El Draque Mystery Cache

Sir Francis Drake, vice admiral was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator and politician of the Elizabethan era. Drake carried out the second circumnavigation of the world, from 1577 to 1580. His exploits were legendary, making him a hero to the English but a pirate to the Spaniards to whom he was known as El Draque. King Philip II of Spain offered a reward of 20,000 ducats, about 6.5 million dollars by modern standards, for his life.

At age 23, Drake made his first voyage to the Americas. In 1568 the fleet was trapped by the Spaniards in the Mexican port of San Juan de Ulúa. Drake and a number of others managed to escape. Following the defeat at San Juan de Ulúa, Drake vowed revenge.

In 1572, 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 24 May 1572, with a crew of 73 men in two small vessels, the Pascha and the Swan, to capture Nombre de Dios. His first raid was late in July 1572. Drake and his men captured the town and its treasure.

Near Lima, Drake captured a Spanish ship laden with 25,000 pesos of Peruvian gold (just over 11 million dollars by modern standards). Drake also captured the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, which proved his most profitable capture including 80 lb (36 kg) of gold, a golden crucifix, jewels, 13 chests full of silver coins and 26 tons of silver.

Later on, in a new ship called the Golden Hind, Drake reputedly sailed as far north as the 49th parallel, landing on the coast of British Columbia on 17 June 1579. Sailing inland along what is now the Fraser River, he found a good port, landed, repaired and restocked his vessels, then stayed for a time, keeping friendly relations with the local first nations. He claimed the land in the name of the Holy Trinity for the English Crown, called Nova Albion—Latin for "New Britain". The precise location of the port was carefully guarded to keep it secret from the Spaniards. Some say it may have been on what is now McMillan Island, where Tavistock point is named after Drake’s birth town in England. All first-hand records from the voyage, including logs, paintings and charts, were lost when the original Drake estate in England burned down in 1698.

Though the original horde of the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción was never found (just recorded in the ship’s manifest), it is believed that Drake buried this treasure somewhere by his secret port along the Fraser River. Recently, a map of what is believed to be the location of this booty was discovered behind a lesser known portrait of Drake archived in a storage room in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Though many have tried to locate the treasure, no one has yet to make the find…maybe you’ll find it.