Editing Francis Drake (section)

==Early career at sea==
At an early age, Drake was placed into the household of a relative, sea-captain [[William Hawkins (died 1589)|William Hawkins]] of Plymouth, and began his seagoing training as an apprentice on Hawkins' boats.{{sfn|Loades|2007}} By 18, he was a [[purser]], according to the English chronicler [[Edmund Howes]],{{sfn|Kelsey|2000|p=11}} and in the 1550s, Drake's father found the young man a position with the owner and master of a small [[barque]], one of the small traders plying between the Medway River and the Dutch coast. Drake likely engaged in commerce along the coast of England, the Low Countries and France.{{sfnp|Sugden|2006|pages=8–9}} The ship's master was so satisfied with the young Drake's conduct that, being unmarried and childless at his death, he bequeathed the barque to Drake.<ref name="Best2021">{{cite book |last1=Best |first1=Brian |title=Elizabeth's Sea Dogs and their War Against Spain |date=2021 |publisher=Frontline Books |isbn=978-1526782885 |page=45 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qv0hEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA45}}</ref>

===Slave trade===
[[File:Thomas Cavendish (1560-92), Sir Francis Drake (1540?-96) and Sir John Hawkins (1532-95) RMG BHC2603.tiff|thumb|[[John Hawkins (naval commander)|Sir John Hawkins]] (left) with Sir Francis Drake (centre) and Sir [[Thomas Cavendish]]]]

In 1562, the West African slave trade was a duopoly dominated by the Portuguese and the Spanish. [[John Hawkins (naval commander)|Sir John Hawkins]] devised a plan to break into that trade, and enlisted the aid of colleagues and family to finance his first slave voyage. Drake was not part of that group of financiers,{{sfn|Whitfield|2004|p=20}} though his presence as one of hundreds of seamen on Hawkins's first two slaving voyages has been assumed.{{sfn|Whitfield|2004|p=21}} There is some anecdotal evidence to support Drake serving as a common seaman on the first two voyages, and good evidence of his presence for the last two of four slaving voyages made by Hawkins' ships between 1562 and 1569.{{sfn|Loades|2007}}{{sfn|Whitfield|2004|p=17}}<ref name="RoyalMuseumsGreenwich2023">{{cite web |author=<!--Not stated-->|title=John Hawkins {{!}} Admiral, Privateer, Slave Trader |url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/john-hawkins-admiral-privateer-slave-trader |website=www.rmg.co.uk |publisher=Royal Museums Greenwich |access-date=19 February 2023}}</ref>

[[File:AnthonyRoll-6 Jesus of Lübeck.jpg|thumb|''[[Jesus of Lübeck]]'', flagship of Sir John Hawkins]]

In 1562, Hawkins sailed to the coast of the Sierra Leone, seized Portuguese slave ships, and sold the Africans in the Spanish Indies.<ref name="Sauer1975">{{cite book|first=Carl Ortwin |last=Sauer|title=Sixteenth Century North America: The Land and the People as Seen by the Europeans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EWXU6sjN9ZUC&pg=PA235|year=1975|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0520027770|page=235}}</ref> It was highly profitable, so for his second slave voyage in 1564, Hawkins gained Queen Elizabeth I's support. She lent him one of her ships, ''[[Jesus of Lübeck]]'', which served as his flagship.<ref name="Bradford2014">{{cite book |last1=Bradford |first1=Ernle |title=Drake: England's Greatest Seafarer |year=2014 |publisher=Open Road Media |isbn=978-1497617155 |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bbAfAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT22}}</ref> Hawkins attacked an African native town and sold many of its inhabitants in Spanish ports on the Caribbean mainland, making another large profit for himself, the Queen and the consortium of investors from her court.{{sfn|Whitfield|2004|p=21}}<ref name="Sauer1975"/> Sources vary on the dates and the age of Drake at the time;{{sfn|Whitfield|2004|p=13}} Harry Kelsey says he was twenty years old, "[a]ccording to Howes" (in reference to the English chronicler Edmund Howes writing in 1615).{{sfn|Kelsey|2000|pp=11–13}} Drake was not a member of that consortium, but the crew would have received a small share of the profits.{{sfnp|Sugden|2006 |page=9}}{{sfn|Kelsey|2000|p=43}} Based on this association, scholar [[Kris Lane]] lists Drake as one of the first English slave traders.{{sfn|Lane|2015 |p=29}}

