The Pirates of Cagayan
In the 16th Century, a group of pirates called Wokuo terrorized the Asian seas and coastlines. Some historical narratives suggest that a Wokuo settlement once stood on the northern tip of the Island of Luzon. According to the report of Fray Gaspar de San Agustin, the pirate lord of this settlement, whom he calls Tayfuza, terrorized the seas of Japan, Korea, China, and Tonkin, and had ambitions to take more land in Luzon. In response to this pirate problem, the Spanish government assembled a force under the command of Juan Pablo de Carrión.
[The Spanish governor]... had a strong galley prepared, with fourteen brigantines and seventy-six chosen Spaniards, in addition to forty who were to come from Ilocos Province and Villa Fernandina.
The Japanese and Spanish forces clashed in the Cagayan Battles of 1582. Spanish soldiers and Japanese rōnin fought aboard sea vessels and on land, besieging forts and mounting surprise attacks against each other. Gaspar de San Agustin wrote that after a failed attack by the Japanese on a Spanish camp, the Japanese fled, and de Carrión declared victory.
The submission of the Cagayan Valley would soon begin. Some natives of the land sided with Spain. Whereas others resisted or fled the mountains. The town of Nueva Segovia would become a settlement for the natives who submitted to Spanish laws and converted to the Catholic religion.