Nonfiction Chronology

(By Amy) Pedro Menendez was excited about Florida. His assignment was to settle a colony there and be its governor. He pitched in his own money and gathered some friends, relatives, and workers to build a town. The king gave him some extra menmostly prisoners and debtors who could work off their sentencesand weapons and supplies to remove the French intruders from Florida. The French colony was called Fort Caroline, in modern-day Jacksonville. Menendez sailed his ships along the Florida coast until he spotted a good place to start a colony. Since water was the easiest way to travel before cars were invented, calm water was the easiest place to park a ship. And since enemy ships were likely to show up, Menendez chose a calm harbor that was connected to the sea by a narrow inlet. That way, he could station guards on each side of the inlet who could block enemy ships from coming into the harbor and reaching the town. The day he found this great harbor happened to be the same day Spaniards celebrate the Catholic Saint Augustine, so Menendez named his new colony after that saint. But before he could start building a fort or homes, he had to follow his king’s orders and rid Florida of French Protestantism. After parking their boats in the harbor, Menendez and his men performed an elaborate Catholic mass on the beach to show the natives true Christianity had arrived. The natives heard music and men singing hymns; they came out of the woods and watched the ceremony. Then Menendez and his men marched up the coast, located the French colony, and massacred most of the men there. They took the women and children and ransomed them back to France. A few French men managed to escape Menendez’s attack that day, including the artist Jacques Le Moyne. Le Moyne wrote an account of the attack, as well as stories of the settlers’ life with the Indians before the attack. There is no record of the fort being destroyed, but today it is nowhere to be found. Luckily, Le Moyne also drew a picture of the fort. The National Park Service built another one there according to Le Moyne’s picture. Even though Menendez wiped out the French colony, there were still more French settlers to removemany more. A few days before the attack, about two hundred French soldiers had sailed south down the Florida coast, hoping to catch Menendez before he reached their fort. They went much further south than Menendez’s new camp at St. Augustine. Their ship got caught in a storm and wrecked near Cape Canaveral. The survivors swam to shore and walked back up the coast toward their colony. Menendez and his men marched back down the coast from Fort Caroline to St. Augustine, then a little further until they found the French castaways. By that point, the French castaways were weak and hungry, and Menendez’s men captured them easily. Menendez followed Spanish law by offering the captives a choice: life in prison if they would convert to Catholicism, or death by the sword. The French Protestants rejected the Catholic option, so the Spaniards slew them and threw their bodies into the Intracoastal River. Afterward, the Spanish named that portion of the river “Matanzas,” which means massacre in Spanish. They also later built a lookout fort near the site of the massacre, and they named the fort “Matanzas,” too. Finally, Menendez and his group built a fort, a church, and some huts out of wood and thatch. They couldn’t find any rocks to build with. That was just as well, because over time, they had to re-position the town. But soon it stayed-put on a small peninsula between the San Sebastian River and the Matanzas River.

Once the commotion died down in St. Augustine, Interim Governor Justis got to know a few of the locals. Among them, he met Don Diego de Espinosa, one of St. Augustine’s most prominent citizens.* Espinosa had a cattle ranch just north of town.* Espinosa had a surprising tale to share with Justis. The previous year, an Englishman had appeared in St. Augustine and asked permission to pass through on his way home to New Georgia.* The man’s name was Mr. Charles Dempsis, and he was the second in command over his colony.* Although New Georgia was where English settlers were planting roots on Spanish land, causing frequent skirmishes between the Spanish and English neighbors, and the Spanish king forbade any trade or aid whatsoever, Governor Moral preferred to make friends with the enemy. He ordered his adjutant, Don Manuel de Arze, to make sure Mr. Dempsis got home safely.* Arze apparently agreed with Moral’s ideas of diplomacy. Since Mr. Dempsis was an engineer,* he might be interested in that fort that Don Diego de Espinosa had built to protect his ranch from northern aggression. Don Diego had named his fort “San Diego,”* and Arze allowed Mr. Dempsis to spend the night in it.* Later, he granted the same privilege to two other Englishmen.* How Did Espinosa feel about his fort being a safe haven for the nearby enemy? I don’t know. But he certainly tattled on Governor Moral for it.* Interim Governor Justis was appalled at this news. He wrote a letter to the captain general in Havana, Senor Don Juan Francisco de Guemes y Horcasitas, to let him know this English engineer had seen up close the only defense on St. Augustine’s northern frontier. *

That winter, Indian allies of the English attacked Indian allies of the Spanish, killing their cacique Pujoy and taking his wife and fourteen others prisoner.* In this outrage, Montiano saw an opportunity to get more information from the English.* In January, he sent his adjutant, Don Juan Jacinto Rodriguez, with a dispatch to the English colonies of Frederica and New Georgia.* As a cover, he delivered notes from Guemes and Montiano to the English commanders of those colonies.* Guemes’s note had come in his letter dated November 24th,* and asked about news he had received from a certain English harbor pilot who had apparently corresponded with him.* Montiano’s note criticized the barbarous Indian attack during a peace treaty, and demanded the commanders punish Pujoy’s murderers and return his captive family.* While delivering these notes, Rodriguez’s group was supposed to snoop around and get the inside scoop on the English.* Turns out, this adjutant wasn’t any more effective than the one who had shown Don Diego’s fort to the English engineer, as Montiano complained frequently about his lack of competent spies.* Rodriguez first arrived at the old Spanish mission site of Gualquini, where Frederica’s English commander, William Horton, had built a plantation.* Horton read the letters, but would not allow Rodriguez to proceed any further to finish his delivery route.* Did he even know he was in Spanish territory? Did he know what happened to the French who tried that back in 1564? Rodriguez pressed Horton to allow him through because he was still supposed to visit the chief commander of the province of St. George, Thomas Hauston.* And after that, he needed to visit James Gascoigne, captain of the man-of-war that had brought Oglethorpe and his settlers to Georgia.* Rodriguez argued that he had been allowed through on other occasions in the past.* Horton would not bend, and apparently had some way to back it up.* However, he did promise to forward the letters to the other commanders and get answers within 21 days.* Despite Horton’s heightened security, Rodriguez noticed Frederica had no more fortifications than the last time he was there a year ago.* He told Montiano the English settlers appeared to be living carelessly, or maybe pretending to do so.* Some were willing to chat about foreign affairs. Rodriguez came back with word on street: Five months earlier, six ships with 50 and 60 cannons had left Holland to capture the coast guard cutter of Havana, which had seized an important ship. * In addition, a vessel without a national flag left Cadiz with orders from the king for Guemes and Benavides to meet and decide whether the prize was good.* Rodriguez also relayed that three English frigates had arrived with 350 laborers to cultivate the Georgia land.* When he looked for Gasgoine’s man-of-war, he was told it was in Savannah for repairs.* Meanwhile, a schooner owned by Captain Davis was loading in Port Royal to come trade in St. Augustine.* Montiano interpreted this as Oglethorpe ignoring his monarch and taking matters into his own hands.* More importantly, he saw English settlers acting outrageously bold in their occupancy of another country’s land.* Perhaps most alarming of all was the fact that the English monarch wasn’t doing anything about it. * Montiano became convinced that there was no turning back for the English.* They had already advanced into Florida through squatting, illegal trade, and reconnaissance which the immoral Governor Moral had entertained.* If Governor Montiano tried to protect the borders by the book, the English would advance through force.* And it looked to him like St. Augustine’s soldiers were already close to giving up.* Even his own adjutant Rodriguez seemed to have given up too easily on getting through Georgia.* Montiano didn’t have the resources to resist an English force.* His predecessor had dealt with that threat by negotiating with the enemy, probably thinking the court would never hear about it from the frontier edge of the empire.* But thanks to Spain’s law that every Spanish citizen and slave’s letters would be read by the court, every human being was a potential reporter for the king; it cut down on the need for supervisors. Montiano knew there was a good chance he would be blamed if St. Augustine fell to an English attack.* He dealt with the threat by making sure his boss was informed of every single detail, and that his boss made as many decisions as possible.*

