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The1582 Cagayan battles were a series of alleged clashes between the forces of theSpanish Philippines led by CaptainJuan Pablo de Carrión andwokou (possibly led byJapanese pirates) headed byTay Fusa. These events took place around theCagayan River in northernLuzon. Historical accounts differ on whether the confrontations involved actual fighting or not.
Around 1573, the Japanese began to exchangegold for silver on the Philippine island ofLuzon, especially in theCagayan Valley around the modern-day province ofCagayan,Manila, andPangasinan, specifically theLingayen area. In 1580, however, a ragtag group of pirates forced the natives of Cagayan into submission. These raiders were calledwokou and had been previouslyfought by the ChineseJiajing Emperor.
In response, theGovernor-General of the PhilippinesGonzalo Ronquillo commissioned Juan Pablo de Carrión,hidalgo and a captain of theSpanish navy, to deal with the piracy.[1]
Ronquillo wrote to King Philip II on 16 June 1582:[2][3]
Los japoneses son la gente más belicosa que hay por acá. Traen artillería y mucha arcabucería y piquería. Usan armas defensivas para el cuerpo. Lo cual todo lo tienen por industria de portugeses, que se lo han mostrado para daño de sus ánimas.
The Japanese are the most belligerent people here. They bring artillery and many arquebusiers and pikemen. They wear body armor. All provided from the works of the Portuguese, whom they have shown to them for the detriment of their souls [sic] ...
Carrión took the initiative and shelled a Wokou ship, possibly of Chinese manufacture, in theSouth China Sea, removing it from action. A retaliation came from Tay Fusa, who sailed toward thePhilippine archipelago with a fleet.[1]
The Wokou fleet was composed of one junk and 18 sampans. Although their numbers comprised ethnicJapanese,Chinese, andPhilippine raiders, the name of their leader suggests the Japanese led their fleet. Spanish sources record it as Tay Fusa, which does not correspond to aJapanese name but could be a transliteration ofTaifu-san orTaifu-sama, withtaifu (大夫) being a word for a Japanese medieval chieftain rank,[4] also pronounced astāi-hu (POJ) inHokkien Chinese, ordàfū (pinyin) inMandarinStandard Chinese. Meanwhile,-san (さん) or-sama (様) areJapanese honorificsuffixes. They carried not only bladed weapons but alsomuskets, which had been provided by thePortuguese.[5]
To counter this, Carrión gathered forty soldiers and seven boats: five small support vessels, a lightship (San Yusepe), and a galleon (La Capitana), with their respective crews.[2][3] Though lesser in numbers, the Spanish were advantaged by their greater experience with firearms than the pirates, as well as the superior quality of their armor and weaponry.[5]
On board the ships, apart from the crew, there were forty soldiers. Contrary to popular belief, they did not belong to the Tercios and no more than five or six had fought in Europe, since the majority were born inNew Spain (what is today, Mexico and the Southwestern United States). They were Tlaxcalan indigenous people, veterans among others from the Chichimeca War, and fully integrated into the Spanish army, along with Iberians and Novohispanos, since these would have already participated in several of the first explorations in the Pacific and some of the wars in the region.,[6] All the weapons they carried were European, with the weapons and defenses of a common soldier. They all knew by heart, and practiced with ease the usual tactics of the Spanish formations. The flotilla would also be filled with recruits from the allied Tagalog, Pampanga and Visayan tribes.[citation needed]
As they passed theCape Bojeador, the Spanishflotilla encountered a heavy Wokousampan. It had recently arrived at the coast, and its sailors abused the native population. Carrión, although outnumbered by the wokou, engaged in a naval battle with thesampan, eventually boarding it. The Spanishrodeleros then encountered armored Japanesewokou wielding swords. Though initially successful, the Spanish soldiers were repelled back to their ship, whose deck became a battlefield. Eventually, the Spanish turned the battle again in their favor by improvising a parapet with Spanish pikemen at the front andarquebusiers and musketeers at the rear, thanks to the well-timed reinforcement of the rest of the fleet. The wokou abandoned the ships and swam away, with some drowning due to the weight of their armor.[5] The Spanish had suffered their first casualties, among them the galley's captain Pedro Lucas.[5]
The flotilla continued down theCagayán River, finding a fleet of eighteensampans and a Wokoufort erected inland. The Spanish fleet forced their way through using artillery and disembarked onshore. They dug in, assembling theartillery unloaded from the galleon in the trenches, and continually bombarded the pirates. The wokou decided to negotiate a surrender, and Carrión ordered them to leaveLuzon. The pirates asked for gold in compensation for the losses they would suffer if they left, which was denied outright by Carrión.[2][3] After this, the wokou decided to attack by land with a force of some six hundred strong.[5]
The Spanish trenches, crewed by soldiers and sailors, endured a first assault, then another. In response to their pikes being seized by the Wokou soldiers, the Spanish oiled the shafts of their pikes to make them difficult to grasp.[1] The Spanish ran low on gunpowder by the third attack, which became a close-quarters fight that almost breached the trenches. Finally, with the Wokou assaults diminishing, the Spanish emerged from the trenches and attacked, routing the remaining Wokou.[1] They then plundered the Wokou weapons left on the battlefield, which included katanas and armor, and kept them as trophies.[2][3]
With the region pacified and the arrival of reinforcements, Carrión founded the city of Nueva Segovia (nowLal-lo). The pirate activity was sparse afterward, although the impression left by the fierceness of the battle led the local Spanish viceroy to request more troops. The commercial activity near Cagayan was focused inLingayen Bay, in Pangasinan, on the port ofAgoo and consisted principally of deerskin trade.[7][8]
In contrast, historian Robert J. Antony argues that no battle occurred. Instead, Carrión intimidated the pirates by threatening to kill the pirate leader inside the fort, which prompted their withdrawal, apparently without a fight.[9]
