To: TobagoJack who wrote (79801 ) 9/19/2011 4:06:43 PM From: Maurice Winn 3 Recommendations Read Replies (1) | Respond to Yo ho, yo ho a pirate's life for me... plundering bare bum barbarians and Aztecs who clutch their little gold family totems. Gold prices entered uncharted territory and gold is an unchartered currency held by cave dwelling magical thinkers who believe "Like houses, gold always goes up in price. If I have gold I'll get rich quick, or at worst be safe as houses." en.wikipedia.org <He planned an attack on the Isthmus of Panama , known to the Spanish as Tierra Firme and the English as the Spanish Main . This was the point at which the silver and gold treasure of Peru had to be landed and sent overland to the Caribbean Sea, where galleons from Spain would pick it up at the town of Nombre de Dios. Drake left Plymouth on May 24, 1572, with a crew of 73 men in two small vessels, the Pascha (70 tons) and the Swan (25 tons), to capture Nombre de Dios.Guillaume Le Testu , a French buccaneer, in an attack on a 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. (An account of this may have given rise to subsequent stories of pirates and buried treasure). Wounded, Le Testu was captured and later beheaded. The small band of adventurers dragged as much gold and silver as they could carry back across some 18 miles 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. >
