After two years of reconnoitering the vulnerable spots of the Spanish Main, [Sir Francis Drake] sailed from Plymouth in 1572 on a voyage of reckless adventure with two little vessels and a crew of seventy-three, only one of which had passed the age of thirty. He struck at the Isthmus of Panama, where the treasures of Peru were brought overland. With his handful of men and some Indians who hated the Spaniards, he looted the town of Nombre de Dios, on the Atlantic side, and ambushed a rich treasure train, leaving fifteen tons of silver behind because the other loot was more valuable.
(from A History of England and the British Empire. If I am not mistaken this adventure is woven into at least a couple of the famous Errol Flynn swashbuckler movies.)
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