Anthony, Margaret, Mary, and Elizabeth. Timeline November 16–17, 1585 Thomas travels with an English naval fleet under the command of Sir Francis Drake destroys the town of Santiago, in the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa. January 1–3, 1586 Thomas travels with an English naval fleet under the command of Sir Francis Drake sacks the port of Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola. February 9, 1586 Thomas travels with an English naval fleet under the command of Sir Francis Drake attacks Cartagena, on the Spanish Main, and his men go on to burn the Spanish settlement at Saint Augustine (in present-day Florida). 1589 Thomas Gates edits and publishes A summarie and true discourse of Sir Francis Drakes West Indian voyage, an account of Drake's so-called American Armada, of which Gates is a veteran. 1591 Thomas Gates accompanies Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex, to Normandy, where the earl, commissioned a general for the occasion, lends his army in support of Henry IV, the Huguenot claimant to the French throne. June 1596 An English fleet under the command of Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex; Charles Howard, baron of Effingham and England's Lord High Admiral; and Sir Walter Raleigh sacks the Spanish port city of Cádiz. June 1596 On behalf of Queen Elizabeth, Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex, knights Thomas Gates for gallantry after the English sack of the Spanish port city of Cádiz. 1597 Sir Thomas Gates takes part in the Islands Voyage, in which an English fleet led by Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex, and Sir Walter Raleigh attacks the Portuguese-held Azores. The raid is unsuccessful. March 14, 1598 Sir Thomas Gates is admitted to Gray's Inn, one of London's Inns of Court. 1599 Sir Thomas Gates enters public service at Plymouth, England. April 10, 1606 King James I grants the Virginia Company a royal charter dividing the North American coast between two companies, the Virginia Company of London and the Virginia Company of Plymouth, overseen by the "Counsell of Virginia," whose thirteen members are appointed by the king. November 1606 Sir Thomas Gates first meets Sir Thomas Dale in Oudewater, South Holland, where the two serve as infantry officers in the army of the States General of the Netherlands. April 24, 1608 The States General of the Netherlands grants Sir Thomas Gates's request for a year's leave of absence. Gates, who commands