The canoe with the soldier and three Indians had paddled out of St. Augustine on May 25th.* Twelve days later, one of the Indians returned with three musket balls in him.* Hostile Indians of Mayaca had killed the other three men at Gega.* And news was still not reaching the outside.* Since then and before his letter of June 11th, a foreman at Don Diego Espinosa's farm came to town.* He reported that while Don Diego and some other laborers were working in the fields, 50 Indians appeared all around them.* The Indians appeared to be allies of the English, armed with muskets.* They started shooting at the group of workers.* A cavalry soldier got killed.* One of Espinosa’s negro slaves got killed.* A negro from the monastery of St. Francis ran into the woods.* The others managed to get into the fort.* The hostile Indians left.* The farmers assumed the negro who ran into the woods was dead.* Montiano sent help.* He rounded up a surgeon and sent him with a sergeant and twelve men.* He told the sergeant to bring back the wounded, and if necessary, leave some people as reinforcement to repair Fort Diego.* The sergeant still had not returned two days later.* Montiano sent a corporal of cavalry with six men to find out what was going on.* The corporal returned the next day, saying he was unable to reach the fort.* The enemy was spread far and wide, allowing nowhere to pass through safely.* Montiano sent out other scouts.* Not a single one could bring back news of Fort Diego’s circumstances.* He had no idea if Fort Diego was in Spanish or English hands, and if the people there were still alive.* Montiano called a council of the remaining captains.* They decided to send a detachment of 300 men to up the river to Don Diego Espinosa’s property.* They collected the men from the eight visiting companies, militiamen, Indians and negroes.* They were led by Captain Don Miguel de Ribas, Don Fulgencio de Alfaro, and Don Pedro Lamberto.* They loaded the men in four schooners, one launch, and four piraguas.* They loaded two cannons in case it was necessary to batter the fort, demolish a side of it, and recover or aid it.* The expedition set out.* Then a scout informed them that enemy was drawn up waiting for their arrival, with far more men than the Spanish had.* They turned around and came back to St. Augustine.* Now they knew Espinosa’s property and Fort Diego were in English hands.* But they still did not know if the people were alive.* After that, a scout brought news that the English were strengthening Fort Diego.* Other people frequently reported seeing small enemy parties not three miles away.* It sounded to Montiano that the English were in full force in Florida.* He believed they were establishing a storehouse at Fort Diego for food and supplies, in preparation for the siege of St. Augustine.* Apparently during this time, Montiano received a letter from Guemes, according to his June 11th letter.* It had a lot of questions for Montiano, but Montiano was so busy dealing with catastrophes that he hardly had time to answer the questions.* He started several responses, but he kept getting interrupted by another urgency.* It didn’t even seem worth the time to write, since letters either didn’t get out, or hardly incurred a good response.*