Battle of Macau
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Macau in 1622 was a conflict of the Dutch-Portuguese War
fought in the Portuguese settlement of Macau
, in southeastern China. The Portuguese, outnumbered and without adequate fortification, managed to repel the Dutch in a much-celebrated victory on June 24 after a three-day battle. To date, the battle remains the only major engagement that was fought between two European powers on the Chinese mainland.
mandarin
s to establish a permanent settlement and trade base in Macau in 1557, the port of Macau benefited greatly from being the intermediary of the lucrative China-Japan trade, since the direct routes were banned by the Ming court due to fears of Japanese pirates. Portugal's success in Macau drew the envy of other European maritime powers who were slower to set a foothold in the Far East. When Philip II of Spain
became King of Portugal after the 1580 Portuguese succession crisis, Portuguese colonies came under attack from Spain's enemies, especially the Dutch and the English, who were also hoping to expand their overseas empires. Prior to 1622, Macau had already sustained Dutch raids in 1601, 1603, and 1607, but the Dutch invasion of 1622 represented the first real attempt to capture the city. The Hollanders, frustrated that their trading post at Hirado was unable to compete with the Portuguese traders at Nagasaki
due to the latter's easy access with China, hoped that the capture of Macau would grant them a commercial base in China while at the same time deprive the Portuguese of the profitable Macau-Nagasaki route. The fall of Macau would also leave the Spaniards in the Philippines
without means of support and make it easier for the Dutch to mount an attack on Manila
.
Despite the raids, the Portuguese authorities were unable to raise an extensive defensive system for the city due to interference from Chinese officials. The means of defense that Macau had at the time were limited to a few batteries
: one at the west end of the Macau Peninsula
(later site of the São Thiago da Barra fortress), one at each end of the southern bay of Praia Grande (São Francisco on the east and Bom Parto on the west), and the half-completed Fortaleza do Monte
overlooking the Cathedral of St. Paul. The sorry state of Macau's defenses were made known to the Hollanders when the Dutch ship Gallias seized a Portuguese ship carrying a case of letters off the coast of Malaya
at the end of 1621. Judging by these intercepted letters and information available from Japan, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies
Jan Pieterszoon Coen
considered that Macau was not in a position to resist a serious attack, and set his invasion plan in motion.
At Batavia, headquarters of the Dutch East India Company
(VOC), Coen organized an initial fleet of eight ships for the expedition to Macau, with orders that any Dutch vessel encountered along the way were to be incorporated into the invasion fleet. The soldiers that composited the landing force were specifically selected, and even among the crew there were fewer lascars and Malays than usual as it had been customary for Europeans to carry locals for navigation. Coen was so satisfied with the fleet that when he wrote to the VOC directors at The Hague
he expressed regret for not being able to lead "so magnificent an expedition" in person. The VOC directors did not share Coen's enthusiasm in this venture, citing that they have enough wars at the time, and ordered Coen to wait until they can make a more informed decision; however, the fleet, under the command of Cornelis Reijersen, had already left Batavia on April 10th, 1622 before the order was sent.
The ultimate goal of the expedition was to establish a Dutch base of operations on the China coast and force the Chinese to trade with them, so Reijersen was given the option not to attack Macau, but was to form fortifications on the Pescadores
regardless. On June 8th the fleet sailed into Cam Ranh Bay
for firewood and water, where it incorporated four Dutch ships encountered off the coast of Indochina
and detached a ship with dispatches for William Janszoon, admiral of the Anglo-Dutch Fleet of Defence blockading
Manila. So when the fleet set sail again from Cam Ranh Bay two days later, the fleet was composed of eleven ships. A few days later, the fleet encountered a Siamese war junk
carrying 28 Siamese and 20 Japanese people. The Japanese asked to join the Dutch expedition, and their request was granted. The landing force now amounted to about six hundred, with some Japanese, Malays, and Banda
nese among the numbers.
Coen had previously ordered Admiral Janszoon to detach a few ships from the Manila blockade to join Reijersen's fleet, and surely enough, two Dutch and two English vessels waited outside Macau since May 29th. The four ships had tried to disrupt Macau's sea traffic while waiting for the invasion fleet to arrive, but they were not successful in capturing any Portuguese prize
since Macau's leader at the time, Captain-Major
of the Japan Voyage Lopo Sarmento de Carvalho, had hurriedly fitted seven junks with guns to provide escort. The invasion fleet arrived in sight of Macau on June 21st and rendezvoused with the four friendly ships there. According to Coen's directives, the English were free to join in maritime operations but were not allowed to take part in the landing or take any share of the spoils of victory. As a result, the English captains refused to commit their ships for the attack. Now Reijersen had thirteen ships under his command for the attack on Macau, totaling 1300 men, including a landing force of 800.