That was not all Montiano wanted to say. He had to clarify his earlier claim about Oglethorpe.* Even though Oglethorpe had not really gotten Parliament’s permission to take over Florida, Montiano was convinced that would not stop him from trying to do so anyway.* Montiano shifted his focus from removing the squatters in St. George and Frederica to defending St. Augustine from Oglethorpe’s looming takeover.* In addition to a lack of arms, he was equally concerned that hunger would cause his townspeople to surrender.* They were already illegally trading with their English neighbors. While kings and Parliaments and Councils and governors were concerned with property rights, their townspeople were concerned with putting food on the table. After Matheo’s schooner left, Montiano wrote more to Guemes.* He shared his concerns about his people and his opponent.* He did what he could to relieve himself of any blame should the town be overtaken, and begged again for food.*

Montiano’s letters must have finally gotten Guemes’s attention. During February and March, he received several letters from Guemes with promises of troops, arms, and supplies. There was a large expedition on the way under the able command of Colonel Don Juan Baptista de Echeverria, whom Montiano knew and admired.* If Montiano was confused about the intentions of his English neighbors, he was relieved to hear Guemes wasn’t willing to take chances. Guemes sent instructions to implement a grand plan to remove the English settlers from Florida with a shock-and-awe strategy.* Secrecy was paramount, considering the free flow of news between the opposing colonies.* Montiano was thrilled.* First of all, he was now able to save his territory and people from the probable attack.* Second, he would be able to govern the colony without the messy questions of what to do about the encroachers.* Third, he was free to drop the confusing diplomacy game and resolve the problem with the tools he was most familiar withweapons.

The letter got confusing. It was dated February 22nd, but post-dated March 22nd.* As Montiano got it sorted out, the news was terrible.* Guemes’s magnificent plan was thwarted by a royal order he received from the king on March 21st.* The king said not to attack; he said the issue would be discussed between the crowns.* Montiano knew that issues handled in Europe were often too late for the effects on faraway colonies. Faraway in Florida, English were taking land and threatening attack. But now there was no larger expedition on the way to put a stop to it.* The food that came with the small armament was all they’d get, and they had to make it last indefinitely.* The keeper of the provisions needed Montiano’s guidance and enforcement to protect and economize the rations.* Montiano went to the treasurer and accountant, chief minister Don Antonio de la Mora and his aid, Don Antonio Diaz Villegas, and Don Lorenzo Garcia in charge of stores.* He helped them outline a plan to guard and ration the food, and ordered assistance to help them enforce it.* He lectured them about how important it was to make those provisions last as long as possible, and showed them Guemes’s letter that emphasized that as well.* He went to the engineer managing improvements on the Castillo and instructed him to keep a close accounting of everything Montiano ordered to make sure he wasn’t running over budget and could explain his spending.* Guemes’s letter also said to inform Don Alonzo del Toro to ignore his previous orders for immediate departure (from Apalache?).* Montiano sent a courier to Toro with a note to suspend his departure, and instead follow directions that Don Antonio de Arredondo had provided to be prepared for any emergency.* Guemes said if the crowns cannot agree, Montiano should investigate the defenses of the English settlements of Port Royal and Purisburg.* He should send out reconnaissance teams to see if those colonies had been reinforced with troops or maritime forces, and gather every tiny detail to inform the king.* This was impossible, as Montiano had already gotten useless results from his best options for surveillance personnel.* Other people he had considered had already shown themselves to be too loose-lipped to trust with details of a surprise attack.* The only person he could trust with such a mission was the royal engineer, Don Antonio de Arredondo.* He and Arredondo discussed ways for the engineer to go on a spy mission, but they couldn’t resolve many of the obstacles.* Over the next few days, Montiano received a cluster of letters from Guemes. Two letters dated March 18th were flooded with details of the plan to oust the Georgians.* But in letters spanning March 18th to 24th, Guemes retracted attack plans and revised details to convert Florida to be ready for anything.*

Montiano also received twelve cannons.* He had his eye on six more that were installed on the galliot.* He felt those would be much safer in the Castillo than on the schooner, so he took it upon himself to them transferred out where he could use them.* However, he still needed carriages to hold them on land.* It would be awfully expensive to make the carriages in St. Augustine.* He wrote to Guemes and told him what he did.* The Castillo had six mortar-style cannons.* However, the breech plugs for those cannons, which were made in St. Augustine, didn’t fit.* Even if they got correct plugs, the mortars were hard to handle.* Montiano found these five cannons and their ten non-fitting plugs a waste of good bronze.* He wanted the more agile falconet cannons.* As Don Pedro Barranco prepared to sail to Havana, Montiano got an idea.* He had the six cannons and ten breech plugs loaded onto Barranco’s vessel.* He told the crew that he would ask Guemes to have the pieces melted down and recast into falconets.* Two weeks after the cancellation of the attack, Montiano was still reeling from the disappointment.* He wrote to Guemes to cry some more about it, and to profess his dedication to Guemes’s ideas.* He assured Guemes that Don Antonio de la Mora had not carried out the canceled instructions for the ten thousand pesos.* He was at least pleased to confirm that the other six thousand pesos were being spent on a weekly basis for fortifications, but under tight accounting scrutiny by both the engineer and Montiano.* This was important because St. Augustine had a history of losing track of its twelve thousand peso emergency fund. Montiano also confirmed that the galley slaves and provisions had arrived, minus the Morro escapee.* And he explained his wishes that the bronze mortar cannons be returned as falconet cannons.*

