Rajah Colambu

Rajah Colambu (also spelled Rajah Kolambu; baptized John or Don Juan; fl. 1521) was an early 16th-century ruler associated with Mazaua, an island identified by the Philippine government with present-day Limasawa in Southern Leyte. He is known principally from the account of Antonio Pigafetta, a member and chronicler of the Magellan expedition.

Colambu met Ferdinand Magellan in March 1521 and entered into a kinship or peace pact with him. He and his brother, Rajah Siaui, attended the Easter Sunday Mass celebrated at Mazaua on March 31. Colambu later accompanied the expedition to Cebu, where he assisted in negotiations with Rajah Humabon and was baptized on April 14, 1521.

Name and documentary record Pigafetta recorded the ruler's name as Raia Colambu, rendered in modern English as “Rajah Colambu”. Rajah was a title rather than part of his personal name. No surname or longer pre-baptismal name is given in the surviving accounts. The spelling “Kolambu” is used on the historical marker installed in Limasawa by the Philippines Historical Committee, a predecessor of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).

At the baptisms held in Cebu on April 14, 1521, Pigafetta stated that the “king of Mazaua” was given the Christian name John; the chronology in Theodore J. Cachey's critical edition renders the name as Don Juan. The available contemporary records do not give Colambu's date or place of birth, date or place of death, or parentage.

Association with Mazaua The territorial associations of Colambu and Siaui have been rendered inconsistently in older translations and secondary accounts. Historian Peter Schreurs observed that Pigafetta described the two rulers as brothers who met at Mazaua and that the account did not clearly name the island where Colambu ordinarily lived.

The interpretation adopted by the NHCP identifies Colambu as the rajah of Mazaua and Siaui as his brother and the rajah of Butuan and Calaghan. The NHCP attributed some of the historical confusion to a paraphrased version of Pigafetta's narrative published by Giovanni Battista Ramusio in 1550, which interchanged or garbled details concerning the two rulers. In 2020, the NHCP accepted the recommendation of the Mojares Panel reaffirming that Pigafetta's Mazaua was Limasawa rather than a site in or near Butuan.

Pigafetta also recorded meeting Colambu's eldest son during the visit. The next morning, a brother of Colambu—identified in the account as Rajah Siaui—accompanied Pigafetta to the flagship. The NHCP identifies Siaui as the ruler of Butuan and Calaghan.

After the Mass, Magellan and the two rulers climbed the island's highest hill, where the expedition erected a cross. When Magellan asked which nearby port offered the best provisions and trade, the rulers named Ceylon, Cebu and Calaghan, recommending Cebu as the largest and most active port. Colambu ultimately offered to serve as the expedition's pilot.

The Philippine government recognizes Limasawa as the location of this event. The NHCP and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines use the term “1521 Easter Sunday Mass” rather than “first Mass” so as not to exclude the possibility that an earlier, undocumented Mass may have been celebrated aboard one of the expedition's ships.

Voyage to Cebu and baptism Colambu accompanied the expedition when it departed Mazaua for Cebu. His vessel was unable to keep pace with the European ships, and the expedition waited for him near several islands before Magellan invited him and some of his chiefs aboard the flagship. The expedition entered the port of Cebu on April 7, 1521.

At Cebu, Colambu acted as an intermediary in the expedition's relations with Rajah Humabon. Pigafetta described him as the most influential ruler present after Humabon and as the lord of several islands. Colambu participated in negotiations that established peace between Magellan and Humabon's representatives.

On April 14, Colambu was among the people baptized during ceremonies in Cebu and was given the Christian name John, rendered as Don Juan in the critical edition's chronology. Pigafetta's account does not provide a definite record of Colambu's later life or death.

Commemoration Colambu is named, using the spelling “Kolambu”, on the 1950 historical marker commemorating the Easter Sunday Mass in Limasawa. The marker records that Colambu and Siaui welcomed Magellan and attended the Mass. The peace pact between Colambu and Magellan was also included among the events officially commemorated during the 2021 Quincentennial Commemorations in the Philippines.