In the night of June 22nd, Reijersen sent ashore a scouting party of three men and a Chinese guide to see if the Chinese residents of the city would remain neutral. They soon returned after finding the Chinese had fled the city ahead of the invasion. In the following morning Reijersen himself boarded a launch
with some senior officers to scout for a suitable landing site, and it was decided that the invading army would make their landing on the eastern Cacilhas Beach the next day. To distract the defenders from the intended landing site, three ships – Groeningen, Gallias, and Engelsche Beer – started to bombard the São Franciso battery in the south on June 23rd. After an afternoon of cannon volleys and insults (where Dutch seamen threatened to rape Macau's women after killing all men above twenty), the ships withdrew for the night without inflicting any casualties on the Portuguese side. Nonetheless, the Dutch celebrated their expected victory in advance by blowing their trumpets and beating their drums all night. Not to be outdone, the Portuguese retaliated with similar martial festivities in the city's bulwarks. For the Portuguese, the Dutch fleet came at a time when most of Macau's citizens were in Canton
to buy goods for the annual Japan trade; so in addition from the inadequate fortifications, Macau suffered from a shortage of fighting men – Portuguese records estimate that there were only 50 musketeer
s and 100 residents capable of bearing arms. Lopo Sarmento de Carvalho fully understood that the Dutch would make their landing the next day, so he spent the night inspecting the fortifications and rallying the spirits of his men to fight to the last.
The Dutch ships Groeningen and Gallias resumed their attack on São Francisco at daybreak the very next day, the Feast-day of St. John the Baptist
. The Portuguese gunners at the bastion responded with such ferocity that the Gallias became so badly damaged she had to be scuttled
a few weeks later. At approximately two hours after sunrise, the landing party of 800 set off for Cacilhas Beach while São Francisco was being bombarded. The amphibious assault included 32 launches equipped with swivel gun
s and 5 barge
s, supported by the gunfire from two ships. Also, a barrel of damp gunpowder was fired into the wind so that the Dutch could land under the cover of smoke in what has been suggested as one of first recorded instance of the tactical use of a smoke screen. About 150 Portuguese musketeers entrenched at the beach under the command of António Rodrigues Cavalhino gave some initial resistance by shooting into the smoke, killing 40 men and wounding Admiral Reijersen in the belly, taking him out of action. Captain Hans Ruffijn succeeded command of the landing force and speedily overran the entrenchment, forcing Cavalhino to pull back, after which the rest of the landing force disembarked without opposition. The beachhead
now secure, Ruffijn left two companies
at the beach as rear-guard and advanced into the city with 600 men, fighting skirmishes with Cavalhino's retreating men along the way.
The Dutchmen marched toward the centre of the city in orderly fashion until they entered the artillery range of the Fortaleza do Monte, whereby they suffered heavy bombardment. When the invaders passed by a small spring called Fontinha where local women used to wash their laundry, the Jesuit priest Padre Jerónimo Rho fired a cannon-shot from the Fortaleza do Monte which landed on a barrel of gunpowder in the midst of the Dutch formation, devastating many in the ensuing explosion. The shot changed the tempo of battle, as the Dutch commanders halted the advance into the city centre after the unexpected turn of events to deliberate their next course of action. They decided to climb the Guia Hill, upon which a hermitage
was situated, to get a better view of the enemy, but their ascent was resisted by a party of 30 Macaonese and blacks, whose ferocity and effective use of terrain forced the Dutch to back down and change their plans again. Not expecting such stiff resistance, the true meager numbers of which were still unknown to the Dutch, the invaders moved toward a patch of high ground near the Guia Hill, with the intention of retreating for the day due to soldier fatigue and low ammunitions (since most were lost to the explosion).
By then it was apparent that the main Dutch force was attacking from the east and the bombardment on São Francisco was just a feint
, so the commander of the São Thiago garrison sent off 50 men under Captain João Soares Vivas to aid the inland defense. As soon as the Portuguese realized the Dutch intentions, the defenders gathered for the counterattack and occupied the high ground ahead of the Dutch. With the Iberian battle cry
"Santiago!