On May 29th, a 20-gun frigate and a sloop appeared outside St. Augustine’s inlet.* It seemed they wanted to come into the harbor, but storm winds brewed up from the north.* Both crews had to lower their sails and point into the wind for two full days to keep the ships under control.* Montiano wanted send a launch out to see why they had come, but none of St. Augustine’s boats could handle the wind, either.* Both boats finally left without making any contact.* Somewhere around that time, Montiano received a current copy of an English Gazette newspaper from Georgia.* The headlines blared of the wayward harbor pilot returning with news that St. Augustine was fortifying for war.* The Gazette confirmed that the frigate and sloop outside his harbor had come to verify the harbor pilot’s claims.* It also seemed obvious that those colonies had been ignorant of the battle rumors after all.* Montiano bundled the Gazette together with Arredondo’s update to Guemes and sent it to Havana.* Also somewhere around that time, Montiano received a letter supposedly written by the English harbor pilot to Davis.* The pilot told Davis that on May 15th, three frigates arrived in St. George.* They had sailed eight weeks to get there, which would have them dispatched in the middle of March. One, called the “Phoenix,” had 20 cannons.* The others transported 600 regular soldiers from Gibraltar, plus a variety of 40 more cannons.* Oglethorpe was expected to arrive soon.* This news resembled what Montanio had heard from the loose-lipped traveler in February.* That explorer had said England was sending 800 soldiers, including 300 from Gibraltar.* They were also sending two frigates, one with 40 cannons.* However, just as Montiano did not quite believe that explorer’s story, he was not quick to believe this letter from Davis.* Not only did the English settlers seem confused and ignorant, they also seemed capable of disseminating false information to confuse their enemies.* Also somewhere around that time, Edward Bullard arrived in a sloop.* He handed Montiano a letter from the Governor of St. George.* Then Bullard requested payment of money he had loaned the Governor of St. Augustine, and a few private individuals as well.* Apparently, St. Augustine had even done banking business with their English neighbors before Montiano came along. Montiano didn’t buy either the letter or the request for payment.* Something about Bullard’s time and delivery made Montiano smell a smoke screen.* He suspected the visit was nothing more than the English settlers trying to confirm the rumors in the Gazette.*

After sealing the letter, Montiano couldn’t get his mind off the lack of action. He looked back at that mind-blowing letter of March 24th. It was like instructions to hurry up and wait. One thing he was allowed to move forward on was surveillance of the English settlements of Port Royal and Purisburg.* He sure wanted to know the truth behind the conflicting English sentiments. Montiano again thought through his selection of personnel to send on a spy mission. Once again, he could not think of a single person who would take the mission seriously enough to get behind enemy lines and still keep the battle plans a secret.* The one person who was dedicated and competent enough, Arredondo, was not available.* The very next day, Montiano wrote again to Guemes to complain about the lack of competent personnel he was graced with.* In fact, he said it was a bigger problem than any of the other pitiful conditions of the colony.* He acknowledged that his previous attempt at information-gathering returned the positive news that Frederico and St. George were not getting fortified, and that the people there seemed completely ignorant of any talk of war.* He had a copy of the English Gazette sent to Guemes to show just how unaware those settlers had been.* He told Guemes about the frigate and sloop that had sat for two days outside the harbor, and about Edward Bullard coincidentally showing up near the same time.* He sent Guemes a copy of the letter that Bullard brought, plus a copy of Montiano’s response to that letter.* He also shared the details of the pilot’s letter to Davis, which corroborated the news of England sending troops to Oglethorpe.* However, he added his doubts that any of this news was trustworthy, since it was coming from untrustworthy people.* And once again, he lamented that he didn’t have any trustworthy people of his own to go and find out some real facts.*

On June 7th, Don Miguel de Ribas led a caravan of 50 soldiers, some convicts, and horses out of town.* They were headed to Apalache to build a fort there.* They took 32 loads of supplies for the journey.* Once it was finished, some families from St. Augustine would go live there.* However, Montiano was concerned that the English would see or hear about it from Indians and go move into it themselves.*

The next day, a cavalry soldier came back sick (of the 20 who went).*Montiano asked how the journey was going and if the supplies were holding out.* The man said they had so much fresh meat that they leave their leftovers behind when they resume the journey.* Montiano assumed this meant the caravan would have a good journey.*

Two days after the caravan left for Apalache, Montiano sent Arredondo, Lamberto and Portillo to Apalache.* Lamberto took his troops and a band of Indians with him.* Arredondo’s job was to choose the best spot to build homes for the families that would move there.* He was to get the homes built as quickly as possible so the families could move in before the English beat them to it or tried to sabotage the project.*

On June 17th, Montiano wrote his update to Guemes.* He relayed the rumor that 200 men were working day and night on a fort on St. Simons Island.* He lamented again about not being able to verify this rumor.* This time, he didn’t blame it on incompetent personnel. He said that if he sent a spy by boat, the English would surely not allow the person beyond the docks.* He shared his attempt to send Juan Ignacio, but said the mission was blocked by too many obstacles.* He said he was waiting for a better opportunity to send a spy.* Montiano also updated Guemes on the Apache project.* He told him about the caravan’s departure, the report of abundant meat, and about Arredondo’s mission to get the homes built before the English have time to discover and wreck the project.* Sir: After the departure of the transports with Don Philipe de Yturrkta and his troops, I learned that the English are fortifying Federico on the island of San Simon, where they are building a brick fort, and that they are doing the work from San Jorge, using a great number of pinnaces, and employing more than 200 men, laboring night and day. Although this information may be feigned, and intended to alarm us, yet I deem it my duty to communicate it to Your Excellency by reason of any significance whatever it may have for the royal service. In order that Your Excellency might be fully possessed of the matter, and for the purpose also of acquiring a real certainty in respect of the operations actually in hand, I at one time thought of despatching one of my most active officers under some pretext, but I have abandoned this step, because it would be perfectly useless. For although he might be allowed to land, he would not be allowed to enter the settlements or converse with any one. To the same end I contemplated sending by land the Indian Juan Ygnacio with companions of his own choice ; after having made preparations, so many difficulties and hindrances came up, that I thought it best to suspend the matter for the present, waiting to see if time would not open a channel through which we might get the news we need. And although Don Antonio de Arredondo, while he was here, and I discussed this matter thoroughly, we have been unable so far to find such a channel. On the 9th instant, there set out for Apalachee Don Antonio de Arredondo, Don Pedro Lamberto, and the foreman Portillo, preceded two days before by Don Miguel de Rivas with his detachment of 50 men, and the convicts who go with him to work on the fort at that place. They took with them thirty-two loads of provisions for the journey. One of the 20 troops of the expedition, returning sick, tells me that they find fresh meat so abundant that they leave it behind at their halts: I take it they will make a good journey. Don Antonio de Arredondo is charged to reconnoiter the terrain best adapted for the settlement of the families destined for that province, and to execute this task with prudence so that neither the Indians nor the English shall detect our purpose, and by advancing occupy the ground before the arrival of the families. Another possibility to guard against is that the English, knowing our plans, should induce the Indians to embarass their execution. I have no doubt that his good management will secure all proper means to this end. Florida, June 17, 1738.

