Raid on Tabasco (1599)
Part of theAnglo–Spanish War
Date 2–15 November 1599 Location Tabasco,New Spain (present dayMexico) Result English victory[1]
Belligerents
Spain	England
Commanders and leaders
Lázaro Suárez de Córdova	Christopher Newport
Strength
Unknown	5 ships 180 soldiers
Casualties and losses
Unknown 2 ships captured[2]	Unknown

TheRaid on Tabasco,Capture of Tabasco orNewport's 2nd Expedition of 1599 was an English military expedition during theAnglo–Spanish War that captured the Spanish port settlement ofTabasco inNew Spain. The English underChristopher Newport then occupied the town and gained a significant amount of booty before heading home.^[3]

Christopher Newport was no stranger to raiding the Spanish New World and had been doing so since 1587 and was successful in every venture.^[4] He even lost half of his arm during hissuccessful 1590 expedition when seizing a ship from the Spaniards offHispaniola. After returning from an expedition in 1598 with two valuable Spanish prizes, Newport immediately decided to venture out again in mid-1599. He resumed his command of the vessels theNeptune,Blessing, and theTriton being of 300–350 tons apiece.^[1]

They set sail fromPlymouth, England for theSpanish Main in late September and on a rapid voyage seized two small Spanish prizes to increase their size to five.^[5] Their target was the port of Tabasco (then called San Juan Bautista) in the Bay of New Spain under governor Lázaro Suárez de Córdova.^[2]

Newport arrived off the New Spain coast in late October; Tabasco lay on the southeast ofNew Spain, with the Gulf of Mexico to the north. Newport then sailed to a point a few miles from the port where the English waded ashore. In the early hours they advanced towards the town; a Spanish rider warned de Córdova of the English approach but it was too late and the town was overrun and then captured after some resistance.^[2] Newport then occupied the town and held the place for two weeks; two merchant ships were captured along with most of the valuables inside. The inhabitants did not have time to flee so the English raided everything; the churches were ransacked and before departing, Tabasco was then stripped bare but was not torched.^[2][3]

The raid was a not a huge success in terms of finance as the booty consisted of only 888 ounces of silver coins which at the time were worth £220. In addition fourteen ounces of gold and pearls, forty one hides, and the bells of the town's churches were taken.^[1][3][5] The raids for Newport proved to be addictive and he set out again in 1602 in May capturing many Spanish prizes at Havana before setting out again later in the year beforestriking at Puerto Caballos in 1603. By this time he had raided the Spanish Main more times thanFrancis Drake had.^[5]

Sources

• Andrews, Kenneth R. (3 January 1964).Elizabethan Privateering 1583-1603. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press. pp. 180–81.ISBN 9780521040327.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Bicheno, Hugh. (2012).Elizabeth's Sea Dogs: How England's Mariners Became the Scourge of the Seas. Conway.ISBN 978-1844861743.
• Bradley, Peter T. (2010).British Maritime Enterprise in the New World: From the Late Fifteenth to the Mid-eighteenth Century.Edwin Mellen Press.ISBN 978-0773478664.
• Nichols, Allen Bryant (2007).Captain Christopher Newport: Admiral of Virginia. Sea Venture LLC.ISBN 978-0615140018.

• Conflicts in 1599
• Colonial Mexico
• Battles of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)
• 1599 in North America
• 1590s in Mexico
• 1599 in the Spanish Empire
• 1599 in the British Empire
• 1599 in New Spain

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• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from September 2019
• CS1 errors: ISBN date