", Lopo Sarmento de Carvalho signaled the counterattack, and the combined strengths of the Portuguese defenders, Macaonese citizens, Dominican
friars, Jesuit priests, and black slaves alike poured themselves onto the enemy, compelled the Dutchmen to flee. Captain Hans Ruffijn urged his countrymen to stand fast, but he was killed in the fighting as the Dutch retreat turned into a rout. The onset of the "drunken negro slaves" in particular, sparing no one as they beheaded all Dutchmen they came across in the name of John the Baptist
, greatly demoralized the Hollanders. One black woman was even compared to the legendary baker-woman of Aljubarrota by a contemporary Jesuit for her incredible skill with a halberd during the battle. However, the Dutch got some reprieve in the pursuit when the slaves abandoned the chase to plunder the dead. When the fleeing Dutchmen reached the Cacilhas Beach, the two rear-guard companies who were supposed to cover the retreat panicked and fled to the boats without firing a shot. The panic among the Dutch landing party was so complete that the Dutch ships had to push off into deeper water to avoid being overturned by the fugitives, causing many of them to drown or be shot by the Portuguese in the sea. The next day, Admiral Reijersen sent ashore a flag of truce to negotiate the release of prisoners. The negotiation was in vain, and the dejected Dutch fleet soon left Macau waters to head for the Pescadores.
suggests that the actual death toll might well be around three hundred if the Bandanese and Japanese dead were counted. Casualties among Dutch officers were especially serious, as seven captains, four lieutenant
s, and seven ensign
s were lost in the battle. In addition to the loss of personnel, the Dutch also lost all their cannons, flags, and equipment. In comparison, the Portuguese deaths only numbered at four Portuguese, two Spanards, and a few slaves; about twenty were wounded. At Batavia, Jan Pieterszoon Coen was extremely bitter about the outcome of the battle, writing "in this shameful manner we lost most of our best men in this fleet together with most of the weapons."
As for the Portuguese defense, Coen had this to say: "The Portuguese beat us off from Macao with their slaves; it was not done with any soldiers, for there are none in Macao. [...] See how the enemy thus holds his possessions so cheaply whilst we squander ourselves". He also said "The slaves of the Portuguese at Macao served them so well and faithfully, that it was they who defeated and drove away our people there last year", and "Our people saw very few Portuguese" during the battle. Coen would from there on advocate for the employment of slaves for warfare in preference to Dutch soldiers. While the Portuguese didn't give the blacks sole credit for the victory, they nonetheless appreciated the bravery shown by the slaves so much that many slaves were freed on the battlefield immediately after the victory. When minor Chinese officials took the heads of the slain Dutchmen to Canton as proof of Portuguese service in defending Chinese territory, they apparently relayed stories of the blacks' bravery as well, causing the impressed Provincial Admiral (海道副使; referred in European sources as haitao) to send a gift of 200 piculs of rice to be distributed among them.
After the attempted Dutch invasion, the Portuguese authorities in Goa
realized the importance of having a permanent paramount figure of authority in Macau, and began sending a proper governor to Macau in 1623. Before, this small town was administered by the Captain-Major of the Japan Voyage, a position that was auctioned off in the Lisbon
court to the highest bidder annually and not expected to govern Macau after he had left for Japan. With the new arrangement, the Captain-Major's authority was limited to the merchant fleet to Japan, and lost all privileges he might have had in Macau to the Governor of Macau
. The first governor Dom Francisco Mascarenhas, under orders from Goa, enhanced the fortifications to defend from a repetition of the Dutch attack, having bribed the Guangdong
provincial authorities to turn a blind eye to the constructions.
Later in 1622, when the Dutch fleet arrived in the Pescadores, the place that Coen believed to be better than Macau in a strategic viewpoint, Admiral Reijersen carried out Coen's orders to indiscriminately attack Chinese ships to coerce the Chinese authorities into allowing trade. It was hoped that if this harassment campaign succeeded, the Pescadores might supplant Macau and Manila as a silk entrepôt
for the Japan market. However, the opposite effect was achieved as the Chinese started to regard the Hollanders as pirates and murderers because of these raids and the attack on Macau, and hence refused to do trade with them. It wasn't until 1624 when the Dutch complied with Chinese demands to abandon the Pescadores for Formosa
that the Chinese began to consider the Dutch offer for trade. In the two years in between, Macau naturally reaped the benefits of trade from the bad press that the Dutch brought upon themselves.
arrived in Macau in 1637, he described a children's dance which depicted a "battaille betweene the Portugalls and the Dutch... where the Dutch were overcome, butt withoutt any reproachfull speeche or Disgracefull action to thatt Nation." In 1871, a monument of the battle was erected in the Victory Garden
. Also, after the victory, the residents of Macao began to celebrate on June 24 as the City Day to commemorate the victory. This day was a public holiday on the Macau Peninsula
and was observed every year until the handover of Macau to China in 1999.