Two weeks later, at four o’clock in the afternoon, a courier arrived with a note from Don Pedro Lamberto.* Lamberto and his troops and Indians were traveling back to St. Augustine from Apalache.* The Indians had fallen behind and became separated from the troops.* Two scouts were a ways ahead.* During that separation, Uchee Indians had attacked Lamerto’s troops and killed to two scouts.* Others were injured.* The troops tried to chase down the Uchees, but they disappeared into some brush too thick for the troops to get through.* Lamberto thought of waiting for his own Indian allies to catch up and help chase down the attackers.* However, he decided that would cause enough commotion to blow the secrecy of the construction project in Apalache.* Plus, Lamberto himself was sick.* They gathered the wounded and continued on their journey until they reached Fort Pupo, 20 miles west of St. Augustine.* Lamberto also said that the English of the neighboring colonies had invited the Uchee Indians to come in, and the Uchees were preparing to cross over to those colonies.* The courier had continued on to St. Augustine to deliver Lamberto’s letter.* He also had letters from Ribas and Arredondo.* They both described a smooth arrival in Apalache.* Montiano was also relieved to read that Don Pedro Barranco had arrived there with his (barge/launch) and (bilander/sloop).* Did Barranco come from Havana or St. Augustine? The attack on Lamberto’s troops, on the other hand, had implications that unnerved Montiano even more than the tragedy of it.* He excused the courier and immediately sat down to write to Guemes. He told him about the attack and its possible link to the English.* If they were allying with Uchees to attack Spaniards on inland roads, there was more strategy going on than Oglethorpe’s coastal campaign.* Once again, Pedro de Alcantara had to catch the wind with his schooner.* Once again, Montiano had to cut his letter short, despite the urgency of the message.* By the time he signed the letter, Montiano started to fear it wouldn’t even reach Guemes.* He copied the letter verbatim.* He sent one copy to Havana on board Pedro de Alcantara’s schooner.* He called for Luis Gomez, and gave him the duplicate letter to carry overland to the Florida Keys.* He told Gomez to give the letter to the master of the first ship he saw in the Keys, and tell the captain to deliver it immediately to the hands of Guemes in Havana.*

At some point between August 8th and August 31st, Quilate’s envoy showed up to deliver their chief’s message.* They confirmed that the English had held a meeting of several Indian nations and implored them to scout the road to Apalache and kill all the Spaniards they could.* Montiano had their statement written and certified, and sent a copy to Guemes.* He also sent a copy to the commander of Apache, along with Don Sebastian’s testimony from his visit to Georgia.* Montiano was confused again. The commanders of the English colonies consistently sounded like agreeable neighbors in their correspondence, yet they refused to let Spanish visitors into their settlements, and someone up there was hiring Indians to kill Spaniards. Montiano remembered the rumors that Oglethorpe wanted to control Florida in order to control the treasure route through the Florida channel.* More specifically, he had heard that Oglethorpe planned to keep ships in the channel and the Keys so they could rob the galleons that tried to pass through.* Just before August 31st, Montiano was relieved to see Juan Ignacio walk into his office.* The Indian had apparently spent over two months in English territory.* He testified to everything he had seen and heard there, and Montiano had the testimony recorded and certified.* His story was well worth his extended absence.* Ignacio had spoken with the Governor of St. Simons, Lieutenant Colonel Cochran.* Cochran asked Ignacio if they had much silver in Florida.* Ignacio said they had an abundance, for every month the soldiers were paid.* Cochran replied that soon, all that would belong to the king of England.* Cochran later had asked Ignacio about the condition of St. Augustine and the Castillo.* Ignacio’s answer, whatever it was, prompted Cochran to voice a threat.* He said, “When you hear of the arrival of General Oglethorpe, whom I expect with 700 men, then you will see me at the mouth of the bar in a vessel of war to stop the introduction of provisions into Florida, and another at the keys to check the embarkations from Havana.”* Cochran told Ignacio that within two or three years, they would be making wine and rum in these provinces.* He that there were 900 men in Sabanato, St Andrews, and St. George, plus the 700 to be brought by Oglethorpe, plus five or six thousand Indians which he will convene in less than two months.* He said he will come on the St. John’s River and disembark at Fort Picolata, 20 miles from St. Augustine.* Finally, Ignacio relayed a comment he had overheard someone saying to Colonel Cochran and William Huston.* They were each informed that fifty dollars had been offered to their Indians for each scalp of a Spaniard whom they had killed.*This tidbit confirmed the cow hunters’ story, and explained the violent loss of Lamberto’s two scouts, and also the night attack on Fort Pupo.* Montiano assumed this was how the English were able to recruit the five or six thousand Indians that Quilate had told him about.* Montiano was convinced Cochran would not attempt such a large and violent campaign without express orders from his court.* Montiano asked Ignacio to take the first ship available to Havana to tell Guemes his story in person.* However, Ignacio didn’t want to go.* He said he had asked Our Lady of Cobre for success with that mission, vowing certain things in return.* Now that his mission was successful, he needed to fulfil the promises he had made.* Montiano respected Ignacio’s wish, and didn’t want to expose him to any more danger.* He gave him the freedom to choose whether and when to present himself to the Governor of New Spain.* He made a mental note to ask Guemes to reward Ignacio if he does visit, and to send him back as soon as possible.* After Juan Ignacio left, Montiano contemplated the whole story. Were the neighborly letters from the Georgia commanders a farce? Or maybe only Cochran was in with Oglethorpe, since he had just come from London.* In fact, maybe Cochran had heard in London that Parliament officially adopted Oglethorpe’s proposal to take over Florida, with promises of wealth from controlling the channel.* The supply boat captain Davis brought more news to Montiano.* Davis said he had an informant on the island of Barbados who he had the utmost confidence in.* The Barbados informant said that Oglethorpe will transport one thousand men to Georgia.* He also said that twenty English warships from London were stationed off the coast of Jamaica.* This sounded like a threat to the Spanish fleets as much as St. Augustine.* Meanwhile, the English encroachment was coming closer and closer, suffocating St. Augustine, with the increasing ability to block provisions from the Caribbean and starve out St. Augustine’s residents.* Montiano refused to leave his people in danger of starvation.* The supplies from New Spain were already unreliable due to mismanagement and weather.* He could not afford to add English intervention to the obstacles.* He asked the purveyor at New York to send St. Augustine a year’s worth of supplies as soon as possible.* Around the same time, three men came to St. Augustinetwo Irishmen and one Scotchman.* They had defected from the English colonies.* Montiano questioned them and had their testimonies recorded and certified.* At some point before August 31st, Montiano sent a detachment of men to live on an armed barge, scouting the St. Johns River.* At eleven-thirty the night of August 31st, a courier arrived from the barge.* He was sent to tell Montiano they had come across an island called St. Johns Island.* It seems Montiano knew of the island, where the English had built a fortification two or three years earlier and intended to expand it into a full settlement.* On the beach of the island, the barge-goers saw 25 Indians and two Englishmen.* It looked like English development of the settlement might be under way.* Montiano was furious.* The English settlers were taking advantage of the delay between the crowns to resolve the border dispute.* They were simply building on Spanish land without incurring a battle over it.* Montiano was determined to prevent it, but prohibited from instigating a battle lest it cause all-out war.* He stewed and stewed on ways to make the English give up their settlement on St. Johns Island.* All the news was spelling imminent danger from Oglethorpe.* After the courier from the barge left around midnight, Montiano felt panicky.* He sat down to write Guemes for help and hopefully action.* He intended to answer the whole batch of letters that Marcos de Torres had brought from Guemes.* However, as he wrote up a recap of the Oglethorpe progressive plan to take over Florida, he felt the need to only bother with the urgent matters so as not to slow down Guemes’ ability to do something about it.* He made sure to commend Juan Ignacio and ask for the Indian to be rewarded* and returned as soon as possible.* He closed with a plea for provisions and labor to finish the Castillo, and a promise to exercise the utmost vigilance in protecting Spanish Florida.*

