During the Benavides’ administration it became necessary to make an interim appointment because of the governor’s illness. In 1726 Benavides suffered an attack of appendicitis and had to leave for Cuba to undergo an operation. Since Ayala, the sergeant major, was in prison in Havana, the task fell to the senior officer in Saint Augustine, Captain Ignacio Rodriguez Rozo, whose term proved very short. A skilled Cuban surgeon, “from first to last pursuing the method by which the King of France, Louis XIV, was healed,” sent Benavides back to Florida within three months, relegating Rozo to his former place in the garrison. ...Interim governors had the same wide military experience as their permanent counterparts. Ignacio Rodriguez Rozo (1726) was senior infantry captain at Fort San Marcos when Governor Benavides left for Havana to seek medical care. Two later interim governors took office in a different manner. Both Joseph de Justis and Fulgencio Garcia de Solis were appointees of the governor of Cuba. (Tepaske GSF)