Dutch-Portuguese War
The Dutch–Portuguese War was an armed conflict involving Dutch forces, in the form of the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, against the Portuguese Empire. Beginning in 1602, the conflict primarily involved the Dutch companies invading Portuguese colonies in the Americas,...
fought in the Portuguese settlement of Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
, in southeastern China. The Portuguese, outnumbered and without adequate fortification, managed to repel the Dutch in a much-celebrated victory on June 24 after a three-day battle. To date, the battle remains the only major engagement that was fought between two European powers on the Chinese mainland.
Background
Ever since the Portuguese managed to gain permission from the Ming ChineseMing Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
mandarin
Mandarin (bureaucrat)
A mandarin was a bureaucrat in imperial China, and also in the monarchist days of Vietnam where the system of Imperial examinations and scholar-bureaucrats was adopted under Chinese influence.-History and use of the term:...
s to establish a permanent settlement and trade base in Macau in 1557, the port of Macau benefited greatly from being the intermediary of the lucrative China-Japan trade, since the direct routes were banned by the Ming court due to fears of Japanese pirates. Portugal's success in Macau drew the envy of other European maritime powers who were slower to set a foothold in the Far East. When Philip II of Spain
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
became King of Portugal after the 1580 Portuguese succession crisis, Portuguese colonies came under attack from Spain's enemies, especially the Dutch and the English, who were also hoping to expand their overseas empires. Prior to 1622, Macau had already sustained Dutch raids in 1601, 1603, and 1607, but the Dutch invasion of 1622 represented the first real attempt to capture the city. The Hollanders, frustrated that their trading post at Hirado was unable to compete with the Portuguese traders at Nagasaki
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...
due to the latter's easy access with China, hoped that the capture of Macau would grant them a commercial base in China while at the same time deprive the Portuguese of the profitable Macau-Nagasaki route. The fall of Macau would also leave the Spaniards in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
without means of support and make it easier for the Dutch to mount an attack on Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
.
Despite the raids, the Portuguese authorities were unable to raise an extensive defensive system for the city due to interference from Chinese officials. The means of defense that Macau had at the time were limited to a few batteries
Artillery battery
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...
: one at the west end of the Macau Peninsula
Macau Peninsula
Macau Peninsula is the oldest and most populous part of Macau. It has an area of 8.5 km² and is geographically connected to Guandong province, at the northeast, through an isthmus 200-metre wide. The peninsula, together with the city centre of Zhuhai, sits on an island separated from the...
(later site of the São Thiago da Barra fortress), one at each end of the southern bay of Praia Grande (São Francisco on the east and Bom Parto on the west), and the half-completed Fortaleza do Monte
Fortaleza do Monte
Fortaleza do Monte is the historical military centre of the former Portuguese colony of Macau, in the People's Republic of China...
overlooking the Cathedral of St. Paul. The sorry state of Macau's defenses were made known to the Hollanders when the Dutch ship Gallias seized a Portuguese ship carrying a case of letters off the coast of Malaya
Malay Peninsula
The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...
at the end of 1621. Judging by these intercepted letters and information available from Japan, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies
Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies
The Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies represented the Dutch rule in the Dutch East Indies between 1610 and Dutch recognition of the independence of Indonesia in 1949.The first Governors-General were appointed by the Dutch East India Company...
Jan Pieterszoon Coen
Jan Pieterszoon Coen
Jan Pieterszoon Coen was a officer of the Dutch East India Company in the early seventeenth century, holding two terms as its Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies....
considered that Macau was not in a position to resist a serious attack, and set his invasion plan in motion.
The expedition to Macau
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
(VOC), Coen organized an initial fleet of eight ships for the expedition to Macau, with orders that any Dutch vessel encountered along the way were to be incorporated into the invasion fleet. The soldiers that composited the landing force were specifically selected, and even among the crew there were fewer lascars and Malays than usual as it had been customary for Europeans to carry locals for navigation. Coen was so satisfied with the fleet that when he wrote to the VOC directors at The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
he expressed regret for not being able to lead "so magnificent an expedition" in person. The VOC directors did not share Coen's enthusiasm in this venture, citing that they have enough wars at the time, and ordered Coen to wait until they can make a more informed decision; however, the fleet, under the command of Cornelis Reijersen, had already left Batavia on April 10th, 1622 before the order was sent.