At some point after October 8th, Montiano received a letter from Guemes.* Guemes said the squadron of nine warships (Mont. already knew about them?) commanded by Don Joseph Pizarro were sitting in the harbor at Havana.* An express boat on its way to Vera Cruz had dropped off two letters from Spain to Guemes, but neither of them reported anything new about whether the country would go to war.* Guemes told Montiano that he had seen other, private letters that sounded like the English had corrected their intentions.* Guemes explained reasons why he and others thought the English would resolve their differences in the colonies by peaceful means.* Montiano could not fathom this was true.* All of his men traveling the road to Apalache were targets of Indians for the fifty dollar bounty offered by the English.* Reports kept coming of troops and guns setting up camp all around him.* When Captain Davis was in town, Montiano had a long, private conversation with him.* He managed to get Davis comfortable enough to give what Montiano believed was a true and accurate account of the situation in the Georgia colonies.* The only thing new among Davis’s details was confirmation that Oglethorpe was now in Georgia.* Montiano could see no reason except for Oglethorpe coming to Georgia except to begin the fight he had been stocking up for.* In fact, Montiano was astonished that Oglethorpe had not made a move yet, considering how captious and restless the man was.* Montiano didn’t trust the calm at all.* It was so opposite of the storm of military building that had been going on, that Montiano interpreted the quietness as a cunning military tactic.* He resolved to keep himself and his people on full watch of the St. Johns River and the Pupo and Picolata forts.* He was also determined to keep the work on St. Augustine’s fortifications moving forward as fast as possible, and keeping up the quest for information on the English colonies.* He refused to sit back and let the English keep taking over Spanish land with no rights to it.* Montiano was in a dual battle. One was to keep up with his advancing foe. The other was to keep his government convinced he needed help. He kept writing every little detail to Guemes, but often there was no ship available to deliver his letters.* He decided to send a (barge/launch) with his mail if there was no ship to take it.* Sure enough, Montiano got a letter from Don Pedro Lamberto.* Lamberto said that (Oglethorpe had shot a soldier/a soldier shot at Oglethorpe).* Lamberto found out about it from Davis, but Davis had (never mentioned it/hidden the fact from) Montiano.*

On February 16th, some of Montiano’s guards from the St. Johns River came to Montiano.* They brought with them an Englishman who had appeared on the other side of the river.* The guard boat went to check him out, and the man explained that he had defected from one of the English colonies.* Montiano took a testimony from him and had it recorded.* From the man’s description of the English colonies, it sounded like very little progress was being made on Oglethorpe’s fortifications there.* Another source provided more news to Montiano.* He learned that Oglethorpe owed more than $12,000 to suppliers in New York.* None of the English colonies wanted to furnish him with any more supplies.* It seemed to them that Oglethorpe’s whole project was a bad proposition due to his cash-poor position and reputation as a negligent paymaster.* Finally, Montiano’s fear of being attacked was subsiding. In early March, he sat down and wrote a letter to Guemes to update him on the relieving news and forward the fugitive’s testimony.*

Exactly one month from the cordial visit from the Georgia embassy, an altercation took place out at sea. Spanish raiders boarded a British ship, and in the ensuing scuffle, a Spaniard sliced off the ear of British Captain Robert Jenkins. The Spaniards went away, but Captain Jenkins found his ear, preserved it, and later presented it to Parliament as evidence that Spain was not controlling its sailors well enough. Montiano would find out about it later, when the War of Jenkins Ear erupted between the two countries.

In the middle of June, Montiano received a letter from Guemes dated June 9th.* Guemes said that due to royal order, he recommended the same course of action that Montiano had decided on regarding the eight convict deserters.* Something about that agreement caused Guemes to say it was indispensable that Montiano pursue fresh negotiations on the matter.* He should also use the opportunity to gather more information about the English and forward it to Guemes and the king.* Around the same time, Montiano received a royal order to inform the commander of the Carolinas of the 2nd article of the convention.* Montiano thought that Oglethorpe was that commander.* He wrote a letter to Oglethorpe advising him to read the second article of the attached convention.* It was another good excuse to send some observant eyeballs into the English colonies.* As Montiano considered who to send, he thought of Don Pedro Lamberto.* Someone’s daughtermaybe Lamberto’shad been suffering from some serious illness for many years.* Montiano encouraged Lamberto to visit the English doctors about the matter while he was there delivering the letter to Oglethorpe.* Along the way, he should observe as many details as he could for report to Montiano, Guemes, and the king.* Lamberto sailed up the river in a barge with his two letters.* Lamberto did not meet Oglethorpe at St George as planned.* The people in charge said Oglethorpe had gone on a journey of more than 300 miles.* Lamberto gave the letter and convention to the lieutenant in charge and insisted he open it.* The lieutenant wouldn’t open it.* He said he had been instructed to only receive letters and forward them on to Oglethorpe.* They gave Lamberto a receipt for the letter.* They also gave him a copy of the deputies’ response to the letter Montiano had sent back with the ambassadors who had come to visit.* Oddly, their response did not mention the convicts at all.* The Carolinians were not in the least bit hospitable to Lamberto like Montiano had been to the English envoy.* They only let Lamberto leave the barge; his men had to stay onboard.* Even after coming ashore, they would not let Lamberto walk around their settlement like he had in the past.* He noticed that the Georgians had treated him better, and that there was some discord between Carolina and Georgia.* In fact, the Carolinians refused to recognize Oglethorpe as their commander.* Somehow, Montiano knew that Carolina was in trouble with their slave population.* He had no doubt that sight of a Spaniard could inspire a slave to rebel or run away.* The Carolinians guarded heavily against this possibility because their slaves determined both their success and ruin.* About two months after the visitors asked to trade St. Augustine’s convicts for runaway slaves, the Trustees in England responded to the December petition they had received from Georgia asking for the right to sell property and own slaves. The Trustees scolded the settlers for being swayed by unscrupulous slave traders. They said that if Georgia were open for land sales and slave labor, it would soon look like Carolinaa small handful of white landowners in a dangerous sea of disgruntled slaves, open for attack from outside and within. The Trustees said that if they even considered changing their rules, it would make a mockery of the original charter granted by the king.

