Mazaua - Three Latitudes

Three Latitudes

Pigafetta's latitude for Mazaua was 9° 40' N and Albo, 9° 40' N in one manuscript in Madrid and 9° 20' N in a London manuscript. The amanuensis of Madrid made an error which is easily detected. Albo had fixed the latitude of Homonhon, an island in Samar, at also 9° 40' N; from here the fleet sailed in a southerly course for three days and some 100 nautical miles (190 km), as calculated by Pigafetta, to reach Mazaua. They could not have traveled three days and 100 miles (160 km) and still be at the same latitude of 9° 40' N. The third latitude, 9° N, by another eyewitness, known to history as The Genoese Pilot, is more in consonance with the determination of the distance traveled from Homonhon to Mazaua.

Pigafetta's latitude for Mazaua was 9° 40' N The two other published extant Pigafetta manuscripts, Mss 5650 and Ambrosiana, all mere copies of original manuscript/s, contain the same latitude.

Albo latitude 9° 40' N is found in the Madrid manuscript as written by an amanuensis (see Colección de los viages y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los españoles desde fines del siglo XV, con varios documentos inéditos concernientes á la historia de la marina castellana y de los establecimientos españoles en Indias, Tomo IV by Martín Fernández de Navarrete, and 9° 20' N in a London manuscript. The amanuensis of Madrid made an error which is easily detected. Albo had fixed the latitude of Homonhon, an island in Samar, at also 9° 40' N; from here the fleet sailed in a southerly or downward course for three days and some 100 nautical miles (190 km), as calculated by Pigafetta, to reach Mazaua. They could not have traveled three days and 100 miles (160 km) and still be at the same latitude of 9° 40' N.

The third latitude, 9° N, by another eyewitness, known to history as The Genoese Pilot, is more in consonance with the determination of the distance traveled from Homonhon to Mazaua. This is shown in the digitized version of Lord Stanley of Alderley's English translation of the Lisbon copy of Albo's manuscript. The isle's name in the Lisbon copy is "Macangor" an event that misled historians and historiographers to dismiss the latitude of 9° N as erroneous by virtue of the false name which was the work of the copyist. On the same page, Stanley's annotation no. 6 states the name as it appears in the Paris copy is "Maçaguoa" which phonetically comes out as "masawa" as cedilla ç was the archaic equivalent of s and guo is the Anglicized w which is absent in Romance alphabet. The isle's name, Stanley writes, in the Madrid copy is "Maquamguoa." The problem of deciphering handwriting in 16th century manuscripts has bedeviled copyists who sometimes have to contend with copies of manuscripts several times removed from the original. In the case of the name of Magellan's port, the problem of pinning down its "real" name requires identifying a consistent word that is phonetically uniform with others' and is found in a particular language in the area where Magellan's fleet could have anchored on March 28-April 4, 1521. This area may be defined as within the confines of 12° N down to 9° N. The languages and dialects within this area are Surigaonon, Butuanon, Jaun-Jaun, Cantilan (Kantilan), Naturalis, Surigaonon. Dibabawon Manobo, Agusan Manobo, Samareño, Samaran, Samar-Leyte, Waray, Binisaya, Waray-Waray, Sugbuanon or Cebuano, Kamayo, Mansaka.

Only Butuanon has the word "masawa" which means brilliant light. It has ready affinity with the words of Pigafetta as he described how Magellan's fleet came to anchor in the island-port, "On Thursday morning, March 28, as we had seen a fire on an island the night before, we anchored near it."