The ultimate goal of the expedition was to establish a Dutch base of operations on the China coast and force the Chinese to trade with them, so Reijersen was given the option not to attack Macau, but was to form fortifications on the Pescadores
Pescadores
The Penghu Islands, also known as Pescadores are an archipelago off the western coast of Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait consisting of 90 small islands and islets covering an area of 141 square kilometers....
regardless. On June 8th the fleet sailed into Cam Ranh Bay
Cam Ranh Bay
Cam Ranh Bay is a deep-water bay in Vietnam in the province of Khánh Hòa. It is located at an inlet of the South China Sea situated on the southeastern coast of Vietnam, between Phan Rang and Nha Trang, approximately 290 kilometers / 180 miles northeast of Hồ Chí Minh City / Saigon.Cam Ranh is...
for firewood and water, where it incorporated four Dutch ships encountered off the coast of Indochina
Indochina
The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
and detached a ship with dispatches for William Janszoon, admiral of the Anglo-Dutch Fleet of Defence blockading
Blockade
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...
Manila. So when the fleet set sail again from Cam Ranh Bay two days later, the fleet was composed of eleven ships. A few days later, the fleet encountered a Siamese war junk
Junk (ship)
A junk is an ancient Chinese sailing vessel design still in use today. Junks were developed during the Han Dynasty and were used as sea-going vessels as early as the 2nd century AD. They evolved in the later dynasties, and were used throughout Asia for extensive ocean voyages...
carrying 28 Siamese and 20 Japanese people. The Japanese asked to join the Dutch expedition, and their request was granted. The landing force now amounted to about six hundred, with some Japanese, Malays, and Banda
Banda Islands
The Banda Islands are a volcanic group of ten small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, about south of Seram Island and about east of Java, and are part of the Indonesian province of Maluku. The main town and administrative centre is Bandanaira, located on the island of the same name. They rise...
nese among the numbers.
Coen had previously ordered Admiral Janszoon to detach a few ships from the Manila blockade to join Reijersen's fleet, and surely enough, two Dutch and two English vessels waited outside Macau since May 29th. The four ships had tried to disrupt Macau's sea traffic while waiting for the invasion fleet to arrive, but they were not successful in capturing any Portuguese prize
Prize (law)
Prize is a term used in admiralty law to refer to equipment, vehicles, vessels, and cargo captured during armed conflict. The most common use of prize in this sense is the capture of an enemy ship and its cargo as a prize of war. In the past, it was common that the capturing force would be allotted...
since Macau's leader at the time, Captain-Major
Captain-major
Captain-major is the English rendering of the Portuguese title Capitão-mor for colonial officers, put in charge of a capitania, Portuguese possession deemed not important enough to have its own colonial Governor.Due to the impossibility of exercising direct control and sovereignty over islands,...
of the Japan Voyage Lopo Sarmento de Carvalho, had hurriedly fitted seven junks with guns to provide escort. The invasion fleet arrived in sight of Macau on June 21st and rendezvoused with the four friendly ships there. According to Coen's directives, the English were free to join in maritime operations but were not allowed to take part in the landing or take any share of the spoils of victory. As a result, the English captains refused to commit their ships for the attack. Now Reijersen had thirteen ships under his command for the attack on Macau, totaling 1300 men, including a landing force of 800.
| Ship | Tonnage | Complement | Captain | | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Zierickzee (flagshipFlagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag... ) |
800 | 221 | Cornelis Reijersen | Initial squadron |
| Groeningen |
700 | 192 | William Bontekoe | Initial squadron |
| Oudt Delft |
700 | 196 | Andriessen | Initial squadron, dispatched to Manila |
| Enchuizen |
500 | 165 | D. Pietersen | Initial squadron |
| de Gallias |
220 | 91 | D. Floris | Initial squadron |
| de Engelsche Beer |
– | 96 | L. Nanning | Initial squadron |
| St. Nicholas |
– | 40 | J. Constant | Initial squadron |
| Paliacatta |
– | 23 | J. Jacobsen | Initial squadron |
| Haan |
– | – | – | Incorporated in Indochina |
| Tiger |
– | – | – | Incorporated in Indochina |
| Victoria |
– | – | – | Incorporated in Indochina |
| Santa Cruz |
– | – | – | Incorporated in Indochina |
| Trouw |
– | – | – | Detached from Manila |
| Hoop |
– | – | – | Detached from Manila |
.svg.png) Palsgrave |
– | – | – | Detached from Manila; did not participate in attack on Macau |
| Bull |
– | – | – | Detached from Manila; did not participate in attack on Macau |
Battle
Launch (boat)
A launch in contemporary usage refers to a large motorboat. The name originally referred to the largest boat carried by a warship. The etymology of the word is given as Portuguese lancha "barge", from Malay lancha, lancharan, "boat," from lanchar "velocity without effort," "action of gliding...