On December 22nd, a cavalry soldier from the guard of St. John's Bar came to Montiano.* The bar was about 36 miles north of St. Augustine.* The men stationed there had seen the tracks of 25 or 35 men at the small creeks about half way of the road.* Right after the first report, another cavalry soldier of the same guard appeared.* This one said an Indian told him he saw the tracks of more than three hundred white men on the banks of the St. John's.* According to Montiano’s 2nd letter on January 31st, the tracks went no further inland than the little creeks.*

The next day, the ensign of cavalry Don Lorenzo Joseph de Leon, and one soldier brought the same news to Montiano.* They had seen a great number of Indians and white people on the banks on the St. Johns.*

Don Diego Espinosa’s fort was right in the vicinity of the sightings of the English.* Perhaps that’s where they were headed.* On Christmas Eve, Montiano called a meeting of his top officials and assigned someone to take minutes.* They talked about whether to demolish Don Diego’s fort, or reinforce it and occupy it.* They wondered if they even had enough power to attack the oncoming English.* Someone suggested that if they sent men to Fort Diego, then St. Augustine would be less protected.* Did they realize that’s what happened to the French at Fort Caroline, when St. Augustine was first founded? Surely Montiano did, since he had just compiled that package of documents for the king. Montiano’s 2nd letter of January 31st says he believed the tracks from the English indicated they were on their way to attack that fort.* If the fort was attacked in its usual state, it would be quickly surrendered because of its faulty construction, lack of a ditch, and only two ramparts opposed to the enemy.* When Espinosa built the fort, he felt that two ramparts were plenty, since all he was guarding against was Indian attacks on his slaves.* The fort was also three miles from the landing, which made it difficult for Montiano to send help.* Anyone going to help the fort during attack would be crossing open, flat fields.* They’d be easy targets for enemy soldiers hiding in the woods.* The group conceded that perhaps the English had no intentions about Fort Diego.* Nevertheless, Montiano believed they did have intentions.* Just in case, he decided to send eleven men to Fort Diego.* In his 2nd letter of January 31st, he said he sent the amount of men equal to the number seen in the creeks.* Their job was to wait for the English to approach the fort out in the open, surround them from the woods, and destroy the attackers.* Montiano told Guemes that he remained easy on the number of men sent until he got a more reliable head count on the English in that vicinity from his scouts who were out there.* After the meeting, Montiano and the officials went around to the sites where men were working to build up the security system of the town.* They urged the workers on, and looked for ways to speed up the process even more.*

On Christmas Day, a trooper and some of St. Augustine’s Indians came to Montiano with news.* About twelve miles from St. Augustine, they had discovered the fresh tracks of 30 men.* That same day, Montiano received a report from Father Francisco Gomez, parish priest of the village of Ayamon.* Ayamon was where the Indians of Pozatalaca had established themselves the previous year to cultivate the more fertile land there.* Father Gomez said about 10 Uchee Indians were spotted about 22 miles from St. Augustine.*

On the morning of the 26th, Montiano called for the ensign of cavalry, Don Alonzo Joseph.* He sent Joseph out to scout the country and collect all the cattle he could find and bring the back to St. Augustine.* They would ferry the cows over to Anastasia Island for safe-keeping.* After Joseph left, Montiano summoned four of his Indians.* He told them to scour the country for English people.* Montiano offered a twenty-five dollar reward for English or hostile Indian prisoner.* Then Montiano called for his sub-lieutenant Don Manuel Garcia.* He instructed Garcia to take his men in four small boats and cut stakes.* They needed stakes for several different purposes, both royal and for defenses.* That afternoon, Don Alonzo Joseph returned with 93 cows.*

On the 27th, Montiano called in the ensign Don Antonio Solana.* He ordered Solana to bring all the horses into town.* He sent Don Cristobal de Torres, Bartolome Ramirez, and other residents out on the same mission.* Montiano assigned Don Francisco Menendez, and other residents the chore of crossing the cattle over to the island.* While the townspeople worked with the cows, Montiano sent Juan Ignacio with five other Indians to watch for signs of English movement on the St. Johns River.*

On the 28th, Montiano sent out four more Indians by land with the same mission as the group from the day before.* That night, two of the Indians who went with Juan Ignacio returned with huge news.* That morning at ten o’clock, the fort at Picolata was attacked by 240 English and Indians.* There were only seven men stationed at Picolata.* According to the two Indian scouts, those seven men defended the fort valiantly till five in the afternoon.* At five o’clock, the enemy made a shameful retreat.*

On the 29th, Montiano sent more Indians out to find English and hostile Indian prisoners.* This time, he sent the Cacique Chislala, and told him to choose eight Indians to take with him.* They were to take their prisoners alive.* Soon after, one of the seven soldiers who had defended Fort Picolata arrived, along with Juan Ignacio Juan Savina.* They described the battle at Picolata a bit differently than the first story Montiano heard.* These men said there were 150 English and 30 Indians, and the fire lasted four hours.* The first messengers reported sixty more attackers and three more hours of fighting.* These men had more details about it.* They said only one Spaniard was wounded.* It was the artillery man stationed there.* Two of the attackers were seen to fall, one of whom appeared to be an officer by the looks of his laced hat.* Four men carried away the two wounded men.* The soldier said the attackers shot large-shell grenades from two royal-sized mortars.* He gave Montiano a few shells of the grenades that had fallen inside the fort.* Montiano’s 2nd letter of January 31st added that he was told the attackers carried two standards to show their colors, and played drums as well.* The fort was already propped up and falling over.* The cannon was dismounted on its first fire.* It was two grenades that entered the fort and finished its demolition.* Yet the men defended themselves with valor from ten in the morning until five in the afternoon when the enemy retreated with their wounded officer.* The Picolata garrison feared the English would return with a larger force.* They also feared the roof of the fort would cave in on them.* They abandoned it.*

On the 30th, Father Gomez from Ayamon arrived with more news.* He said Uchee Indians had killed Fayaquisca the day before near Ayamon.* Later, the four Indians who went out on the 26th returned.* They told Montiano they had been to San Mateo on the St. John's.* They saw Indian tracks passing back and forth, but they could not figure out if they were constructing a fort near the river.* They could see only boats going to San Juan.* The four Indians debated whether the Indians and whites who had left the tracks could be found near the river, because they all headed toward San Juan.*

On January 1st, an English frigate appeared outside the St. Augustine harbor.* It appeared to have 20 to 24 guns.* It sat out there without approaching, until about three o’clock the next afternoon.* In his letter of January 2nd, Montiano refers to Fandino's performance on the bar of San Jorge.* He suspected that because of Fandino’s performance, the English must have armed one of their man-of-wars to pursue the privateer, or to come and wait at St. Augustine to intercept boats returning.*

On January 4th, Cacique Chislala returned with all his Indians.* Chislala assured Montiano that they had thoroughly combed the areas along the St. Johns River.* All they found were camps where the hostile Indians had been.* They determined from the camp remnants that there were 134 Indians and about 200 English.* They had made thirty-six fires.*

On January 7th, Montiano sent Juan Ignacio with Geronimo and three other Indians to scout and examine the landing places along the river.*

On January 8th, the artillery man that was wounded in the Picolata attack died.* The same day, Montiano ordered Don Pedro Lamberto Horrutiner to take a large group of men out to scout.* Lamberto took 25 horsemen of his own company, 25 infantry, and 30 Indians and free negroes.* The negroes were all fugitives from the English Colonies.* Montiano told them a few enemy Indian scouts were supposedly out there somewhere.* He wanted them captured.* Lamberto’s entire group returned that night with no success and no news.*

On January 13th, Father Gomez from Ayamon had sad news for Montiano.* At nine o’clock that morning, his village was attacked by 46 Uchee Indians.* Most of the villagers found safety in the little fort they had there, but one Indian was outside and got scalped.*

