Elizabethan sea dog Sir Francis Drake undertook an unauthorised privateering expedition to the Spanish Main, in what is now the western and southern Caribbean, in 1572 and 1573, driven by the exorbitant success of his prior visit in 1571. The English sea captain embarked from Plymouth in May 1572, and returned in August 1573, laden with treasure worth some £20,000 or more, most of it secured during a joint ambush, with French corsair Guillaume Le Testu and Cimarron chief Pedro Mandingo, of the Spanish silver train as it crossed the isthmus along the Camino Real to Nombre de Dios in April 1573. The voyage was mainly spent on the shores and waters of the Main, though, rather than upcountry, as the pirates most often went about raiding coastal settlements and seizing merchant vessels, from as far east as Curaçao, off Spanish Venezuela, to as far west and north as either the Mosquito Shore (in Veragua) or Bonacca (off Spanish Honduras). The undertaking cost Drake more than half his crew, largely due to some tropical disease, including his brothers John and Joseph Drake. It also resulted in the death of Le Testu, and in Spanish retaliation against the Cimarrons near Panama.
This voyage is deemed a precursor to hostilities of the subsequent Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604. It is considered Drake's first independent excursion by specialist historian Irene A. Wright, and thought to have involved a couple of English firsts, such as the first sighting of the South Sea by any Englishman, and the earliest cruise in Honduran waters by any English pirate.
Background
In 1571, Francis Drake returned to Plymouth after what American historian Irene A. Wright reckons was the sea dog's voyage to the West Indies. This trip proved wildly successful for Drake and his crew, profiting them over £100,000 (worth some £23.82 million today), a good portion of which may have been in plunder from Nombre de Dios, whose capture Wright suspects had been the primary objective. Naturally, the captain made haste in making preparations for a return (sixth) expedition to the Caribbean. He was soon joined by his brothers John and Joseph Drake, and eventually they had acquired, outfitted and manned the light ships Pascha and Swan for their crossing.
Expedition
In 1572, the Pascha and Swan embarked from Plymouth in late May, and sighted southern Dominica on 29 June. Being in some need of provisions, Drake took a day or two to water the ships here, and on 1 July set course for their intended destination, a small secluded cove in the Darien Gap, some 35 leagues across the gulf from Tolu, known to the captain as Port Pheasant and identified in literature as Zapzurro Cove. They made landfall here in eleven days, and were next joined by James Raunce (in his barque of 30 crew) on 13 July.
Nombre de Dios, 1572
At Port Pheasant, Drake and Raunce's first order of business was to assemble the former's small pinnaces Lion, Bear and Minion (brought in dismantled kits from Plymouth), and to erect a rude log fort.
On 20 July, with the fort and pinnaces completed, the Drake–Raunce flotilla set sail for Isla de Pinos, off the port of Nombre de Dios, where they sighted and seized two Spanish frigates. The frigates' (enslaved) sailors brought the privateers up to date with fresh intelligence regarding the said port, whereupon Drake (with 53 of his men aboard the three pinnaces) and Raunce (with 20 of his men aboard a Spanish prize shallop) carried on to Nombre de Dios, making landfall in the evening of 29 July.
At 3:00 am that night, the men stole into the Spanish port on rowboats, but were soon discovered by a 60-ton Spanish merchantman in the harbour. The privateers, nonetheless, managed a quiet landing, and took the town's six-gun battery without opposition. They now began dismounting its ordnance, but raised a bit more ruckus than expected, and thereby roused some of the closer Spanish vecinos. At this point, the Spanish rang their warning bells and beat their war drums, jolting all vecinos to Nombre de Dios's defence, whereupon Drake and Raunce split their company. A dozen men were left on shore to guard their retreat, whilst the rest carried on to the villa's plaza, where John Oxenham and 16 others were to surreptitously circle behind it as Drake and Raunce led the rest (46 men) in a boisterous parade up the main thoroughfare to the plaza. The latter were there greeted by armed vecinos who opposed them with "a jolly hot volley of shot", but the Spanish were eventually defeated and scattered. Drake and Raunce, then, captured Nombre de Dios and set out to plunder it (the treasury, in particular), but a sudden rainstorm drenched the men's match and powder, whilst at the same time, Drake fainted from loss of blood, having sustained a gunshot during the earlier Spanish volley. Consequently, the privateers rather made a hasty retreat to Bastimentos, a nearby island to the north-east, at daybreak on 30 July.
Spanish Main, 1572 Drake was still recuperating from the said skirmish in Bastimentos by 6 August, when Raunce took his leave. As he was in fighting shape within the week, the captain (with his 73 men, including Oxenham) now set out to the Spanish Main, and sighted Carthagena on the evening of 13 August. That night, they commandeered the Pasha, a 240-ton Spanish merchantman, and followed this by seizing two other Spanish merchant ships the next day. As the crew were now stretched thin across two ships, three pinnaces, and three Spanish prizes, Drake burnt one of the prizes, and scuttled the Swan.
