During this food shortage, it was tempting to purchase food from foreign merchants who traveled the Florida coast.* However, Montiano had previously received orders from the court forbidding him to purchase supplies from any foreign colony.* It referred to the problem of previous Governor Benavides allowing a foreign schooner in to sell goods during a time of scarcity.* At some point before July 28th, Don Juan del Canto brought a letter from Guemes to Montiano that included orders to purchase supplies from French merchants in the area.* It was normally against Spanish law, but Guemes had apparently gotten permission from the king and made a contract with a French merchant named Monsieur Paran.* It was Paran who was chased away from the St. Augustine inlet by the English frigate.* By the time Montiano wrote to Guemes on July 28th, Paran’s schooner still had not been able to get into the St. Augustine harbor for some reason.* Montiano saw Monsieur Paran, but he apparently needed to meet with others on board.* He assumed the schooner would be in the harbor by the next day, and set an appointment to meet with the French at that time.* The French had a high price on their flour, but Montiano intended to try to negotiate it down.* On July 28th, the two schooners and the sloop sailed into St. Augustine’s harbor, still half-full of food.* While workers unloaded the rest of the cargo, Montiano spoke with the ship captains.* He learned that the sloop was from Campeche.* He spoke to the master of one of the schooners, Captain Palomarez, and asked him to take a letter to Guemes when it came time to return to Havana.* It would be some time before the ships set sail again.* Montiano had time to write another long letter to Guemes. He looked back through his notes.* The siege lasted 38 days, counting from June 13th to July 20th.* The bombardment from cannon fire had lasted 27 days, from the June 24th to July 20th.* There were three batteries of cannons assembled against St. Augustine.* One in the pool on Anastasia Island had contained four 18-pound cannons and one 9-pounder.* Another battery was set up on the hammock point of Anastasia, containing two 18-pounders.* The third battery was found on the interior side of the point at San Mateo.* It contained seven 6-pound cannonsfive of iron, and two of brass.* The men had reported seeing a grand total of thirty-four mortars, two mortars of which shot shells of half a quintal, and two others throwing full quintal shells.* The deserters called the thirty smaller mortars “cow horns.”* Some of the “cow horns” shot small hand grenades, and some shot grenades of ten or twelve pounds.* The bombardment on St. Augustine had killed an artilleryman named Contreras and the convict son of Ordonez who had come with the first launch loads from Mosquito Inlet.* In addition to these two deaths, a soldier had gotten seriously wounded.* It looked like he would lose his leg, but he would probably live.* A negro had gotten wounded, but was feeling completely healed by the time Montiano wrote his July 28th letter to Guemes.* Montiano was overwhelmed by the dedication that came out in all of his people.* The officers had displayed immeasurable constancy, valor and glory.* The troops, militia, free negroes, and convicts displayed unexpected patriotism, courage and steadiness.* Montiano was especially moved by the humble devotion of the free negroes and convicts.* Even though they were not in the military, they had borne themselves like veteran soldiers.* They had worked nonstop during the day, and each night, they maintained the caution and vigilance of old soldiers.* Even the slaves showed particular steadiness.* Montiano saw some of them insist they stop waiting for the enemy to attack and go out and initiate the attack.* As shining proof of his people’s dedication, Montiano was proud to say that not a single person deserted the Spanish side during the siege.* These were the same people that Montiano was so disgusted with beforethe ones who had worked half-heartedly and asked to move out of Florida. Montiano also realized how thankful he was for the six schooners Guemes had sent earlier.* Without them, he would have had to use only his two launches to guard the inlet.* And they would not have been free to run down the river to correspond with the other inlets.* Apparently, Guemes had told Montiano that he had held a war council to decide whether to send those schooners, and everyone but Guemes voted no.* Guemes had sent the schooners despite a torrent of their opposition.* Montiano began writing.* He thanked Guemes for the thrilling arrival of the three ships of provisions.* He told him how he had to wait several days to unload them because an incoming French supply ship was chased away by the English, and because a deserter said Oglethorpe would attack during the Spring tides.* He told Guemes about the four boats venturing down to get the supplies and fighting their way through the English at the Matanzas inlet.* He told him about the sudden evacuation of the English, and their outrageous abandonment of supplies.* He shared the defectors’ consistent claim that Oglethorpe was coming back, and asked Guemes to decide whether to believe that and send more reinforcements.* He recounted the numbers of men, casualties, armaments, and days of siege and bombardment.* He inventoried the arms the English had used, so that Guemes could prepare for at least that much of a future attack in the Spring.* He wrote a separate petition of supplies and reinforcements he believed would suffice for the potential future visit from Oglethorpe.* As Montiano wrapped up his letter with a whole page of praise for all the people of St. Augustine, it was nearing time for Palomares to leave.* He told Guemes he would send more news when Don Juan Ojeda took the supply boats back to Havana.* Meanwhile, he said he would send a letter immediately to the Uchees and try to win them over from the English during this time of disorganization.* After signing the letter, another deserter showed up.* He said Oglethorpe was going to construct a battery of six cannons on the north side of the entrance of the St. Johns River.* It would prevent any Spanish vessels from entering the river.* This was so that Oglethorpe could maintain a station at Fort Pupo.* There were now twelve deserters contributing to the story of Oglethorpe’s intentions.* Some of them disagreed with the latest one’s story about Oglethorpe maintaining Fort Pupo.* They said word had spread through the camps that they were to burn Fort Pupo and Fort Diego on their way out.* Luckily, scouts had determined the fort at San Diego was abandoned without being burned.* Some defectors said Oglethorpe was withdrawing his entire regiment to the fort of Federico.* He was going to fortify himself there and abandon the forts he had in other islands.* Other deserters said their general was going over to London for fresh reinforcements.* They claimed he original had 600 in his regiment, and only 378 remained.* All twelve agreed that Oglethorpe had gone for reinforcements with the intention of returning next spring with a larger force.* By far, the largest portion of Oglethorpe’s force was militiamen from Carolina.* Montiano did not believe for one second that the settlers of Carolina would give more help to Oglethorpe.* He had heard too many of their complaints about how this campaign had created problems for them.* Yet, Montiano was equally baffled at how many people Oglethorpe managed to instigate into his own little war without sanction from their king.* It seemed his authority and restless spirit may be able to move them again later.* Even if he couldn’t get his 600 men from Carolina to re-join, some of the defectors had heard he was expecting more troops from Englandsome said two thousand, some said two regiments.* If Montiano’s eight visiting companies of soldiers were to leave, he would be back down to his original skeleton crew.* That crew was down to 300 men, since the losses at Pupo, Fort Diego, the sloop, Mose, and random Indian attacks.* Some were dead, some were taken away as prisoners.* Montiano began to get nervous again.* He thought he had downplayed the Oglethorpe threat too much in his letter to Guemes.* If half of what these defectors were saying was true, now was the time to force Oglethorpe out of Georgia.* His troops were discontented and disbanding.* The Carolinians were highly unlikely to support this man again, especially because of their fear of their negroes.* If Montiano had just a few more men, he could wipe Oglethorpe’s traces off the Florida map.* Palomares was not setting sail yet, so Montiano re-opened the letter and wrote a super-long postscript.* He clarified and emphasized the defectors’ claims of Oglethorpe’s return.* He urged Guemes to prepare St. Augustine accordingly.* He again praised his men, but pointed out Fandino’s failure to follow orders, and Don Domingo’s bad reputation.* He finally finished with a wish that God preserve his and Guemes’s judgment.*