On January 18th, a detachment of infantry, cavalry set out to rebuild the fort at Picolata.* Montiano got nervous and told them to wait until Juan Ignacio got back with a report of activity near the river.* That day, Juan Ignacio returned with some of his Indians.* Geronimo had left with him, but did not return with him.* Ignacio said they saw twelve boats in the St. John's River at a place called St. Nicholas.* There were three schooners, two sloops, and seven canoes, all weighted down with people.* Ignacio said it seemed to him there must been 700 men aboard those boats, and most of them wore red coats.* It seemed to Montiano that this enormous expedition was on its way to attack the tiny fort at Pupo.* All of La Florida could not have stood up to such a formidable force.* Montiano could think of nothing at all to do about it, so he gave no orders on the matter.* Montiano dispatched two troopers with two Indians to see if the vessels landed people at Salamatoto.* He also sent two Indians to Picolata to watch for signs of the English.*

On January 19th, the Indians who went to Picolata with two soldiers the day before returned.* They said they got close to Picolata but saw nothing.* Somehow, Montiano found out that they had not even gone half the distance to Picolata.* The soldiers who had left with them returned also.* They said they had scouted the estuary of Nicola, but didn’t find anything.* Soon after, Geronimo returned.* He had gone all the way to Picolata, and saw two boats in the river there.* The boats just sat in the middle of the river without moving.* Montiano wondered if they were stationed there.* Perhaps they were watching to see if any Spanish armament entered the bar.* If they saw a Spanish ship, one of the two boats could sail off and warn their colonies, while the other could rush to notify the 12 vessels at St. Nicholas.* Meanwhile, it seemed quite possible that the men in those boats could take over the Pupo fort across from Picolata.* That afternoon, Montiano sent Laureano Solana, sergeant of cavalry, with eight soldiers and four Indians, to see if the two boats were still there, and if they had taken the Pupo fort.*

Solana returned at one o’clock in the morning.* He said he saw a large number of men and fires at Picolata.* However, it was too dark to see the fort or count the men there.* When daylight came, Montiano sent Juan Ignacio and eleven Indians back to Picolata for more details.* He told them to try to bring back a captive Indian or Englishman.*

Espinosa and the six troopers returned two days later.* He said he saw three supply tents on the St. Johns opposite St. Nicholas.* St. Nicholas was the narrowest part of the river, about 48 miles away.* When they tried to get near enough to see what was in the tents, a gun went off nearby.* It appeared to be a signal that his party was discovered.* They retreated quickly, worried they’d get cut off.* In his 2nd letter of January 31st, Montiano said Espinosa reported seeing many people, but not a single boat.* He also said Espinosa was trying to approach the river bank when he heard gunshots.* The river makes a horseshoe bend around the St. Nicholas landing.* Espinosa said he withdrew to a safe spot where the land projected out into the bend.* Espinosa and his men agreed that the gunshots were probably the enemy’s advance guards sending signals to each other.* Espinosa assured Montiano that no other inexperienced person would have gone forth because of the musket fire.* It sounded to Montiano like the English were taking great care to not be seen working in the St. Nicholas area.* Between that and the fact that the area was advantageous and narrow, he believed they were building fortifications there.*

Two days later, Moral returned with the usual blank report.* His party had reached the abandoned ashes of Picolata.* They tried to see Pupo across the river, but rain and fog blocked their view.* Some of the men said they thought they could see the fort, and others thought they heard the sound of a drum from it.* But they could not provide Montiano with any details or the enemy captive he was seeking.* At some point, Montiano started believing the reasons the scouts didn’t try very hard.* In his second letter of January 31st, he explained to Guemes that Florida’s many thickets, ponds, swamps, and various other obstacles make it very difficult to learn the news.* Spaniards could not penetrate the wilderness without the risk of getting lost or quickly disabled from having to march through waist-high water most of the day.* For some reason, the Indians couldn’t help because there were so few of them left.*

In his letter to Guemes on August 7th, Montiano refers to a circular dated January 30, 1740.* It was sent to all councils of the cities of the Indies (Americas?).* In the circular, the King especially recommended the defense of all his American dominions.* He offered to send troops from the Kingdom if anyone needed a stronger resistance against foreign invasion.* Either the circular said, or Montiano added, that if Spain could not supply additional troops due to some serious obstacle by sea or land, or for any other good reason, then Montiano would have to appeal to Guemes in order to fulfill his own duty as governor.*

In Montiano’s 2nd letter of January 31st, he sums up the current state of St. Augustine.* Most of the Uchee Indians had become a ruthless gang of bounty hunters, harassing the Spaniards and their Indian allies.* The Uchees often traveled through the area on their way to the southern coasts looking for runaway slaves for the reward the English offered.* On their way back, they passed through either Ayamon or las Rosas, where the Yamases had established themselves after their bout with the English in Carolina.* Both of those villages had an increasing problem with Uchees shooting at them.* The villagers were afraid to leave their forts, which made it impossible to maintain their own sustenance.* The guerrilla behavior of the Uchees caused all the frontier villages to relocate to the safety of St. Augustine.* Even there, they were surrounded by enemies.* Now, all Floridians considered it a death wish to leave the safety of the walled city.* The safety of the city was a double-edged sword for Montiano.* The more Floridians moved into St. Augustine, the less populated Florida was, and the more the English advanced and surrounded the Spaniards.* Without populating the entire territory, none of them could live peacefully.* As a result, Montiano was plagued with residents asking permission to move to Havana.* They had valid reasons.* They were perpetually hungry from food shortages, and they foresaw it getting even worse with the continuing war.* They also pointed out all the other deprivations they suffered from not getting paid in over three years.* Montiano was stuck.* He knew the people were right to want to get out of Florida.* He was certainly tempted to grant that privilege to all the useless mouths he was trying to feed.* But that was not what he was hired to do.* He was hired to protect and help populate La Florida.* He would be a disappointment to the king if he were to allow people to depopulate.* Even if he granted temporary release for people during this time of danger, there was little chance he could get them to come back later.* Yet, keeping them all there was just as much of a problem.* If Oglethorpe brought on his siege, how on earth would all those people fit into the Castillo?* And where would they get enough food, if they were stuck inside the fort?* At some point before January 31st, Montiano had a council meeting with his royal officers to figure out how to answer the people asking to move to Havana.* They weighed all the above considerations, including their blindness as to how the crowns might resolve the territorial differences they were struggling to deal with.* The council decided that until they hear from the king, no one was moving out of La Florida.*

By the time Montiano wrote to Guemes on January 31st, the news from Pupo grew extremely grim.* Picolata and Pupo had been built to protect St. Augustine and its correspondence with Apalache from the continual attacks of Indian allies of the English.* The forts were built on opposite banks of the St. Johns River, with Pupo just a little north of Picolata.* However, despite being able to see each other, the garrisons were unable to help each other because they were out of gun range.* Montiano reflected on these two humble guardposts.* Even though they were small and built of wood, the men stationed there had defended themselves well at various times against the Indians that had attacked them.* The tiny Picolata garrison had resisted four or five hours of attack by more than 200 men.* With the fort on fire and the enemy retreating because their leader apparently got killed, the Picolata garrison canoed over to get shelter behind the Pupo fort.* Evidently, they assumed the English were only taking a short break.* When Montiano heard the Picolata garrison had moved to Pupo, he sent orders for them to come back to St. Augustine in their canoe by way of a channel that empties into the ocean nine miles from St. Augustine.* Meanwhile, the garrison at Pupo was on its own.* It consisted of a sergeant with ten men.* The Indian Montiano had sent to check on them was also missing; Montiano assumed he had fallen into the hands of the enemy or was unable to come out of the fort.* Other of Montiano’s scouts reported that they heard heavy gunfire and cannon fire at Pupo.* The scouts stayed in the area another day, and the fighting kept on.* About two-thirty in the afternoon, they heard a seven-gun simultaneous salvo, and then silence.* Without looking for further details, the scouts hurried to St. Augustine to tell Montiano.* Montiano was heartbroken.* He had given the sergeant at Pupo written instructions to defend himself with honor if attacked, and if he ran out of ammunition or provisions, hurry back to St. Augustine where he would be received with honor.* Now, it seemed clear that the twelve men had fought bravely for two days, but they took too much of a risk at some point.* Now they were missing, and Montiano had little hope they were alive.*

