan, Swarnadwipa, Al-Wakwak, Catigara, and the land of Gold spoken of by all nations. This is not history, it is bloated and ridiculous myth-making which has been shown many times to have a foundation "so flimsy that it cannot even generate probability." Yet Tim, in the midst of all his textual manipulations, claims he has a "monumental case no one can disprove." 

As I noted, Tim is either writing a new book about this subject or he's updating his previous book. He says these two articles are not his full position as that will be revealed much later with more information. He claims to have a plethora of sources to back him up. But as we see with this source, Navarrete, and as we have seen with every other article he has published, Tim's plethora of supporting documents doesn't exist except in seriously misunderstood and manipulated terms. If this is the type of material he intends to publish in a book then it will only serve to solidify the lack of intellectual integrity of Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture.