[8] War had already been unofficially declared by Philip II of Spain after the Treaty of Nonsuch in which Elizabeth I had offered her support to the rebellious Protestant Dutch rebels.

[9] Santo Domingo was the capital of Spain's New World Empire and it was fortified on its landward side by a city wall built in the early 1500s known as the Fortaleza Ozama in which stood the Torre de Homenaje (tower of Homage).

[5]: 29 [7]: 35 As Drake sailed westwards he encountered his reconnaissance squadron, who told him that Santo Domingo looked too formidable to assault from the sea, but that they had found a good landing beach at the mouth of the Haina River about ten miles further to the west.

The Spanish in response sent horse, foot, and artillery which advanced out of the city from the two gates nearest the shore, with the intention of taking up a position facing the sea with the cavalry covering their right flank.

Within half an hour, the landing party had reached the western walls of Santo Domingo, and the majority of the Spanish troops and militia were in flight.

Carleill ordered Sergeant-Major Powell to assault the secondary gate with a storming party, while the lieutenant-general led the rest of his men towards the Lenba.

The English sailors and soldiers then went on a looting spree; churches were singled out, ornaments were stolen, statues and windows smashed, religious tapestries ripped down, and altars desecrated.

[7]: 40  Applying extra pressure on Malarejo; Drakes men began demolishing the city's imposing stone buildings, which exhausted the English sailors due to the intense labor.

So Drake set fire to more buildings and threatened to destroy his own headquarters the oldest church in the whole of the Americas but eventually Malarejo offered a ransom of 25,000 ducats.

The Spanish however thinking this as an insult stabbed and killed him which infuriated Drake so much that he had many Spaniards deliberately executed until the murderer was found dead or alive.

Two hundred and forty guns and quantities of merchandise were moved into the holds of the English ships, their ranks recruited from scores of liberated galley-slaves.

García Fernández de Torrequemada summed up the mood of the population in his report to the King: This thing must have had divine sanction, as punishment for the people's sins.

[6]: 190 As Drake left and headed south, news of his attack spread from Santo Domingo to other cities on the Spanish Main, warning that the English were likely to descend on them.

Drake attacked and captured the place giving it the same rough treatment as Santo Domingo; here the city was better defended and the ransom was more lucrative.