Shortly thereafter, the flotilla anchored in the Gulf of San Blas, just off a point christened Port Plenty by Drake. The men disembarked and set up camp here. From this base, the privateers spent the next five or six weeks raiding settlements along the Main, as far east as Santa Marta, just across the bay from the Magdalena River, whilst John Drake endeavoured to befriend the nearby Cimarrons.
By 24 September, John had secured an alliance with the Cimarrons, so Drake now relocated their camp to some undetermined site nearby, likewise dubbed Port Plenty, and spent the next two weeks fortifying it. On 7 October, the privateers were once more cruising off Carthagena. On 17 October, Oxenham and the Swan seized a 50-ton Spanish barque, marooning her crew of ten men and five slaves. On 20 October, the privateers intercepted two Spanish merchants (58 and 12 tons), and likewise stranded their crews. Drake was first opposed on the dawn of 22 October, when Carthagenan authorities finally sent two armed frigates to engage and capture him. The Spanish engaged the privateers but, in the end, could not corner their vessels nor capture the crewmen. Drake nonetheless quit Carthagena on 3 November, and set off due north-east to the Magdalena, to restock their now-dangerously dwindling provisions.
The privateers reached the Magdalena on 5 November, but soon discovered that its settlements had been deserted and the livestock driven inland (Spanish authorities having forwarned the vecinos). They carried on east to Santa Marta, arriving within a week. Here, they also found the Spanish at the ready for them, as they were prevented from watering by hidden marksmen on shore. On 12 November, the Englishmen captured a 90-ton Spanish supply ship laden with victuals, and held the crew for one day. They next set for Curaçao, landing there on 13 November. A couple of days later, Drake sent Oxenham (on the Minion) ahead to Port Plenty, to advise the men left behind of his imminent return, while he scoured the Main on his own pinnace and Spanish prize. Having refreshed themselves for a few days, Drake now renewed his raids along the Main, while the Minion arrived at home base.
Drake followed Oxenham to Port Plenty within the fortnight. Upon his 27 November arrival, he discovered his brother John had died. Drake now decided to postpone further raids, so as to renew his efforts upon the Spanish treasure train the coming year. His remaining brother, Joseph, succumbed to a fatal tropical fever that December.
Venta Cruces, 1573
On 30 January, having been apprised of the Spanish plate fleet's arrival by Cimarron allies, the Lion was despatched to reconnoitre the shipping off Nombre de Dios, during which cruise she intercepted a Spanish frigate in the harbour, whose crew confirmed the Cimarrons' intelligence. Consequently, on 3 February, Drake and Oxenham (with 16 Englishmen) and chief Pedro Mandingo (with 30 Cimarron men) trudged south through the hills and jungle of the Chagres Highlands, across the isthmus to the South Sea port of Panama, so as to intercept the treasure train expected to soon head out due north of there, via either the Camino Real or Las Cruces Trail. On 14 February, the party finally sighted Panama, whereupon a Cimarron in disguise slipped into the city, returning that evening with news of the impending arrival of a 14-mule train from Lima, bound for Nombre de Dios via Venta Cruces. With the route thus confirmed, Drake now headed to the Las Cruces Trail, hoping to ambush the train as it approached the Chagres River, but an unrelated Spanish traveller on the trail soon discovered the trap (upon coming across a drunken crewman, Robert Pike) and warned the authorities, who naturally stalled the train. The privateers nonetheless managed to seize a few Spanish silver-loaded mules, after which they made a hasty retreat to Venta Cruces, which they easily occupied for some time. They returned to Port Plenty on 22 February.
Veragua, 1573
Undaunted by the unexpected shortfall in treasure, Drake determined to supplement their booty by cruising off Veragua (aboard the Minion) from late February, desisting only on 19 March, after having seized a Spanish frigate and pressed her Genoese pilot. In the meantime, Oxenham (in the Bear) set out on his own cruise from Port Plenty, during which he hijacked a well-provisioned Spanish frigate out of Tolu. He returned to camp by 21 March, at which point their third pinnace (the Lion) had to be scuttled "for lack of men".
Sometime that February, an unidentified group of 13 Englishmen (on a small frigate) seized four Spanish merchant frigates off the Desaguadero, at the mouth of the San Juan River. They were later heard of landing a frigate, pinnace and skiff at Bonacca, in the afternoon of Holy Thursday, to which island they were brought by a Portuguese (Antonio Vaez) and two Spanish men. By the time Truxillo's authorities despatched 40 soldiers (on a small ship) to capture the pirates, the latter had already departed, reportedly "steering a northerly course", though the English had apparently threatened to pillage Golfo Dulce (west of Bonacca). Wright reckons that this party may very well have been Drake's or Oxenham's.
Whatever the case, Drake and Oxenham were back in Port Plenty by 22 March, when they celebrated Easter in their home base. On Easter Monday, Drake ventured out, aboard his Spanish prize and the Bear. On 25 March, they chanced upon Guillaume Le Testu (and his 70 men aboard the Havre, an 80-ton ship), who agreed to consort with Drake and the Cimarrons for a renewed attempt at finally seizing all of the Spanish silver train.
Nombre de Dios, 1573