with some senior officers to scout for a suitable landing site, and it was decided that the invading army would make their landing on the eastern Cacilhas Beach the next day. To distract the defenders from the intended landing site, three ships – Groeningen, Gallias, and Engelsche Beer – started to bombard the São Franciso battery in the south on June 23rd. After an afternoon of cannon volleys and insults (where Dutch seamen threatened to rape Macau's women after killing all men above twenty), the ships withdrew for the night without inflicting any casualties on the Portuguese side. Nonetheless, the Dutch celebrated their expected victory in advance by blowing their trumpets and beating their drums all night. Not to be outdone, the Portuguese retaliated with similar martial festivities in the city's bulwarks. For the Portuguese, the Dutch fleet came at a time when most of Macau's citizens were in Canton
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
to buy goods for the annual Japan trade; so in addition from the inadequate fortifications, Macau suffered from a shortage of fighting men – Portuguese records estimate that there were only 50 musketeer
Musketeer
A musketeer was an early modern type of infantry soldier equipped with a musket. Musketeers were an important part of early modern armies, particularly in Europe. They sometimes could fight on horseback, like a dragoon or a cavalryman...
s and 100 residents capable of bearing arms. Lopo Sarmento de Carvalho fully understood that the Dutch would make their landing the next day, so he spent the night inspecting the fortifications and rallying the spirits of his men to fight to the last.
The Dutch ships Groeningen and Gallias resumed their attack on São Francisco at daybreak the very next day, the Feast-day of St. John the Baptist
Nativity of St. John the Baptist
The Nativity of St. John the Baptist is a Christian feast day celebrating the birth of John the Baptist, a prophet who foretold the coming of the Messiah in the person of Jesus and who baptized Jesus.-Significance:Christians have long interpreted the life of John the Baptist as a preparation for...
. The Portuguese gunners at the bastion responded with such ferocity that the Gallias became so badly damaged she had to be scuttled
Scuttling
Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull.This can be achieved in several ways—valves or hatches can be opened to the sea, or holes may be ripped into the hull with brute force or with explosives...
a few weeks later. At approximately two hours after sunrise, the landing party of 800 set off for Cacilhas Beach while São Francisco was being bombarded. The amphibious assault included 32 launches equipped with swivel gun
Swivel gun
The term swivel gun usually refers to a small cannon, mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun with two barrels that rotated along their axes to allow the shooter to...
s and 5 barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
s, supported by the gunfire from two ships. Also, a barrel of damp gunpowder was fired into the wind so that the Dutch could land under the cover of smoke in what has been suggested as one of first recorded instance of the tactical use of a smoke screen. About 150 Portuguese musketeers entrenched at the beach under the command of António Rodrigues Cavalhino gave some initial resistance by shooting into the smoke, killing 40 men and wounding Admiral Reijersen in the belly, taking him out of action. Captain Hans Ruffijn succeeded command of the landing force and speedily overran the entrenchment, forcing Cavalhino to pull back, after which the rest of the landing force disembarked without opposition. The beachhead
Beachhead
Beachhead is a military term used to describe the line created when a unit reaches a beach, and begins to defend that area of beach, while other reinforcements help out, until a unit large enough to begin advancing has arrived. It is sometimes used interchangeably with Bridgehead and Lodgement...
now secure, Ruffijn left two companies
Company (military unit)
A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–225 soldiers and usually commanded by a Captain, Major or Commandant. Most companies are formed of three to five platoons although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure...
at the beach as rear-guard and advanced into the city with 600 men, fighting skirmishes with Cavalhino's retreating men along the way.
