Cagayan Battles of 1582: Debunking the Hoax

Cagayan Battles of 1582: Debunking the Hoax 

A picture taken from the Spanish comics "Las Espadas Del Fin Mundo" depicting the fictitious battle.

Before starting to write anything about the Cagayan battle, I would like to make a premise:
I'm not really a fan of the kind of debates you could find on the internet about hypothetical battles, deadliest warrior scenarios or something like that.
Honestly, I find the entertainment value of such discussions healthy only when they are educated and based on logic, historical accuracy and knowledge of the topic people want to discuss.
However, the average quality of these debates is usually extremely low: people make their arguments based on wrong pop culture stereotypes and "fanboyism", which turn the whole discussion very quickly into a toxic one, where people just insult each other.

In my Blog here you will never find anything similar; this project was born with the purpose to create a place on the internet where people who couldn't speak Japanese or doesn't know where to look, could access to references of Japanese military history related content. You could use these information for everything you want to.
If I made a comparison with some European military history element, it is to allow an easier understanding since the majority of people who come here ( I assume) have some knowledge on that field, not because I want to depict the Japanese version of said element looking better. I hope that this would be clear for the reader that want to approach this article.

So, back to the topic; this article was a request from a reader, and it is a recollection of a series of analysis I have made on the subject.
If you type Cagayan Battle/s on the internet, you get access to a series of questionable articles (including a Wikipedia page full of citation needed brackets!) that describe the event more or less like this:

"The 1582 Cagayan battles was a series of clashes between Spanish colonizers of the Philippines and Wokou (Japanese pirates). Also, it is the only recorded combat involving European regular soldiers and Samurai warriors. This unique battle pitted  musketeers, pikemen and Spanish rodeleros against mostly Japanese and Chinese merchants, fishermen, rōnin, and soldiers.
Only 40 Spanish soldiers were able to defeat 1000 Samurai in an epic last stand at Cagayan."

Let me tell you that something like the things written above NEVER REALLY HAPPENED.

However, it is fair to notice that we have historical references of this episode, and they will be discussed here. There are two letters that deal with the episode, and they are very different from each other, beside showing some signs of contradictions, logical fallacies and wildly inaccurate statements.
Both letters are available inside the "The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, Volume V., 1582-1583".

A fraction of a 16th century map of South East Asia, partially including the Philippines, done by Gerard Mercator.

The First Letter - Written by Juan Baptista Roman, June 25th 1582

(Here the original letter translated, with highlighted text made by me);

"Most Illustrious and Excellent Sir:

I do not know whether the letters with new information which the governor is writing today will arrive in time to go on this ship, which has been despatched to this port of Acabite; so I wish to give your Excellency notice of what is going on. Yesterday—St. John’s Day—in the afternoon, there arrived six soldiers who had gone with Captain Juan Pablo de Carrion against the Japanese, who are settled on the river Cagayan.
They say that Juan Pablo sailed with his fleet—which comprised the ship “Sant Jusepe,” the admiral’s galley, and five fragatas—from the port of Bigan, situated in Ylocos, about thirty-five days’ journey from Cagayan. 

As he sailed out, he encountered a Chinese pirate, who very soon surrendered. He put seventeen soldiers aboard of her and continued his course. While rounding Cape Borgador near Cagayan one fair morning at dawn, they found themselves near a Japanese ship, which Juan Pablo engaged with the admiral’s galley in which he himself was.
With his artillery he shot away their mainmast and killed several men.
The Japanese put out grappling-irons and poured two hundred men aboard the galley, armed with pikes and breastplates. There remained sixty arquebusiers firing at our men. 
Finally, the enemy conquered the galley as far as the mainmast. There our people also made a stand in their extreme necessity, and made the Japanese retreat to their ship. They dropped their grappling-irons, and set their foresail, which still remained to them. At this moment the ship “Sant Jusepe” grappled with them, and with the artillery and forces of the ship overcame the Japanese; the latter fought valiantly until only eighteen remained, who gave themselves up, exhausted. Some men on the galley were killed, and among them its captain, Pero Lucas, fighting valiantly as a good soldier.

