The place was captured the next day, but the Spaniards having removed all their treasure, and their women and children, the invaders reaped but a barren victory.
Several places fell into the hands of the English, and were given to the flames; but though a small amount of booty was obtained, their numbers were greatly reduced by this desultory style of warfare. An expedition under Sir Thomas Baskerville to capture Panama failed, and the party with difficulty got back to their ships.
This last calamity so preyed on Drake that he was seized with a fever, and after languishing for nearly three weeks, he expired near Porto Bello on the 28th of January, 1595, in the fifty-first year of his age. His followers showed the deepest grief at his loss. His body, enclosed in a leaden coffin, was committed to the deep with all the pomp which circumstances would allow. Thus, as was said, he lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it. The whole country
mourned his loss, and though his last enterprise had been unsuccessful, all united in admiring the genius and valour of one whose memory, as was written of him, will survive as long as the duration of that world which he circumnavigated.