The combative pretensions of the governor had received a severe shock.  He was beaten, and Drake, like a true sportsman, asked him and his suite to dine with him, and with an air of Spanish dignity he accepted.  The occasion was memorable for the royal way the distinguished guests were treated.  The governor was studiously cordial, and obviously wished to win the favour of his remorseless visitors, so asked Drake and his officers to do him the honour of accepting his hospitality in return, which they did.  What form the interchange of civilities took is not quite clear, but the governor’s apparent amiableness did not in any way move Drake to exercise generosity.  His object was ransom, and if this was agreed to good-naturedly, all the better for the Spaniards, but he was neither to be bought nor sold by wily tactics, nor won over by golden-tongued rhetoric.  The price of the rugged Devonshire sailor’s alternative of wild wrath and ruin was the modest sum of 100,000 ducats in hard cash.  Mutual convivialities and flowing courtesies were at an end; these were one thing and reparation for the incarceration and burning of unoffending British sailors as heretics was another.

“Deeds of blood and torture can never be atoned for in money or destruction of property.  I am Drake, ‘El Draque’ if you like, and if you don’t comply with my terms, you shall be destroyed.”

It was his habit openly to express himself in this way to Philip’s subjects, whether hostile or not, and we can imagine that similar views were uttered in the Carthagena negotiations.  The Spaniards regarded his terms as monstrous impiety; they were aghast, pleaded poverty, and protested and swore by the Holy Office that the total amount they could find in the whole city was only 30,000 ducats.  Drake, with commendable prudence, seeing that he wished to get away from the fever zone without delay, appears to have accepted this amount, though authorities are at variance on this point.  Some say that he held out for his first claim and got it.  I have not been able to verify which is the correct amount, but in all probability he got the 100,000 ducats.  In any case, he piously charged them with deception in their plea of poverty, but came to terms, declaring, no doubt, that his own magnanimity astonished him.

But for the sudden outbreak of sickness amongst his crew, the Carthagenians would not have fared nearly so well.  The city might have been, not only pillaged, but laid in ruins.  As it was, he had emptied a monastery and blown the harbour forts to pieces.

Drake’s intention was to visit Panama, but the fever had laid heavy hands on his men.  Only a third of those who commenced the voyage with him were well enough to do work at all, notwithstanding the replenishment by released prisoners, so he was forced to abandon further enterprises and shape his course homewards as quickly as skilful navigation and the vagaries of wind and weather would allow.  Great deeds, even on this trip, stood to the credit of himself and crew.  The accomplishments were far below what was expected at the outset in point of money value, but the priceless feature of the voyage was the enhanced respect for Drake’s name which had taken possession of the Spanish race in every part of the world and subsequently made the defeat of the Armada an easier task.