The Spanish and Portuguese were aggrieved that the English had entered into the slave trade and were selling slaves to their colonies despite being forbidden from doing so. Queen Elizabeth I, under pressure to avoid an armed conflict, forbade Hawkins from going to sea for a third slave voyage. In response, he set up a slave voyage with a relative, [[John Lovell (slave trader)|John Lovell]], in command in 1566.{{sfn|Whitfield|2004 |p=21}} Drake accompanied Lovell on this voyage.{{sfn|Whitfield |2004 |p=21}} The voyage was unsuccessful, as more than 90 enslaved Africans were released without payment.{{sfnp|Sugden|2006|pages=19–22}}

In 1567, Drake accompanied Hawkins on their next and last joint voyage.<ref>{{cite book|first=Anthony|last=Benezet|author-link = Anthony Benezet|title=Some historical account of Guinea, : its situation, produce, and the general disposition of its inhabitants, with an inquiry into the rise and progress of the slave trade, its nature and lamentable effects|year=1788|page=49|place=London|publisher=J. Phillips|url=https://archive.org/details/somehistoricalac1788bene/page/n6}}</ref> The crew attempted to capture slaves around [[Cape Verde]], but failed. Hawkins allied himself with two local kings in [[Sierra Leone]] who asked for help against their enemies in exchange for half of any captives they took. Attacking from both sides, they took several hundred prisoners, though Kelsey says the kings kept "the larger share of slaves and dared Hawkins to do anything about it".{{sfn|Kelsey|2000|p=32}}

Events worsened for the fleet as it faced storms, Spanish hostility, armed conflict, and finally a hurricane that separated one ship from the rest, and it had to find its own way home.{{sfn|Whitfield|2004|p=22}} The remaining ships were forced into the port of [[San Juan de Ulúa]] near [[Veracruz (city)|Vera Cruz]] so they could make repairs. Soon afterward the newly appointed viceroy of New Spain, [[Martín Enríquez de Almanza]], arrived with a fleet of ships. While still negotiating to resupply and repair, Hawkins' ships were attacked by the Spanish ships in what became known as the [[Battle of San Juan de Ulúa (1568)|Battle of San Juan de Ulúa]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Strickrodt |first1=Silke |title=The British Transatlantic Slave Trade (4 vols.) |journal=The English Historical Review |date=1 February 2006 |volume=CXXI |issue=490 |pages=226–230 |doi=10.1093/ehr/cej026 }}</ref> The battle ended in an English defeat with all but two of the English ships lost. The Spanish launched a fireship against Hawkins' flagship ''Jesus of Lübeck'', and the crew of ''Minion'' in panic and fear cut the lines securing them to ''Jesus''. Hawkins was among those who jumped from the flagship's bulwarks to ''Minion'''s decks.<ref name="Childs2009">{{cite book |last1=Childs |first1=David |title=Tudor Sea Power: The Foundation of Greatness |year=2009 |publisher=Seaforth Publishing |isbn=978-1848320314 |page=83 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qe_RAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA83}}</ref> Drake, by this time the captain of ''Judith'', fled leaving Hawkins behind. Hawkins escaped on ''Minion'' and limped back to England with dozens of his men dying along the way,{{sfn|Sugden|2012|p=37}} and arriving with a crew of just 15.<ref name="RobertsRobertsBisson2016">{{cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=Clayton |last2=Roberts |first2=F. David |last3=Bisson |first3=Douglas |title=A History of England, Volume 1: Prehistory to 1714 |year=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1315510002 |page=175 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C4uTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA175 |language=en}}</ref> Hundreds of English seamen were abandoned.{{sfn|Sugden|2012|p=36}}

