Few figures from the age of pirates, privateers and Spanish treasure fleets are as closely connected with Panama as Sir Francis Drake. To the English he became a celebrated sailor, explorer and war hero. To the Spanish Empire he was El Draque, the Dragon, a terrifying enemy who seemed capable of appearing almost anywhere along the Caribbean coast.
But Panama was more than simply another place on Drake's map. It was where his reputation was forged, where some of his most spectacular adventures took place, and ultimately where his extraordinary life came to an end. Even today, somewhere beneath the Caribbean waters near Portobelo, Panama may be hiding the remains of one of history's most famous seafarers.
The man who understood Panama's greatest weakness
In the 16th century, Panama was essentially the treasure highway of the Spanish Empire. Silver and gold arriving from South America could be transported across the Isthmus of Panama and eventually loaded onto ships bound for Spain. The Caribbean port of Nombre de Dios was one of the critical links in this enormous system.
Drake understood something incredibly important: he did not necessarily need to conquer an enormous Spanish territory to hurt Spain. He needed to attack the places where wealth was concentrated.
In 1572, he sailed to Panama with only two small ships, the Pascha and the Swan, and approximately 73 men. His target was Nombre de Dios. The attack nearly succeeded, but Drake was seriously wounded during the assault and was forced to withdraw. Rather than abandoning Panama, however, he stayed in the region for almost a year, attacking Spanish shipping and waiting for an opportunity to intercept the treasure moving across the Isthmus.
That decision would produce one of the great adventures of his life.
Drake and the legendary treasure train
Drake eventually joined forces with the French privateer Guillaume Le Testu. Together they attempted to intercept a Spanish mule train carrying precious metals across Panama.
This was the moment when Drake's Panama adventure began to sound almost like a Hollywood script.
The English and French forces managed to surprise the Spanish treasure carriers and reportedly captured approximately £20,000 worth of gold and silver, an enormous fortune for the period.
But there was another extraordinary part to the story.
Drake had apparently been searching for years for a way to see the Pacific Ocean from Panama. According to historical accounts, after climbing into the Panamanian highlands, he eventually reached a point from which he could see the Pacific.
The experience had such an effect on him that he reportedly prayed for God to allow him to sail on that ocean someday.
He eventually got his wish.
In 1577, Drake began the voyage that would make him the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. Panama had essentially been the place where the dream was born.
The Spanish called him El Draque
Drake became such a menace to Spanish interests that Spanish sailors gave him the nickname El Draque, meaning "the Dragon."
The name became surrounded by legend. Some Spanish mariners were reportedly so frightened of him that stories developed claiming Drake possessed supernatural powers. One particularly entertaining legend suggested that he had a magical mirror that allowed him to see ships anywhere on the ocean.
Of course, there was no magical mirror.
What Drake did possess was something arguably more dangerous: excellent intelligence, aggressive tactics, fast ships and an extraordinary understanding of how the Spanish treasure system worked.
The famous map that changed Panama
Drake's attacks were one reason the Spanish eventually began reconsidering their Caribbean infrastructure.
After the destruction of Nombre de Dios, the Spanish established Portobelo as a much more strategically useful Atlantic port. Portobelo was founded in 1597, shortly after Drake's final attack on Nombre de Dios, and eventually became one of the most important treasure ports in the Spanish Empire.
This created one of the great historical ironies of Panama.
Drake attacked the Spanish treasure system at Nombre de Dios.
The Spanish responded by developing Portobelo.
And only months later, Drake would die in the waters immediately around that new strategic landscape.
Drake comes back to Panama
Nearly 25 years after his first adventures on the Isthmus, Drake returned.
This time he was not the young privateer with two small ships. He was a knight, a famous naval commander and one of England's greatest military heroes.
In 1595, Queen Elizabeth I sent Drake and Sir John Hawkins back to the Caribbean. Their objective was to disrupt Spanish treasure shipments and attack Spanish possessions. Their expedition was considerably less successful than Drake's earlier adventures.
They attempted to attack Spanish interests at Puerto Rico before heading toward Panama. Eventually they returned to the Isthmus and launched another assault.
But Panama was ready for him this time.
Drake's final attack on Panama
In December 1595, Drake's forces attempted to move toward Panama and attack the treasure route.
The Spanish had learned from the past.
Roads were blocked. Defences were prepared. The English encountered resistance and failed to achieve the spectacular victory Drake had hoped for.
The expedition became increasingly desperate.
Disease began devastating the English forces, and Drake himself was suffering from illness. His expedition had gone from an ambitious attack on the Spanish treasure system to a battle simply to keep his surviving men alive.
Then came the final tragedy.
The Dragon dies off Portobelo
On January 28, 1596, Sir Francis Drake died aboard his ship off the Caribbean coast of Panama.
The cause is generally given as dysentery. He was approximately 56 years old.
There is something strangely poetic about the location.
Drake had spent his life attacking Spanish treasure ships in the Caribbean.
He had first made his reputation around Panama.