Then the captain, Juan Pablo, ascended the Cagayan River, and found in the opening a fort and eleven Japanese ships. He passed along the upper shore because the mouth of the river is a league in width. The ship “Sant Jusepe” was entering the river, and it happened by bad fortune that some of our soldiers, who were in a small fragata, called out to the captain, saying to him: “Return, return to Manila! Set the whole fleet to return, because there are a thousand Japanese on the river with a great deal of artillery, and we are few.”
Whereupon Captain Luys de Callejo directed his course seaward; and although Juan Pablos fired a piece of artillery he did not and could not enter, and continued to tack back and forth.

In the morning he anchored in a bay, where such a tempest overtook them that it broke three cables out of four that he had, and one used for weighing anchor. He sent these six men in a small vessel to see if there was on an islet any water, of which they were in great need.
The men lost their way, without finding any water; and when they returned where they had left their ship they could not find it. They met with some of those Indians who were in the galley with Juan Pablos, from whom it was learned that Juan Pablo had ascended the river two leagues and had fortified himself in a bay; and that with him was the galley, which had begun to leak everywhere, in the engagement with the Japanese.

The Indian crew was discharged on account of not having the supplies which were lost on the galley. Most of these men went aboard the “Sant Jusepe.”
They said that the Japanese were attacking them with eighteen champans, which are like skiffs. They were defending themselves well although there were but sixty soldiers with the seamen, and there were a thousand of the enemy, of a race at once valorous and skilful.
The six soldiers came with this news, and on the way they met a sailor who had escaped from a Sangley ship which had sailed from here, with supplies of rice for Juan Pablo. He says that the Sangleys mutinied at midnight and killed ten soldiers who were going with it as an escort, who had no sentinel. This one escaped by swimming, with the aid of a lance that was hurled at him from the ship.
Moreover, I have just detained some passengers 
who were going on this ship, because there are no troops on these islands, and a hundred soldiers have to go immediately as a reenforcement, although the weather is tempestuous. I expect to be one of them, if the governor will give me permission.
These enemies, who have in truth remained here, are a warlike people; and if your Excellency do not provide by this ship, and reenforce us with a thousand soldiers, these islands can be of little value. May your Excellency with great prudence provide what is most necessary for his Majesty’s service, since we have no resource other than the favor your Excellency shall order to be extended to us.
The governor was disposed to send assistance to the ship, which was a very important affair; but after these events he will not be able to do it, because there do not remain in this city seventy men who can bear arms. May our Lord guard the most illustrious and excellent person of your Excellency and increase your estate, as your Excellency’s servants desire. From Cabite, June 25, 1582. Most excellent and illustrious sir, your servant kisses your Excellency’s hands.
Juan Baptista Roman"


After reading this passage, there are many things that I have to point out.

The Source itself:
The episode was described on a letter wrote by Juan Baptista Roman, based on the account of six indians whom were sent to look for water and didn't partecipate the main battle but heard the story by some other indians soldiers whom were presumably on the ship.
It is a source 3 times away from the original event, and it was clearly modified to fit an "heroic" narrative of the battle. Most importantly, there are no accounts of the Japanese pirates, or any other neutral commentator so we can only read one side of the story. These are details that have to be considered when judging the accuracy of a historical document.

The Japanese Pirates:I could write an entire article dedicated to the Wakō (倭寇) also known as Wokou, the Japanese pirates, but I don't have to; luckily, Great Ming Military has already a very well made and detailed series about them that you could see here, which I suggest you the read it before continuing with this article of mine.