After arriving back in England, Hawkins accused Drake of desertion and of stealing the treasure they had accumulated. Drake denied both accusations asserting he had distributed all profits among the crew and that he had believed Hawkins was lost when he left.{{sfn|Kelsey|2000|p=43}}{{sfn|Whitfield|2004|p=24}} The bitter end of the fourth voyage turned Drake's life in a different direction: thereafter he would not pursue trading and slaving but would, instead, dedicate himself to attacking Spanish possessions wherever he found them.{{sfn|Whitfield|2004|p=25}} Drake's hostility towards the Spanish is said to have started with the battle and its aftermath.<ref name="Sims2022">{{cite book |last1=Sims |first1=Jennifer E. |title=Decision Advantage: Intelligence in International Politics from the Spanish Armada to Cyberwar |chapter-url=https://academic.oup.com/book/44620/chapter-abstract/378612109 |year=2022 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197508046.003.0003 |chapter=Gaining Decision Advantage in the Anglo-Spanish War |pages=51–C3.P124 |isbn= 978-0197508077 |quote=Hawkins's motives, like Drake's, went back to that Spanish deceit in the Mexican port of San Juan de Ulúa.}}</ref>

The voyage of 1567–1569 was Drake's last association with slaving. In total, approximately 1,200 Africans were enslaved on these four voyages,<ref name="Morgan2007">{{cite ODNB |last1=Morgan |first1=Basil |title=Hawkins, Sir John (1532–1595), merchant and naval commander |date=4 October 2007 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/12672 |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-12672}}</ref> and an estimated three times as many Africans were killed (based on the contemporaneous accounts of slavers).<ref name="RoyalMuseumsGreenwich2023" /> On the issue of slaving, scholar John Sugden writes that "Drake was in his twenties and did not question what his elders accepted", but must share some culpability for his participation.{{sfn|Sugden|2006|p=26}}

===Expedition of 1572–1573===

{{main article|Francis Drake's expedition of 1572–1573}}

In 1572, Drake embarked on his first major independent enterprise. He planned an attack on the [[Isthmus of Panama]], known to the Spanish as part of [[Tierra Firma|Tierra Firme]] and to the English as part of the [[Spanish Main]].<ref name="Sauer1966">{{cite book |last1=Sauer |first1=Carl Ortwin |title=The Early Spanish Main |year=1966 |publisher=University of California Press |pages=2–4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H6IimGc3OqIC&pg=PA2 |quote=Tierra Firme continued to be the common name for the south side of the Caribbean. It was translated into English as the Spanish Main, the ports of which were raided by English ships.}}</ref> This was the point at which the silver and gold treasure of Peru had to be brought ashore and transported overland to the [[Caribbean Sea]], where galleons from Spain would take it aboard at the town of [[Nombre de Dios, Colón|Nombre de Dios]]. Drake left Plymouth on 24 May 1572, with a crew of 73 men in two small vessels, ''Pascha'' (70 tons) and ''Swan'' (25 tons), to capture Nombre de Dios.<ref name="Dean2014">{{cite book |last1=Dean |first1=James Seay |title=Sea Dogs: Life Aboard an English Galleon |year=2014 |publisher=The History Press |isbn=978-0750957380 |page=89 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MUMTDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT89}}</ref>{{sfn|Whitfield|2004|p=29}}

