In April, 1756, Governor Alonso Fernandez de Heredia induced some colonists in Saint Augustine to begin manufacture of naval stores on their own initiative and sent 70 barrels of pitch and tar to the Havana Company, which used the commodities for its shipbuilding operations. This so encouraged the governor that in a report to the king he envisaged an enlarged trade with such important shipping centers as Vera Cruz, Puertobelo, and Cartagena. When Ferdinand VI received reports of these activities, he encouraged them. For the first time in almost 200 years a productive, profit-making venture seemed possible in Florida, and in his dispatch to Saint Augustine in the fall of 1756 he enthusiastically approved the scheme. He also agreed to let the Floridians cut royal timber in the colony for masts and spars. (Tepaske GSF)