These trips created protest from Spain because they wanted England away from Caribbean waters and protests from Portugal because of the slave trade market. That's where his hatred from Spain was sown. In 1567, during the second trip, Drake had command of his first ship, the Judith (Encarta Encyclopedia 2000). While stationed at Veracruz, Mexico, a Spanish fleet came around and pretended to be friendly, but Drake and the other men were fooled. The Spanish soon attacked them, and only two ships survived the attack, Hawkins's and Drake's. Drake vowed to get revenge. In the next two years he sent reconnaissance voyages along the Spanish's Central American coast (Geographical Magazine). He truly hated everything Spanish, especially the Church. .
In 1572, he took part in his first serious, marauding expedition in the West Indies. He took two ships and 73 men with him. He landed by the Isthmus of Panama. He attacked the Spanish colony in Nombre de Dios, captured a ship in the harbor of Cartagena, and he burned the small settlement of Portobelo. He was aided by Spanish slaves and Huguenots, or French Protestants, since the .
Spanish killed about 50,000 Huguenots the year before. After he was done looting, the end result was about thirty tons of silver, which were delivered to his ships by mule train. While his looting of the Spanish colonies, he stopped and gazed at the Pacific Ocean, and vowed that one that day he would sail those waters, something never done by an Englishman before (Drake sees the pacific). Once he returned to England, he had a reputation as a brilliant privateer. Then, he was sent next to Ireland to help quell the rebellion there from 1573 to 1576 (Encarta Encyclopedia 2000).
In 1577, the Queen of England, Elizabeth I, sent Drake and two other nobles; Thomas Doughty and John Winter, to have an expedition against Spain on the Pacific coasts of the New World. He looked for riches and spices.
