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 The captain of the Judith was ten years younger than his cousin Hawkyns, and was resolved to see more of the West Indies. The treatment of his comrades who had been forced to land at Tampico made Francis Drake an implacable enemy of the Spaniards. Whether there was peace or war between England and Spain, there was henceforth to be unceasing war between Drake and the countrymen of the Spanish Inquisitors. In 1570, Drake made a voyage to the West Indies with two small vessels, called the Dragon and Swan, and in 1571 he went out in the Swan alone. He was collecting information and maturing his plans for a hostile expedition on a more considerable scale.

When he returned to Plymouth, he began to make a very careful selection of young able-bodied seamen to form the crews of two vessels, forty-seven men and boys for one, and twenty-six for the other. A year's provisions were taken on board, and three pinnaces were specially constructed, to be taken out in pieces. The Pasha, of 70 tons, was commanded by Drake himself, and the Swan, of 25 tons, by his brother John. They sailed from Plymouth on the 24th of May, 1572, and Drake shaped a course for the Spanish Main, until he sighted the high land about Santa Marta. He seems to have known of a small unfrequented bay, which he called "Port Pheasant," and here his ships were anchored, and the pinnaces were put together. He was joined by a barque belonging to Cowes, with a crew of thirty men, under the command of a seaman named James Reuse.

Drake's scheme was desperate, but it was very carefully planned. He intended to attack Nombre de Dios in the pinnaces, the point on the isthmus to which all the wealth of Peru converged for shipment to Europe. The three pinnaces came silently before the town in the dead of night. At three in, the morning of the 22nd of July, the English, landing, captured a battery of six brass guns, and spiked them. Unluckily a gunner escaped and alarmed the town. When Drake entered the market-place at the head of his men, the Spaniards opened fire, but were put to flight. John Oxenham, Drake's trusty lieutenant, found an immense heap of silver bars in the treasure-house. The gallant commander of the expedition had, however, been severely wounded. He fainted from loss of blood, was carried down to his pinnace, and taken to an island where he might be cured of his wound. Here the ships joined them, and Reuse parted company to return home with his share of the spoils.