He had dreamed of seeing the Pacific from the Isthmus.
He had returned to Panama in the final expedition of his life.
And he died in the waters beside Portobelo.
But the story does not end there.
Where is Sir Francis Drake buried?
Nobody knows exactly.
Drake was not buried on land.
His body was placed inside a lead-lined coffin and committed to the Caribbean Sea. Historical accounts place the burial somewhere offshore near Portobelo. The U.S. National Park Service records his burial simply as "buried at sea," while the Library of Congress states that he was buried in the waters off Porto Bello in a lead coffin on January 29, 1596.
According to historical accounts, Drake wanted to face death like a soldier. One account describes him asking to be dressed in his armour before his death. His body was subsequently placed in the coffin and lowered into the sea while the fleet fired its cannons in farewell.
Imagine the scene.
A Caribbean morning.
The English fleet lying offshore.
The body of one of England's most famous sailors being carried to the side of his ship.
A lead coffin disappearing beneath the waves.
Then the cannon fire echoing across the water.
It was a remarkably dramatic ending for a man whose entire life had been dramatic.
Somewhere beneath the Caribbean
The exact location of Drake's coffin remains one of maritime history's great mysteries.
There have been attempts to locate it, and divers and researchers have searched the waters around Portobelo. The coffin has never been conclusively identified.
There have even been historical claims about possible locations within or near Portobelo Bay. One old account associated the burial with an area outside the harbour, while later traditions have produced different theories. The uncertainty has only made the legend more powerful.
And this creates an extraordinary possibility.
Every time a boat travels through the waters around Portobelo, it could be passing over one of the most famous lost graves in the history of exploration.
There is no tombstone.
No church.
No monument marking the exact location.
Just Caribbean water.
Drake and the cimarrones
Another fascinating part of the Panama story involves the cimarrones, Africans who had escaped slavery and established independent communities in the Panamanian forests.
Historical and local accounts describe relationships between Drake and cimarrón communities. Some accounts say cimarrones helped Drake during his operations against the Spanish, providing valuable knowledge of the landscape and assistance in navigating the Isthmus. Oral traditions surrounding Portobelo continue to remember these relationships.
This is important because the Spanish colonial authorities were fighting more than foreign pirates.
They were also dealing with people who knew the jungle, understood the trails and had their own reasons for opposing Spanish control.
For Drake, local knowledge could be as valuable as gold.
Drake's Panama adventure was not simply piracy
Calling Drake a "pirate" is tempting, and from the Spanish perspective it was certainly understandable.
But technically, Drake was also a privateer.
The difference was that a privateer operated with government authorization to attack the enemies of his country. Queen Elizabeth I supported Drake, and his attacks on Spanish possessions were part of the larger Anglo Spanish struggle of the era.
The distinction did not make much difference to the people being attacked.
To Spain, Drake was a dangerous pirate.
To England, he was a national hero.
And to history, he became one of the most complicated characters of the Age of Sail. The U.S. National Park Service notes that while England regarded him as an accomplished sailor, adventurer and war hero, Spanish sources viewed him as a ruthless pirate and illegal trader in enslaved people.
That darker side is important too. Drake's early Caribbean career was connected to the English slave trade, including voyages with John Hawkins. His reputation as a hero therefore sits alongside a much more troubling part of the history of European expansion.
The strange irony of Portobelo
Perhaps the greatest irony is that Drake helped shape the very place where he died.
His destruction of Nombre de Dios contributed to the Spanish decision to establish Portobelo as the principal Caribbean treasure port. Portobelo's natural harbour was better suited to protecting the enormous quantities of wealth passing through the region.
Within a few years, Portobelo would become synonymous with Spanish treasure, enormous trade fairs and heavily fortified colonial infrastructure.
Today, the ruins of its forts and colonial buildings sit quietly beside the Caribbean.
But underneath that peaceful landscape is a violent history involving pirates, privateers, Spanish soldiers, African resistance communities, treasure fleets and one English knight whose final resting place may still be somewhere beneath the waves.
The ultimate Panama treasure hunt
There is something particularly appropriate about Drake's coffin remaining lost.
A man who spent his life hunting treasure ended up becoming part of the treasure legend himself.
The Spanish treasure that Drake sought has largely disappeared into museums, shipwrecks and archaeological history.
But Drake's own "treasure" may still be sitting on the Caribbean seabed.
A lead coffin.
Somewhere off the coast of Panama.
Possibly near Portobelo.
Possibly near one of the old wreck sites.
Waiting beneath the warm Caribbean water.
And that means that after more than four centuries, Sir Francis Drake may still be hiding from Panama's treasure hunters.
For anyone travelling through Panama, this gives the Caribbean coast an entirely different atmosphere. Portobelo is not simply a pretty colonial town beside turquoise water. It is the landscape where Drake fought, failed, became sick and finally disappeared beneath the sea. And somewhere beyond those historic forts, the Caribbean may still hold the final secret of El Draque, the Dragon.