The first thing that has to be said about them, is the fact that they weren't strictly Japanese, and that the majority of them was not Japanese. It is hard to establish with accuracy how many were Japanese, but it is very likely that the majority of Japanese people who fight inside Wakō ranks were located near Japan; and Cagayan is one of the farthest location that saw the arrival of these raids.
Most importantly, although the Wakō raids of the 1540s-1560s that hit China were somewhat related to some minor Japanese clans like the Matsura clan (松浦), the official involvement of any Japanese clan by the 1580s was over.
In the account we cannot read any mention of Rōnin, Samurai or anything resembling a professional army made by professional warriors.
They had spears, arquebuses and breastplates, but this is a totally different story from a Japanese army of the same period. In addition to that, it is not specified if those gears were Japanese or not.

So to sum it up, there were no Samurai in that battle, and is very likely that there were a very few amount of Japanese people too among said pirates.

A depiction of a Wokou band, from the "Wakō-zukan" (倭寇図巻).

The Battles and the Factions:
Let's talk a little about the numbers and the two battle.
We could read through the letter that the Spanish sent a fleet, made by one galley and five "fragatas". 
A Galley of the period was easily able to carry about 190 rowers and around 80 to 100 soldiers. This is a big deal, since the usual reference of these battles is that there were only 40 soldiers which is simply impossible given the dimension of the whole fleet (beside, it contradict the original source, which mentions 60 men instead of 40 - and again, it is impossible for a galley to be manned with only 60 men on board).
A Fregate of the period had also a crew of 90 men, with an additional 70 to 220 soldiers on board, and there were five of them.
So in that fleet there were a lot of people, something in between 1000 to 1750 men in the whole fleet. If anything, they were unlikely to be outnumbered by the enemy.

A 16th century depiction of Spanish Galleons, also known as Kurofune in Japanese (黒船).

The first battle saw a Japanese pirate ship against the galley, although it is very unlikely that the other five Spanish ships weren't able to give some support in the fight, but let's assume that only the galley was involved.
Here we find another problem; the Japanese listed there were 200.
What is interesting is the fact that the largest Japanese warship of the period, the Atakebune (安宅船), which also had artillery, had a maximum crew capacity of 140 soldiers.
Beside, the pirates didn't have access to such ships, but they used instead small Chinese Junks or Japanese Kenminsen ships; both have a maximum crew capacity of 70 to 100 soldiers, and were not war ships.

Not even with the largest Japanese boat of the period they would have been able to carry 200 fighting men.
In the first skirmish, both factions were likely have been equally strong in terms of number ( assuming that the other 5 ships were too far away to engage in the battle), and yet managed to "fight valiantly", "kill some men" and were able to "damaged the main galley", as we read from the letter. Moreover, if the whole fleet engaged in the battle, as it was very likely, the pirates would have been severely outnumbered.

A section of the "Wakō-zukan" (倭寇図巻) depicting Japanese pirates and their usual ships - taken from Great Ming Military.

Then we also have a brief long distance encounter, where the Japanese didn't engaged and the Spanish didn't dare to approach the fortifications.

Finally, we came to the famous last stand, where we have the biggest exaggerations.
It is not specified if the other five boats engaged too in the battle, since only the galley was mentioned, although I find it unlikely that the fleet decided to split up in such a situation.
In any case, we read that the Galley, which was leaking everywhere due to the previous engagement (and possibly due to a storm), faced 18 Sampan, which were like skiffs. As mentioned above, the Galley here had 60 (and not 40!) soldiers, which again is fairly impossible (where was the entirety of the crew?), while the Japanese were 1000 men.
Here we have another problem: a Sampan, which the same source specified being similar to a skiff, was a very small boat of 3 to 5 meters.
There were presumably 1000 men, on board of 18 ships of 3 to 5 meters.
Which means roughly 56 men per boat, in a space in between 3 to 5 meters.