Drake's first raid was late in July 1572. Drake captured Nombre de Dios, but he was badly wounded when the Spanish arrived from Panama, and his forces had to retreat without the gold, silver, pearls and jewels stored in the royal treasury. Rather than sacking Nombre de Dios again, Drake raided Spanish galleons along the coast<ref name="Lindsay2014">{{cite book |last1=Lindsay |first1=Ivan |title=The History of Loot and Stolen Art: from Antiquity until the Present Day |year=2014 |publisher=Andrews UK Limited |isbn=978-1906509576 |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TsG7BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA17-IA44}}</ref> and with his [[Cimarron people (Panama)|Cimarrón]] (African slaves who had escaped from their Spanish owners)<ref name="Laviña2020">{{cite book |last1=Laviña |first1=Javier |editor1-last=Tomich |editor1-first=Dale W. |title=Atlantic Transformations: Empire, Politics, and Slavery during the Nineteenth Century |date=2020 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-1438477862 |pages=183–184 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BO_cDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA183 |chapter=Atlantization and the First Failed Slavery: Panama from the Sixteenth to the Seventeenth Century}}</ref> allies looted the mule trains that transported gold, silver and trade goods from Panama City.<ref name="Schwaller2021">{{cite book |last1=Schwaller |first1=Robert C. |editor1-last=Schwaller |editor1-first=Robert C. |title=African Maroons in Sixteenth-Century Panama: A History in Documents |year=2021 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0806176765 |page=103 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZlkmEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA103}}</ref> One of these men was Diego, who later became a [[Free people of color|free man]] after years of service under Drake.<ref name="Kaufman2017">{{cite book |last1=Kaufmann |first1=Miranda |author-link=Miranda Kaufmann|title=Black Tudors: The Untold Story |year=2017 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1786071859 |pages=74–75 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7D-9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT74}}</ref>

Among Drake's adventures along the Spanish Main, his capture of the Spanish silver train at Nombre de Dios on 1 April 1573{{sfnp|Sugden|2006|pp=72–73}} made him rich and famous.<ref name="Rodger2004">{{cite book |last1=Rodger |first1=N. A. M. |title=The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain 660–1649 |date=2004 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-0141912578 |page=lxxxiii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FNKKupCv4VwC&pg=PR73}}</ref> Near Cabo de Cativas he encountered a French privateer, [[Guillaume Le Testu]], who was in command of the 80-ton warship ''Havre'', and joined forces with him in a combined fleet. Drake had determined to intercept the mule train at the Campos River, two leagues from Nombre de Dios, and instructed the captains of his pinnaces to meet them at the Francisca River on 3 April to carry them off after the raid. The combined English and French raiding parties marched through the forest towards the trail, to within a mile of the city while the Cimarróns performed reconnaissance. The next morning, 1 April, they surprised the mule convoy and seized more than 200,000 pesos' worth of treasure.{{sfnp|Sugden|2006|pp=72–73}}

After their attack on the richly laden [[mule]] train, Drake and his party found that they had captured around 20 tons of silver and gold. They buried much of the treasure, as it was too much for their party to carry, and made off with a fortune in gold.<ref name="Marley2008">{{cite book|first=David |last=Marley|title=Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere, 1492 to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DkgGVTOr2EsC&pg=PA103|year=2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1598841008|pages=103–104}}</ref><ref name="Konstam2011">{{cite book|first=Angus |last=Konstam|title=The Great Expedition: Sir Francis Drake on the Spanish Main 1585–86|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UKyHCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT29|date=2011|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1780962337|page=29}}</ref> (An account of this may have given rise to subsequent stories of pirates and buried treasure).<ref name="Little2010">{{cite book |last1=Little |first1=Benerson |title=How History's Greatest Pirates Pillaged, Plundered, and Got Away With It: The Stories, Techniques, and Tactics of the Most Feared Sea Rovers from 1500–1800 |date=2010 |publisher=Quarto Publishing Group USA |isbn=978-1610595001 |pages=59–60 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dD-HBxNLkdsC&pg=PA59}}</ref> Badly wounded, Le Testu was captured and beheaded. The small band of adventurers dragged as much gold and silver as they could carry back across some {{Convert|18|mi}} of jungle-covered mountains to where they had left the raiding boats. When they got to the coast, the boats were gone. Drake and his men, downhearted, exhausted and hungry, had nowhere to go and the Spanish were not far behind.<ref name="Best202152">{{cite book |last1=Best |first1=Brian |title=Elizabeth's Sea Dogs and their War Against Spain |year=2021 |publisher=Frontline Books |isbn=978-1526782885 |page=52 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qv0hEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA52}}</ref>

