It can hardly be doubted that as he struggled over the wintry Atlantic swells Drake was coming to an important decision. The day of the contraband trade was over, smouldering in the ruins of that Mexican roadstead. It was time for another way, Drake’s way. For the rest of his life Francis Drake pictured himself an avenger, bent upon rewarding the treachery of Don Martin Enriquez. It must have seemed a futile, an almost presumptuous decision at the time, but it put a fire into the obscure little sea captain, defeated and dishonoured. On the pitching Judith, brooding upon his misfortunes, Francis Drake declared war upon the King of Spain.

John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake, loc. 169