Okay so some background. In 1572, my good buddy Francis and I went to Panama to try and steal some of that sweet sweet Peruvian silver from the Spanish. Things went pretty well. After a bit of a kerfufle in Nombre de Dios we regrouped and even made some friends with some local runaway slaves, cimarrons they call themselves. With their help we snuck across the isthmus, by-passing Nombre de Dios, and tried to ambush the silver train during its trans-isthmus crossing. That worked out okay. We then made friends with Billy Testu. With the Frenchies and the Maroons we decided to try raiding the pack train right before it arrived in Nombre de Dios. That went okay, but we had to set sail quickly and poor Billy got a Spanish sword in his guts.

Anyways, after getting back to merry England, Francis decides he wants to go 'around the world' Magellan-style. I said to the boys, "Lets go back to Panama, we got friends there, and get us some more silver. Old Philip has enough of it anyways!" So off we go in April of 1576 back to Panama.

Once we make landfall, we find the old fort Francis had set up and catch up with our Maroon buddies. Problem is that those pesky Spaniards had more ships patrolling the coast and they found where we hid our ship. So there we are, no ship, only some of our supplies. What can we do?

We decide let's go to the South Sea and capture some of that silver before it even reaches Panama City. Thankfully, we have some tools and tackle that we salvaged before our ship was captured. The Maroons take us in their canoes to the coast. We build a nice little pinnace and cast off.

We do pretty well, capture a nice loaded merchantman coming up the coast from Lima. Then the Maroons say, "Hey why don't we go to the Pearl Islands. You guys can take all the pearls and we will free the slaves they got diving for them." That works out pretty well and while we are there we get the chance to humiliate the Popish priest they had there.

With a nice chunk of loot, we decided to head back to the mainland. My buddies and I are itching to get back to the Caribbean where we can build us another boat to get back to England. But then it all falls apart. The Spanish send out several score of soldiers in boats. Before we are even done unloading the canoes and carrying our loot to the Maroon villages the Spaniards are firing harquebuses at us. It all goes sideways.

Between April and October 1577 we're living in a madhouse. The maroons burn their villages and disappear into the jungle. We're scattered, got no weapons, hardly any food. Heck even if we run across a Maroon we are lucky to get some bananas and maybe some grains of maize. In October, I get captured along with about a dozen of my men. Most are executed. I get an all expenses paid trip to the Inquisition's jail in Lima.

The Spanish keep fighting the Maroons until after I have been hung up on a gallows and my body burned (1580). Now, the Spanish war of 'fire and blood' ended with the Maroons signing a truce in which they surrendered but were given their freedom and allowed to form their own towns (1581). They also promised to help defend Panama from foreign invaders. (In 1596, some of them helped defeat Francis' last raid on the isthmus). AITA? I mean without my expedition the Spanish would not have got themselves into a protracted guerrilla war against the Maroons, and the Maroons would likely have not received such generous terms for peace.