The 1582 Cagayan battles were a series of clashes between the forces of Colonial Philippines led by Captain Juan Pablo de Carrión and wokou headed by Tay Fusa. These battles, which took place in the vicinity of the Cagayan River, finally resulted in a Spanish victory. This event is a recorded battle between European regular soldiers against samurai warriors. This unique event pitted musketeers, pikemen, and Spanish rodeleros against mostly Japanese and Chinese pirates, mostly formed by rōnin, soldiers, fishermen, and merchants. The pirates had 18 Sampans which are flat bottomed Chinese fishing wooden boat. The word "sampan" comes from the original Hokkien term for the boats, 三板, literally meaning "three planks".
Prelude
Around 1573, the Japanese began to exchange gold for silver on the Philippine island of Luzon, especially in the provinces of Cagayan, Metro Manila, and Pangasinan, specifically the Lingayen area. In 1580, however, a ragtag group of pirates forced the natives of Cagayan into submission. These raiders were called Wokou. In response, the Governor-General of the PhilippinesGonzalo Ronquillo commissioned Juan Pablo de Carrión, hidalgo and a captain of the Spanish navy, to deal with the piracy. Ronquillo wrote to King Philip II on 16 June 1582: Carrión took the initiative and shelled a Wokou ship, possibly of Chinese manufacture, in the South China Sea, removing it from action. A retaliation came from Tay Fusa, who sailed toward the Philippine archipelago with a fleet.
Opposing forces
The Wokou fleet was composed of one junk and 18 sampans. Although their numbers were composed of Japanese, Chinese, and Philippine raiders, the name of their leader suggests the Japanese led their fleet. Spanish sources record it as Tay Fusa, which does not correspond to a Japanese name but could be a transliteration of Taifu-sama, with taifu being a word for a Japanese medieval chieftain, also pronounced as tāi-hu in Hokkien Chinese, or dàfū in MandarinStandard Chinese. They carried not only bladed weapons, but also muskets, which had been provided by the Portuguese. To counter this, Carrión gathered forty soldiers and seven boats: five small support vessels, a light ship, and a galley, with their respective crews. 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. The low accuracy of Japanese muskets was also reported during the Japanese invasions of Korea and in the early 1580s.
Battle
As they passed the Bogueador cape, the Spanish flotilla encountered a heavy Wokou sampan. It had recently arrived at the coast and its sailors were abusing the native population. Carrión, although outnumbered by the Wokou, engaged in naval battle with the sampan, eventually boarding it. The Spanish rodeleros then encountered armored Japanese Wokou wielding swords. Though initially successful, the Spanish soldiers were repelled back to their own ship, whose deck became a battlefield. Eventually the Spanish turned the battle again in their favor by improvising a parapet with Spanish pikemen at front and arquebusiers 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 of them drowning due to the weight of their armor. The Spanish had suffered their first casualties, among them the galley's captain Pero Lucas. The flotilla continued down the Cagayán River, finding a fleet of eighteen sampans and a Wokou fort erected inland. The Spanish fleet forced their way through using artillery and disembarked onshore. They dug in, assembling the artillery unloaded from the galley in the trenches, and continually bombarded the pirates. The Wokou decided to negotiate a surrender and Carrión ordered them to leave Luzon. The pirates asked for gold in compensation for the losses they would suffer if they left, which was denied outright by Carrión. After this, the Wokou decided to attack by land with a force of some six hundred strong. The Spanish trenches, manned by both 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 in order to make them difficult to grasp. The Spanish were running low on gun powder 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. They then plundered the Wokou weapons left on the battlefield, which included katanas and armor, and kept them as trophies.
Aftermath
With the region pacified, and the arrival of reinforcements, Carrión founded the city ofNueva Segovia. Pirate activity was sparse afterwards, 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 in Lingayen Bay, in Pangasinan, on the port of Agoo and consisted principally of deerskin trade.
