Editing Francis Drake (section)

===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}}