The rare accounts written by situadores en route describe the difficulties of collection, purchasing, and transportation from their point of view. After giving bond and receiving his instructions and power of attorney, the situador was issued a boat and crew. He left them in the harbor of San Juan de Ulua and journeyed up the road past Puebla de los Angeles to Mexico City. There he paid the appropriate bribes and waited for his report on presidio strength to be checked, his supply ship’s tonnage approved, and the situado delivered. All this took time. The situador executed private commissions, saw friends, and enjoyed a taste of big-city life. Perhaps he put a portion of the king’s money out at interest or made other imaginative use of it. By the early 17th century, household items, coarse fabrics, and Indian trade goods were available at the workhouses of Mexico City and Puebla. In Vera Cruz there was flour of questionable quality. The paperwork for this large-scale shopping took more time, for local fiscal judges had to supply affidavits that Florida was not being charged an inflated price. Loading at San Juan de Ulua proceeded relatively undisturbed by port authorities: presidio supplies were exempt by royal order from either sales tax or customs. With his ship loaded, the situador waited with his counterparts from other Caribbean presidios for a warship to escort them and carry their registered money as far as Havana. [Note 41: Santos de las Heras to the Lord Secretary, Mexico City, 3/15/1654; Juan Menendez Marquez, Havana 6/1600, and St. Augustine 4/13/1601; cedulas to Pedro Redondo Villegas 11/14/1600, and the royal officials of Vera Cruz 9/29/1593; Bartolome de Arguelles, report on the situadores 1585-1598, 5/15/1602] Floridians preferred to avoid this stop if they could, for creditors lay in wait at the Havana harbor, and Cuban officials acting in the best interests of their island would attempt to attach part or all of the situado. The crown, which had interests of its own, might have sent them instructions to impound the situado for use in Spain. With creditors and crown outfoxed, the situador might still face a long wait until the coast guard reported the seaways clear of corsairs and the fleet was ready to sail northward through the Bahama Channel. There is no telling how much of the Florida situado in both supplies and specie was lost en route. Buccaneers grew so bold in the late 17th century that they sometimes waited at anchor outside the St. Augustine harbor. To elude the enemy, Floridians crossed their bar at low tide; or they sailed in September and October under great danger of storms. The likelihood of disaster was compounded by defective ships. AN76 The Nuestra Senora del Rosario capsized in the very harbor of San Juan de Ulua with 3,000 pesos’ worth of supplies aboard. Another vessel, apparently being bought on time, was lost off Key Largo and the crown strongly advised that payment be stopped on it. [Note 43: Francisco de la Rocha and Francisco de Cigarroa 5/21/1686; Pilot Gaspar Perez de Mancilla 1/20/1682; Gov. Salina 1/30/1623; Pedro Beltran de Santa Cruz, Havana 11/20/1655; cedula to Gov. Torres y Ayala 6/5/1698] A lost subsidy might be ordered replaced, but the sum could only be added to the arrears in the Mexico City treasury already owed to the presidio. (Bushnell KC)