This is simply impossible and pretty much illogical to claim.The average number these boats were able to carry was 8-10 men, so instead of 1000, the pirates here would have been 140-180 men. Again, in any case the Japanese would have been lightly outnumbered in this scenario too, if we assume that the average crew size of a galley was in between 200 and 250 men.

Another section of the  "Wakō-zukan" (倭寇図巻) depicting Ming soldiers fighting Wokou pirates; on the right, you could see the dimensions of the Sampan boats, which were indeed like skiffs.

Even if we take the account as it is, it is just impossible that 60 men would have been able to defeat 1000, given the fact that both factions had access to firearms and artillery and especially if we consider that the galley was not in perfect condition, as we read through the letter.
Funnily enough, there are no details of the battles, which is something you could find quite easily online. No pike formations, no katana vs rapier or such. But most importantly, it is not specified whether or not the Spanish managed to survive.



The tone of the letter:
The whole purpose of this letter is to ask for serious reinforcements since, in a way or another, the Spanish fleet suffered heavy casualties and most of the fleet's ships were gone (presumably).
The letter talks about these Pirates as "a race at once valorous and skillful", "warlike people" and says that "they fought valiantly"; if the account is to be believed, so that merely 60 soldiers were able to defeat 200 pirates and then 1000 in two separated engagements, these terms don't fit at all and the reinforcements would have not been needed given the bad performance of the pirates.
However, this whole contradiction seems to be a facade to cover the below average performance of the Spanish against the pirates while reclaiming new troops and resources to deal again with the problem.

The Second Letter - Written (presumably) by Don Gonzalo Rounquillo De Peñalosa, July 1st 1582

"Royal Catholic Majesty:

By this ship, which is to leave these islands on the last of June of this year, I am giving your Majesty a full account of the condition of affairs and events in this region. As it was about to sail news came of the fleet—which, I wrote among other things, I had despatched to effect a settlement in Cagayan—and of the punishment and resistance of the Japanese pirates, of whose coming we had news this year.

The fleet sent by me, as above stated, met two vessels of the enemy near Cagayan, one of Japanese and the other of Sangleys; an engagement ensued, and those vessels surrendered after a fierce fight, in which two hundred Japanese, among them the commander of the fleet and his son, were killed, while we lost only three soldiers.
Juan Pablo de Carrion, whom I sent as my lieutenant-general in charge of this fleet, continued his journey, and entered the Cagayan River, where he was to make a settlement.
At the entrance of the river he found six more Japanese vessels belonging to the fleet of those which had surrendered. There was also a goodly number of people there, and fortifications. On account of his lack of men—a severe storm having driven out to sea the flagship, which he took on this expedition—he did not sack these forts, but attempted only to enter the river. This he did, going up about six leagues, where he made a settlement in a place where he could erect a fort, whence he could direct offensive and defensive warfare against the enemy.

This news came yesterday; and with all possible despatch I am sending reënforcements, boats, ammunition, and the provisions necessary. I considered it so needful to employ the soldiers for this purpose, because too small a force remains to me for the aid of Maluco, as I have written, since that undertaking is so important. However if they send from that place to beg aid, I shall give it with what forces I can. For I suffer a great lack of men and other things because no reënforcements have been sent me from Nueva España, although I have implored them. This land suffers from a constant and pressing need of reënforcements, on account not only of its unhealthful climate, but of the many emergencies which continually arise when I must send aid.

These occasions now are not so much a matter of jest as they have been hitherto; for the Chinese and Japanese are not Indians, but people as valiant as many of the inhabitants of Berberia [Barbary], and even more so. I entreat your Majesty to give careful attention to this, and to order that in all vessels as many men as possible be sent; for it is the key to what is necessary for the preservation of this camp. I beg also that careful attention be given in the other things.

