Some of you may already know of my own personal interest in tracing the descendants of Maga’låhi Matå’pang. It began sometime around 2001 with an email exchange from Jay “Sinangan” Pascua informing me that we have a common ancestor that may be the descendant of Matå’pang. More recently, I had been on a hot trail of information that my wife may also be a descendant. However, my research and effort for this particular topic tends to run back into the cold. Much of this stems in part from conflicting information and then huge gaps of information. And so my journey continues.
So before Matå’pang died in 1680, he had at least two children that I have been able to identify. Unfortunately, I have yet to identify the name of his wife.
Maria Assion
In 2014, I found out that Matå’pang’s daughter’s name is Maria Assion. It turns out that Maria was the newborn baby baptized by Father San Vitores and for which he met his fate on April 2, 1672.
Maria was married to an unnamed soldier and around 1691, she was confronted by a married man allegedly to pursue an affair with her. She refused him and told him, “Even if you tear me to pieces you will not get what you are trying to get.” This incident was recorded with other incidents demonstrating, in part, religious conversion success stories among the natives.
Diego Luis San Vitores [Matå’pang]
Recently, with the help of Rlene Santos Steffy, she pointed me in the direction of Matå’pang’s son. It turns out that in a 1684 letter from Father Antonio Xaramillo (sometimes spelled Jaramillo), he informs the King of Spain that he brought Matå’pang’s son along with two other unnamed native boys to Manila with him.
“One of these boys is the one who[se baptism] occasioned the death that his father gave to the Ven. Father Diego Luis Sanvitores. He too holds this name, as I was the one who gave it to him when the good luck of baptizing him befell me; the Ven. Father himself had been preoccupied with the baptism of his own blood, and was unable to administer the baptism of water to him then.”
In Levesque’s Volume 8 (1996), for which he transcribed and quoted Xaramillo’s letter to the King, he also made a footnote about Matå’pang’s son’s name, “Diego Luis Mata’pang,” and indicating that would have made him 12 years old in 1684.
Unfortunately Levesque’s footnote and interpretation of Xaramillo’s letter to the King is not correct. It would be Matå’pang’s daughter Maria that would have been 12 years of age in 1684, and not her brother. Maria was Matå’pang's newborn baby girl baptized by Father San Vitores for which he lost his life. I am uncertain at this point in my research if Maria is older than Diego.
Also of note, in a 1686 letter from Xaramillo to the King, he indicated that he wanted to send Diego to Spain, but it is currently unknown if he was ever transported to Spain.
Bibliography
Jacques Arago. 1823. Narrative of a Voyage Round the World in the Uranie and Physicienne Corvettes Commanded by Freycinet, During the Years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820. Davison, Whitefriars; Howlette and Brimmer: London, England
Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero, MFA and Nicholas Yamashita Quinata, ' Matå’pang: Matapang', referenced August 1, 2012, © 2009 Guampedia™, URL: http://guampedia.com/chiefs-matapang-matapang/
Rodrigue Levesque. 1996. History of Micronesia, Volume 7: More Turmoil in the Marianas Conquest 1679-1683. Levesque Publications: Quebec, Canada
Rodrigue Levesque. 1996. History of Micronesia, Volume 8: Last Chamorro Revolt 1683-1687. Levesque Publications: Quebec, Canada
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