NEW YORK, NY.- He sailed with Sir Francis Drake, turned pirate and raided Spanish ships for gold and silver, before meeting a grisly end in the hangman’s noose.

Now the tale of the 16th century English privateer John Oxenham is revealed in this contemporary manuscript, recording events from 1578-83, coming up for sale at Swann Auction Galleries on April 16.

Oxenham first sailed to America under Sir Francis Drake in 1572, and from 1576 to 1578 led a bold expedition to Spanish-held Panama. With support from the local Cimarron runaway slave community, he and his 57 men wintered at Panama, built a ship on the Pacific coast, and in the spring launched a surprise attack on Spanish ships loaded with Peruvian gold and silver. They were eventually pursued upriver and were able to bury some of their treasure.

Fleeing to the interior, Oxenham and a few of his men evaded capture for several months but were eventually caught in Venezuela in 1578, still in possession of 5000 pesos in gold.

Their captors were no less keen for riches and the 46-page manuscript offered in Swann Galleries’ Printed & Manuscript Americana sale details the efforts to recover the treasure, as well as the competing claims on it.

Agustín de Haro, the accountant of the royal treasury in Panama, was entrusted with the money, but faced demands from some of those who had helped defeat and capture the pirates for a share of the plunder. However, the captured pirates were in the custody of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. As they were not Catholics, the Inquisition charged them with heresy and apostasy, and thus they and their property fell under its jurisdiction.

Despite this, de Haro refused to hand over the gold, claiming he was under strict orders to not deliver it to anyone until he received orders from the highest authorities to do so. He was eventually jailed for his intransigence.

The stand-off continued because official orders regarding the treasure were postponed due to the absence of the comisario of Panama City, Juan Constantino, on missionary work. De Haro would die in jail (possibly of suicide) before the comisario could return to resolve the issue.

The manuscript records how Baltasar de Melo, the tribunal official who collected money and received evidence, complained about the comisario's persistent absenteeism, and how it indefinitely postponed the resolution of crucial issues surrounding the capture of the pirates.

This included what should be done with the pirates themselves, who languished in their cells.

Their previous ventures with Francis Drake had already made them notorious amongst the Spanish and eventually orders came through to move Oxenham and the more prominent pirates to Lima, where they were publicly executed in 1580.

With both de Haro and the pirates dead, further attempts to find the missing gold and silver faltered. There was no trace of it at de Haro’s home. It later transpired that the real reason he had refused to hand it over was that he had lent it to several people as far away as Cuzco.

Juan de Saracho, another receptor of the Inquisition, petitioned the tribunal to authorize him to side-step the comisario's absence and collect every last peso of gold and silver from those Haro had lent to. He also asked for the authority to threaten anyone who refused to cooperate with excommunication. The Inquisition approved Saracho's petition and he and de Melo chased the loans, demanding immediate repayment.

While they were able to retrieve much of the money this way, their strong-arm tactics met with resistance. Included in the manuscript is a 1583 petition by the family members and descendants of the late Gabriel de Loarte, a leading official whom Saracho and de Melo had targeted, complaining of harassment. They argued that their father had received the loans from de Haro, not them. The last document is a ledger from 1583 showing the enormous amount recouped and the remaining amount, which, for all that is known, may have never been accounted for.

“The Oxenham expedition was a true pirate story. This manuscript has no parrots, eye patches or peg legs, but it shows how these privateers operated in a geopolitical context as the British and Spanish fought for control of the seas – and gives us a taste of just how much treasure was at stake,” said Swann Galleries’ Director of Printed & Manuscript Americana, Rick Stattler.

The estimate is $6,000 to $9,000.