Hawkins escaped the Spaniards, taking with him his partner and cousin, Francis Drake. Drake realized that England could gain more by seizing Spanish treasure in the West Indies than by smuggling slaves. He sailed to the Caribbean Sea on a raiding expedition, but the Spaniards were well guarded and he won little spoil.

Then he planned a bolder move. Knowing that the Spanish ships and ports on the Pacific were unprotected, he sailed from England, passed through the Strait of Magellan, and fell upon the Spaniards off Chile and Peru. He took so much plunder that he used silver for ballast. He sailed north, seeking an eastward passage through North America.

Failing in this, he sailed across the Pacific and followed the route of Magellan's party back to Europe.
The English raids on the Spaniards in America helped plunge the two nations into
open war. In 1588 the great Spanish Armada preparing to invade England was completely crushed. Spain's sea power swiftly declined and with it Spain's strength to keep England from the opportunities of the New World.
The riches of Spanish America prompted many Englishmen to search for gold in their own holdings in North America. In 1576 Martin Frobisher found samples of a "black earth" that he thought was a gold ore. He was wrong, but for a time England thought it was on the track of great wealth. Walter Raleigh sent out parties between 1584 and 1587 to explore and colonize the area named Virginia, but his ventures failed.