The Dutchmen marched toward the centre of the city in orderly fashion until they entered the artillery range of the Fortaleza do Monte, whereby they suffered heavy bombardment. When the invaders passed by a small spring called Fontinha where local women used to wash their laundry, the Jesuit priest Padre Jerónimo Rho fired a cannon-shot from the Fortaleza do Monte which landed on a barrel of gunpowder in the midst of the Dutch formation, devastating many in the ensuing explosion. The shot changed the tempo of battle, as the Dutch commanders halted the advance into the city centre after the unexpected turn of events to deliberate their next course of action. They decided to climb the Guia Hill, upon which a hermitage
Hermitage (religious retreat)
Although today's meaning is usually a place where a hermit lives in seclusion from the world, hermitage was more commonly used to mean a settlement where a person or a group of people lived religiously, in seclusion.-Western Christian Tradition:...
was situated, to get a better view of the enemy, but their ascent was resisted by a party of 30 Macaonese and blacks, whose ferocity and effective use of terrain forced the Dutch to back down and change their plans again. Not expecting such stiff resistance, the true meager numbers of which were still unknown to the Dutch, the invaders moved toward a patch of high ground near the Guia Hill, with the intention of retreating for the day due to soldier fatigue and low ammunitions (since most were lost to the explosion).
By then it was apparent that the main Dutch force was attacking from the east and the bombardment on São Francisco was just a feint
Feint
Feint is a French term that entered English from the discipline of fencing. Feints are maneuvers designed to distract or mislead, done by giving the impression that a certain maneuver will take place, while in fact another, or even none, will...
, so the commander of the São Thiago garrison sent off 50 men under Captain João Soares Vivas to aid the inland defense. As soon as the Portuguese realized the Dutch intentions, the defenders gathered for the counterattack and occupied the high ground ahead of the Dutch. With the Iberian battle cry
Battle cry
A battle cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same military unit.Battle cries are not necessarily articulate, although they often aim to invoke patriotic or religious sentiment....
"Santiago!
Santiago!
Santiago! , was a war cry of Spanish troops during the Reconquista, and of the Spanish Empire....
", Lopo Sarmento de Carvalho signaled the counterattack, and the combined strengths of the Portuguese defenders, Macaonese citizens, Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
friars, Jesuit priests, and black slaves alike poured themselves onto the enemy, compelled the Dutchmen to flee. Captain Hans Ruffijn urged his countrymen to stand fast, but he was killed in the fighting as the Dutch retreat turned into a rout. The onset of the "drunken negro slaves" in particular, sparing no one as they beheaded all Dutchmen they came across in the name of John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
, greatly demoralized the Hollanders. One black woman was even compared to the legendary baker-woman of Aljubarrota by a contemporary Jesuit for her incredible skill with a halberd during the battle. However, the Dutch got some reprieve in the pursuit when the slaves abandoned the chase to plunder the dead. When the fleeing Dutchmen reached the Cacilhas Beach, the two rear-guard companies who were supposed to cover the retreat panicked and fled to the boats without firing a shot. The panic among the Dutch landing party was so complete that the Dutch ships had to push off into deeper water to avoid being overturned by the fugitives, causing many of them to drown or be shot by the Portuguese in the sea. The next day, Admiral Reijersen sent ashore a flag of truce to negotiate the release of prisoners. The negotiation was in vain, and the dejected Dutch fleet soon left Macau waters to head for the Pescadores.
Aftermath
The battle was the most decisive victory the Portuguese ever dealt to the Hollanders in the Far East, as the losses of the invaders far outweigh those of the defenders. The lowest Portuguese estimate claims they had killed over three hundred of their enemies on that day, while most Portuguese cite six or eight hundred as the total number killed. The official Dutch tally lists the number of deaths at 136 and wounded at 126, without taking the Bandanese and Japanese mercenaries into account. Historian C. R. BoxerC. R. Boxer
Charles Ralph Boxer FBA was a distinguished historian of Dutch and Portuguese maritime and colonial history.-Education and Military Career:...
suggests that the actual death toll might well be around three hundred if the Bandanese and Japanese dead were counted. Casualties among Dutch officers were especially serious, as seven captains, four lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
s, and seven ensign
Ensign (rank)
Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....
s were lost in the battle. In addition to the loss of personnel, the Dutch also lost all their cannons, flags, and equipment. In comparison, the Portuguese deaths only numbered at four Portuguese, two Spanards, and a few slaves; about twenty were wounded. At Batavia, Jan Pieterszoon Coen was extremely bitter about the outcome of the battle, writing "in this shameful manner we lost most of our best men in this fleet together with most of the weapons."
