Note 8 — RELATION OF THE PHILIPINAS ISLANDS

About thirty leguas farther on from that Villa Fernandina and past the cape called Boxeador and in a latitude of nineteen degrees lies the province and river of Cagayan. It is a very large province and very densely populated and exceedingly well supplied with rice, cotton,8 very large fowls, deer, buffaloes, and a great quantity of wax. The shore of that river which is called Tajo is very large. About two leguas from the sea is settled the city of [Nueva] Segovia. It was colonized by Captain Juan Pablo de Carrion by order of Governor Don Gonçalo Ronquillo. That river is about eighty leguas distant from China, less rather than more. Inasmuch as it is so near, and also because it contains so many people and is so rich and well supplied with food, the effort has been made often to completely subdue it and settle it, but that effort has not as yet been successful. I believe the cause is the few Spaniards and the few religious that can enter it at one time. That land is very fitting for commerce with China as that country is so near, and has excellent rivers for galleys and ships. One can cross to China in one and one-half days, and the mainland of China is often reached at night. In the month of March of the year 82, Captain Juan Pablo de Carrion went to colonize that province, and since then many more people than before live there.9 When he reached that place he found a fleet of Japanese pirates who desired to settle there and had taken possession of the river. Passing through their midst without receiving any harm, he went up higher on the river and with the greatest haste made a sort of fort from an old galley that he had, in which he mounted his artillery as well as possible. The Japanese general wrote him a letter, in which he said that he knew well that they were robbers like himself, but that he was there first, and had come at his king’s command; consequently, if Carrion wished him to go away and leave him the river he was to give him a large sum of gold. The captain replied to him that he came only to protect the natives and to take from the Japanese the gold that they had seized from them and drive them out of the country. When the Japanese found that nothing would be given them, more than six hundred men came one morning at dawn to attack the fort, armed with excellent muskets and weapons. Our men numbered about eighty but they were defended by their small fort of old stakes. A great number of the Japanese were killed while not more than one of our men was killed, and it is even said that he was killed by accident by those who were inside the fort. When the Japanese saw how evilly the day was going for them and tasted of the skill of the Spaniards, they determined to retreat, and leave not only the fort, but also our men and return to their country. I was told by Father Francisco Cabral,10 of the Society of Jesus, who was then provincial in Japon, that he had talked with them and that they were afraid of the Spaniards, and said that such people [as the Spaniards] had never been seen. They were astonished above all else at the rapidity and skill with which the Spaniards discharged their weapons. Surely they had good reason to be afraid, for I believe that there is now no better soldiery than that of the Philipinas, especially the arquebusiers. The people of the province cf Cagayam resemble those of Ylocos. They are very vile, and poorly dressed, but are fine husbandmen. Christianity has not entered there to any extent, but there are some fathers there. They have begun to build churches although the land is not entirely quiet. It will be pacified soon, our Lord willing, as in the other parts, especially if there are priests to send.