Once a month the royal officials and the governor were supposed to make a joint inspection of the warehouses and arsenal, then observe the rationing. The company captains and corporals also stood by while the steward doled out each man’s monthly rations and the notary recorded them. Since the soldiers had once complained of receiving 14-ounce pounds, the weights and measures were kept in evidence: the pint-capacity covered copper container for liquid measurements, and the balance or steelyard with weights for dry ones. [Note 21: Nicolas de Aguirre report 11/30/1578] AN442 Not all of those supplied from the warehouse stood in line at St. Augustine. Certainly not the treasury officials, who drew rations on the grounds that they too served as soldiers. [Note 22: Royal officials 9/23/1611] Exact records were kept of the whereabouts of the garrison. When the chief pilot came in to fit out a launch for coastal patrol, he was given the rations for his seamen. Detachments of soldiers at the watchtowers along the coast carried a month’s supply of provisions as they left. For the garrisons stationed in Timucua and Apalache the steward arranged a canoe pick-up point or sent out a supply train. …Sometimes the officials found it more practical to issue trade goods to the soldiers and let them buy their own food from the Indians—or maybe this was the way to get rid of an overstock. [Note 23: Nicolas de Aguirre report 11/30/1578; Gov. Marques Cabrera 11/4/1686; friars in chapter 9/10/1657] Items of every kind were carried, not only for the soldiers but for their women and children. The overseer of slaves and the master of construction used the buildings to store blankets, coarse clothing, and baskets full of maize and beans for the royal slaves, convicts, and repartimiento Indians. The Franciscan custodian kept the friars’ provisions and the church supplies there until time to deliver them to the missions. According to Accountant Nicolas Ponce de Leon, everyone in town lived off the royal storehouses. [Note 24: Fr. Juan Gomez de Palma 1640; Juan Menendez Marquez 9/20/1602; Bartolome de Arguelles, instructions to the steward 5/12/1591; Nicolas Ponce de Leon 9/12/1638] (Bushnell KC)