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Would appreciate it if anyone can guide me to a source where there is a portrait of Jacques Nicolas-Bellin, one of the towering figures of the Age of Enlightenment, who copied a map produced in the Philippines. This map became the authority for a supposition of Carlo Amoretti (1800) creating a myth that turned an isle in the Philippines with no anchorage into the safe haven of Ferdinand Magellan, Mazaua, that had an excellent port. This supposed port is named Limasawa, a name that is a pure invention. There is no account of Magellan's voyage, be it primary, secondary, or whatever that refers to an island with that name. The neologism was coined by a Jesuit priest, Fr. Francisco Combes, who had not read a single eyewitness account of Magellan's voyage. In a three-paragraph story of Magellan's sojourn in Surigao Strait, Combes managed to make his Limasawa stand for three separate islands in the true story, namely, Suluan Island, Homonhon, and Gatighan. A number of Western historians have fallen victim to this myth, the latest being Laurence Bergreen who made this island that has no anchorage a naval power in the area during the Age of Sail able to interdict ships that did not pay tribute.
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