As for the Portuguese defense, Coen had this to say: "The Portuguese beat us off from Macao with their slaves; it was not done with any soldiers, for there are none in Macao. [...] See how the enemy thus holds his possessions so cheaply whilst we squander ourselves". He also said "The slaves of the Portuguese at Macao served them so well and faithfully, that it was they who defeated and drove away our people there last year", and "Our people saw very few Portuguese" during the battle. Coen would from there on advocate for the employment of slaves for warfare in preference to Dutch soldiers. While the Portuguese didn't give the blacks sole credit for the victory, they nonetheless appreciated the bravery shown by the slaves so much that many slaves were freed on the battlefield immediately after the victory. When minor Chinese officials took the heads of the slain Dutchmen to Canton as proof of Portuguese service in defending Chinese territory, they apparently relayed stories of the blacks' bravery as well, causing the impressed Provincial Admiral (海道副使; referred in European sources as haitao) to send a gift of 200 piculs of rice to be distributed among them.
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
realized the importance of having a permanent paramount figure of authority in Macau, and began sending a proper governor to Macau in 1623. Before, this small town was administered by the Captain-Major of the Japan Voyage, a position that was auctioned off in the Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
court to the highest bidder annually and not expected to govern Macau after he had left for Japan. With the new arrangement, the Captain-Major's authority was limited to the merchant fleet to Japan, and lost all privileges he might have had in Macau to the Governor of Macau
Governor of Macau
The Governor of Macau was a Portuguese colonial official who headed the colony of Macau, before 1623 called Captain-major . The post was replaced on December 20, 1999 upon the transfer of administration to the People's Republic of China by the office of the Chief Executive of the Macau Special...
. The first governor Dom Francisco Mascarenhas, under orders from Goa, enhanced the fortifications to defend from a repetition of the Dutch attack, having bribed the Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
provincial authorities to turn a blind eye to the constructions.
Later in 1622, when the Dutch fleet arrived in the Pescadores, the place that Coen believed to be better than Macau in a strategic viewpoint, Admiral Reijersen carried out Coen's orders to indiscriminately attack Chinese ships to coerce the Chinese authorities into allowing trade. It was hoped that if this harassment campaign succeeded, the Pescadores might supplant Macau and Manila as a silk entrepôt
Entrepôt
An entrepôt is a trading post where merchandise can be imported and exported without paying import duties, often at a profit. This profit is possible because of trade conditions, for example, the reluctance of ships to travel the entire length of a long trading route, and selling to the entrepôt...
for the Japan market. However, the opposite effect was achieved as the Chinese started to regard the Hollanders as pirates and murderers because of these raids and the attack on Macau, and hence refused to do trade with them. It wasn't until 1624 when the Dutch complied with Chinese demands to abandon the Pescadores for Formosa
Formosa
Formosa or Ilha Formosa is a Portuguese historical name for Taiwan , literally meaning, "Beautiful Island". The term may also refer to:-Places:* Formosa Strait, another name for the Taiwan Strait...
that the Chinese began to consider the Dutch offer for trade. In the two years in between, Macau naturally reaped the benefits of trade from the bad press that the Dutch brought upon themselves.
Commemoration
Being a great victory for the Portuguese in Macau, the battle was commemorated in a number of ways. When the English traveler Peter MundyPeter Mundy
-Life:He came from Penryn in Cornwall. In 1609 he accompanied his father to Rouen, and was then sent to Gascony to learn French. In May 1611 he went as a cabin-boy in a merchant ship, and gradually rose in life until he became of independent circumstances....
arrived in Macau in 1637, he described a children's dance which depicted a "battaille betweene the Portugalls and the Dutch... where the Dutch were overcome, butt withoutt any reproachfull speeche or Disgracefull action to thatt Nation." In 1871, a monument of the battle was erected in the Victory Garden
Victory Garden, Macau
Victory Garden is a park in Macau commemorating the victory by the Portuguese over the Dutch in 1622.The park features a statute commemorating the historic event, a tree, benches and flowers that line the pathways from Avenida de Sidónio Pais.-References:...
. Also, after the victory, the residents of Macao began to celebrate on June 24 as the City Day to commemorate the victory. This day was a public holiday on the Macau Peninsula
Public holidays in Macau
The following is a list of the public holidays in Macau , as set by the Ordem Executiva nº 60/2000 .- See also :* Traditional Chinese holidays* Public holidays in Hong Kong...
and was observed every year until the handover of Macau to China in 1999.