Late in the spring, 1742, Guemes, Rubiani, and Arredondo made feverish, last-minute preparations for the assault on Georgia. A few days before the main body of the expedition left Havana on June 5, the Cuban governor dispatched a small vanguard of soldiers and supplies to Saint Augustine along with his final instructions to Montiano. Guemes now regarded the seizure of Saint Simon’s Island, not Port Royal, as indispensable for the success of the Spanish enterprise. Once Saint Simon’s fell, Montiano was ordered to lead his army northward along the channel between the coastal islands and the mainland, destroying all the English plantations and settlements he passed along the way. When the Spaniards had conquered the Georgia coast to Port Royal, Montiano was to send out Spanish Negroes into the Carolina countryside, promising land and freedom to any English slaves who would join the Spaniards against the English. Guemes also instructed Montiano to keep strict accounts of booty seized and to treat all prisoners humanely. ...The vessels ...engaged several English men-of-war as they neared the Florida coast. In the battle that followed, the Spanish fleet easily drove off the enemy ships, but ...these English vessels ...sailed to Frederica and Charleston to spread the word of the Spanish military buildup in Florida. (Tepaske GSF)