At this point, Drake rallied his men, buried the treasure on the beach, and built a raft to sail in a heavy swell with four men twelve miles along the coast to where they had left two [[pinnace (ship's boat)|pinnace]]s.<ref name="Best202152" /> When Drake finally reached them, his men were alarmed at his bedraggled appearance. Fearing the worst, they asked him how the raid had gone. Drake could not resist a joke and teased them by looking downhearted.<ref name="Herman2005">{{cite book |last1=Herman |first1=Arthur |title=To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World |date=2005 |publisher=Harper Collins |isbn=978-0060534257 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dF2W7BAo4x0C&pg=PA59}}</ref> Then he laughed, pulled a quoit of Spanish gold from his clothes and said, "Our voyage is made."{{sfnp|Sugden|2006|p=75}} By the second week of August 1573, he had returned to Plymouth.<ref name="Bradford201448">{{cite book |last1=Bradford |first1=Ernle |title=Drake: England's Greatest Seafarer |year=2014 |publisher=Open Road Media |isbn=978-1497617155 |pages=48–49 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bbAfAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT48}}</ref>

It was during this expedition that on 11 February Drake and his lieutenant [[John Oxenham]] climbed a high tree in the central mountains of the [[Isthmus of Panama]] and thus became the first Englishmen to see the [[Pacific Ocean]], mirroring the achievement of the Spaniard [[Vasco Núñez de Balboa]] in 1513. The Cimarróns had cut steps into its trunk, on which Drake and the Cimarrón leader Pedro ascended to a platform at the top of the giant tree, where they were joined by Oxenham.<ref name="Bradford201444">{{cite book |last1=Bradford |first1=Ernle |title=Drake: England's Greatest Seafarer |date=2014 |publisher=Open Road Media |isbn=978-1497617155 |pages=44–45 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bbAfAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT44}}</ref> The Englishmen vowed when they saw the Pacific Ocean that one day they would sail its waters<ref name="Morison1986">{{cite book |last1=Morison |first1=Samuel Eliot |title=The Great Explorers: The European Discovery of America |year=1986 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0195042221 |page=675 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JnotvLHX80gC&pg=PA675}}</ref> – which Drake would do years later as part of his circumnavigation of the world.{{sfn|Cummins|1997|p=287}}

When Drake returned to Plymouth after the raids, the government signed a temporary truce with King Philip II of Spain and so was unable to acknowledge Drake's accomplishment officially. Drake was considered a hero in England and a pirate in Spain for his raids.{{sfn|Cummins|1997|p=273}}

===Rathlin Island massacre===
Drake was present at the 1575 [[Rathlin Island massacre]] in Ireland. [[John Norris (soldier)|Sir John Norris]] (or ''Norreys'') and Drake, acting on the instructions of Sir Henry Sidney and the [[Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex|Earl of Essex]], Robert Devereux, laid siege to [[Rathlin Castle]]. Despite its surrender, Norris' troops killed all the 200 defenders and several hundred more men, women and children of Clan MacDonnell.{{sfn|Sugden|2006|p=85}} Meanwhile, Drake was given the task of preventing any Gaelic Irish or Scottish reinforcements reaching the island. Therefore, the remaining leader of the Gaelic defence against English power, [[Sorley Boy MacDonnell]], was forced to stay on the mainland. Essex wrote in his letter to Queen Elizabeth's secretary that following the attack Sorley Boy "was likely to have run mad for sorrow, tearing and tormenting himself and saying that he there lost all that he ever had."<ref>{{cite book|first=Hugh|last=Forde|title=Sketches Of Olden Days in Northern Ireland: Including Portrush, Dunluce Castle, Dunseverick Castle, Ballycastle, Giant's Causeway, Rathlin Island, Coleraine, Derry, Inishowen, Tory Island|publisher=MC'aw, Stevenson and Orr Ltd|place=Belfast|year=1923|url=https://www.libraryireland.com/sketches/toc.php|access-date=16 June 2019|archive-date=16 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616133647/https://www.libraryireland.com/sketches/toc.php|url-status=live}}</ref>