Sir Francis Drake was admiral in the Elizabeth Bonadventure, Frobisher was vice-admiral in the Primrose; there were twenty-five vessels and 2300 men, and they were authorised by the Crown to make war upon King Philip of Spain. It was looked upon as a religious war in defence of freedom of conscience. Walsingham wrote to Leicester: "Upon Drake's voyage, in very truth, dependeth the life and death of the (Protestant) cause, according to men's judgment."
The fleet left Plymouth on the 14th of September 1585, and after receiving the submission of Vigo and doing some damage and liberating some English prisoners, they went to Palma, in the Canaries. Here, owing to "the naughtiness of the landing-place, well furnished with great ordnance," Drake and Frobisher were driven off with some loss. At Cape de Verde one of his men was murdered by a Spaniard, and the penalty exacted was the burning of Santiago, the hospital excepted.
Here a severe sickness broke out, extreme hot burning and continual agues, which led to "decay of their wits" and strength for a long time after; thereby they lost more than two hundred men. Thence they sailed to Dominica, St. Kitts, and Hispaniola. At San Domingo 1200 men were landed under Master Carlisle. It was New Year's Day, 1586, when a hundred and fifty Spanish horse came out to crush the invaders, but had to retire within the walls. There were two gates facing the sea; by these Carlisle entered, dividing his force and vowing that, if God would help them, they would meet in the market-place. This they succeeded in doing, and next day Drake and Frobisher brought their vessels into the harbour, and landed most of the men to share in the spoil.
San Domingo was held for a month and ransacked, but little gold or silver was found, only wine, oil, olives, cloth, silk, and good store of brave apparel, some of which they saved, doubtless for their wives at home.
The Spanish Governor and the troops had fled to a fort three miles from the town, and Drake sent a negro boy with a flag of truce to treat with them for their ransom. The poor lad was met half-way, and so beaten that he could scarcely crawl back to die at the admiral's feet.
Drake was not the man to leave such an outrage unavenged; he ordered the Provost-Marshal to carry two friars to the same spot and hang them there. He also sent a messenger to inform the Governor that two prisoners would be hanged every day until the murderer was given up.
The murderer was given up and hanged, and then the town was fired.
Similar proceedings were taken at Cartagena, though here the Spaniards fought more stoutly, and Indian archers "with arrows most villainously empoisoned" caused the death of many. Many English, too, "were mischiefed to death by small sticks, sharply pointed, that were fixed in the ground, with the points poisoned." As the attack was made in the dark, many were wounded and died. Cartagena was held for six weeks, and many courtesies passed between the Spaniards and the English. A ransom of £28,000 was paid, and Drake restored the town to its inhabitants.
They left Cartagena on the 31st of March, after blowing up the fort, and sailed along the coast of Florida, sacking and burning the Spanish settlements of San Juan de Pinos and St. Augustine; then they came to the island of Roanoke, where they found Raleigh's colonists on the verge of starvation, offered them help and a passage home. These colonists had behaved cruelly to the Indians and had suffered for it. They brought home a strange herb, which is thus described: "There is a herb," says Hariot, one of the colonists, "which is called by the natives uppowoc: the Spaniards call it tobacco. The leaves thereof being dried and brought into powder, they are to take the fume thereof, by sucking it through pipes made of clay, into their stomach and head, whence it purgeth superfluous phlegm and other gross humours, or openeth all the pores and passages of the body."
A month's sailing brought them to Portsmouth, but it was not considered a successful cruise, for they had lost seven hundred and fifty men, chiefly from disease, brought home two hundred pieces of brass cannon, and sixty thousand pounds, of which one-third was given to the soldiers and sailors as prize-money. But the chief gain was in the effect on Philip, who forbade the sailing of his Indian fleet until Drake and Frobisher returned.