The gratuity for the expenses incurred in these necessary undertakings and for others similar to them, which are thrusting themselves forward every moment—which was provided by your Majesty’s auditors of your royal Audiencia of Mexico in the 
ship arriving at this bay on the twenty-fourth of last month, consisted of a decree and warrant in which they order that Doctor Sande be paid here for the time while he remained here after my arrival, and until his arrival at Mexico. For this purpose they set aside in their decree the tributes which belong to your Majesty, and order that they be attached for this and sent to them—threatening me with imprisonment if I do not comply. I have written to your Majesty already of the poor state of your treasury here and its many pressing necessities, and of the extreme difficulty experienced in raising the amount needful for the same. Will your Majesty please take suitable action in this? for without the aid of what little resources your Majesty possesses here, this colony cannot be preserved. May our Lord guard the Catholic and royal person of your Majesty for mary prosperous years, and give you increase of many kingdoms and seigniories for the good of Christianity. Manila, July first, 82."


This letter, which was written after the first one, deal with the same episode but in a different light.

Another picture taken from the comics "Las Espadas Del Fin Mundo" depicting the "fairy tale" version of the story.

The Source itself:
This letter was based on news that have came from the fleet, which might be more reliable than the previous ones, since they weren't transmitted (presumably) by various people.
Interestingly enough, these news arrived 6 days after the date of the previous letter written by Juan Baptista Roman.


The Battle and the Contradictions with the previous letter:

The same fleet in this version of the story, met two pirates vessels at the same time, a Japanese and a Sangely one, not just one  Japanese vessel after a very brief encounter with a Chinese ship like in the previous story.
Again, it is not specified how many Spanish were on board, but it gives the number of the Japanese pirates as 200. I've already explained how this is not possible on the average Wokou ship, but it might be possible if the account is giving the number of pirates present on both ships, the one of the Sangleys and the Japanese one - in this case however, they would have not been all Japanese (why writing about the Sangelys then?), and the Japanese would have been even less than in the previous account for the reasons I have already explained.

What I find odd is the fact that the letter talks about a fierce fight, while saying that they only lost 3 men and defeating 200 pirates. It might be possible but I find it very unlikely, mainly because the pirates were supposed to have firearms as well, and it also contradicts the previous versions were "some men died", and although the number is not specified, in my humble opinion "some men" is a higher number than 3.

Then we have others contradictions; the galley in this version of the story was destroyed by the storm, and the Japanese settlement had 6 ships instead of 11, as well as a fortification of some sort. In both cases, the Spanish didn't engage.
And here we have the biggest difference among the two letters; unlike in the previous version, the Spanish organized a settlement without the galley, and didn't face the second famous battle against the overwhelming Japanese pirates.
Given the fact that this account arrived 5 days after the previous one, it is very likely that such heroic battle didn't happen at all. 

What I also find odd and contradictory is the fact that the letter says about the Japanese: " for the Chinese and Japanese are not Indians, but people as valiant as many of the inhabitants of Berberia [Barbary], and even more so" which again doesn't fit the narrative of the Spanish defeating 200 Japanese pirates while only losing 3 men.
Even in this case, we do not know how it ended, if the Spanish managed to survive or not; there are no more letters that talk about the episode.


The tone of the Letter:
What these letters have in common is the fact that both are asking for reinforcements in order to deal with the Japanese pirates. Even in this case we could assume that the situation is quite desperate, and that the Spanish for some unknown reasons, beside the storm, lost most of their men in these encounters.



Conclusion 

So after this very long analysis of original sources, I hope that this even has been cleaned by all the fabrications that thrived online.
The Spanish soldiers, although very well disciplined and equipped, were not superhumans able to defeat an overwhelming force, and the Wokou were not an ideal representation of a Japanese Samurai of the period.
There are no real detailed account of the battles, they aren't given in any serious historical document dealing with that, and said letter are inherently flawed and contradictory with each other.

If you want to use this article to trying to get that infamous Wikipedia page down, please feel free to share it and spread the value of historical accuracy over boorish fanboyism.
For any questions, feel free to leave a comment if you want to!

Gunbai