On January 31, Montiano collected his notes from the past two months.* He wrote everything to Guemes and sent the launch to take it to Havana.* As usual, he explained his reason for including so many details; he wanted Guemes to decide how to protect St. Augustine and arrange for provisions needed to do so.* He pointed out that certain needs were impossible to fulfill locally.* To help Guemes picture the scene even better, he described the St. Johns Riveroften referred to as the Picolata River by the natives.* He said it was a tributary of the ocean.* He said it was three quarters of a league wide, according to three different engineers who had measured it accurately.* The river entered La Florida over the St. Johns bar, and exited at Apalacheeor the southern coastaccording to the belief of the most experienced Indians.* Montiano told Guemes point-blank that he had no naval forces to oppose the enemy's.* If he did, it would be easy to bring them in over the same bar of St. Johns, then send them out to meet incoming enemy ships and punish them severely in order to guard Spain’s claim to La Florida.* Without a naval force, however, there was no way to prevent enemy takeover.* This, he told Guemes, was precisely why he had not sent a land force to fight the English.* If he did, the land-based troops would have no power against the English naval forces.* Any land attack would require a strong sea force as well.* Montiano did some theorizing for Guemes.* Suppose, he said, the English followed through on their threat to blockade St. Augustine.* And suppose they attacked the Picolata and Pupo forts to force Montiano to send troops over to the river.* I don’t know why Montiano would say this, since the English already had those forts.* But suppose the English forced Montiano to send a large group of soldiers out of St. Augustine.* Montiano had no doubts that the English’s Indian allies would try to block communication between St. Augustine’s outside troops and the city.* It seemed they could easily do that, since they appeared to be mastered of the wilderness.* If Montiano sent out troops and they were unable to return safely, then he would have very little manpower to prevent the English from assuming control of the St. Augustine harbor.* They could do that with the ships that were already in the channels from the St. Johns bar into the interior, which they would control as well.* With this strategy, Montiano told Guemes, the English would easily take possession of St. Augustine.* There would be no one in town to defend it if he was forced to send troops out.* Did Montiano know this is what happened at Fort Caroline when Pedro Menendez settled the town? Montiano acknowledged that it would be a rash and illogical decision to send troops out under those conditions.* But even if he got zealous and sent them anyway, they would get no glory for their valiant fighting because there would be no fight at all.* The English would control the entire St. Johns River with their heavy launches able to carry medium caliber guns.* Montiano’s troops didn’t have guns that could reach the boats.* With the river and bar under their control, the English could bring in more support at any time.* They would control coastal access from the islands they already occupied all the way to Puerto Real, 150 miles away.* Even if some of the English troops disembarked and allowed Montiano’s troops within gunshot range, Montiano reasoned, it could be just a trick to lure the Spaniards out into the open.* Then the English could jump into their small boats and quickly get out of gun range while the larger boats opened fire on the exposed Spaniards.* It would be pitiful, Montiano said.* If he lost the troops Guemes had sent him, St. Augustine would be in worse condition than before he even got the reinforcement.* This would not only upset the king, but sure be the beginning of the end for La Florida.* These territorial matters were not the only reason Montiano wanted a sufficient protective force.* Suppose, he said to Guemes, neither of them received orders from the king suggesting that the English would control the seas with their ships.* Just as important was the well-being of the Spanish subjects in his jurisdiction.* Montiano’s first and foremost duty as a governor was to economize the rations so the people did not starve.* Montiano told Guemes frankly that nothing burns through rations quicker than sending out detachments.* A heavy detachmentsuch as sending 400 or 500 men through deserts, uncultivated thickets, impenetrable and dangerous woods possibly occupied by the enemywould require special supplies that could not be furnished without causing serious shortages in the future.* Not to mention the fact that the effort would most likely end in fruitless failure.* Montiano was beside himself.* He told Guemes that in his efforts to maintain La Florida for the king, he has had to ask for Guemes’s assistance on several occasions.* This time was even more imperative than the priors.* Montiano begged Guemes to help by sending whatever was needed to fulfill the king’s intentions for La Florida.* To add yet another huge reason that Guemes should direct more attention toward St. Augustine, Montiano reminded him that the outpost had not received a paycheck in four years.* The agent who went to collect it at the beginning of 1737, Don Pedro de Escobedo, was never seen again.* Sad rumors floated around St. Augustine that Escobedo had been shipwrecked or captured by the English.* Montiano begged again for Guemes’s help.* Again, he swore his dedication to preserving the outpost with his utmost passion and firmness, even to the point of sacrificing his life for it.* He had given an oath, and he was going to honor it.* He closed the letter by relaying the sad story of the garrison at Pupo missing in action and probably dead.*

Montiano sent Juan Ignacio out with ten other working Indians to survey the country and river near Picolata.* Still trying to learn anything about the English settlers, Montiano offered Ignacio’s men a nice reward for the capture of an Englishman or Indian ally.*

Ignacio returned to report his inability to capture a live enemy due to the thousand difficulties he encountered right at the start of his mission.* They had gone to were the creek of Tocoy empties into the Saint Johns to embark in the small canoe Ignacio kept hidden there.* They paddled along the southern bank thereabouts so as better to carry out his ideas.* While carefully proceeding through a thick fog, they discovered a scow moored on the same bank they were skirting.* Afraid of being spotted, they turned around and landed a little farther back.* They divided into two squads and surrounded the intruders.* As they approached, they saw the English in an orange grove collecting oranges.* Ignacio’s group started shooting, and the English ran toward their scow.* Ignacio’s men stepped behind pine tree trunks and kept shooting as the English crowded around to board the scow.* The helmsman fell, then another one fell.* Many of them grabbed oars and rowed furiously, but without the helmsman guiding them, the vessel got nowhere.* Ignacio’s Indians kept shooting nonstop at the mayhem, moving closer and closer, until a blast from a cannon yanked their attention toward the south.* Approaching full sail was a schooner painted red, full of people on board, some of them were disembarking.* Ignacio and his Indians retreated into the woods for safety.* Ignacio wanted to retrieve his canoe, but there was no way to get to it while the English were still there.* Night was setting in, so they abandoned Ignacio’s canoe and made their way back to St. Augustine.* Hearing this story, it was clear to Montiano that the English had occupied with their boats the entire river at Picolata.* In their occupancy, they could cut off St. Augustine’s communication with Apalache and capture any courier who tried to get through.* They also had easier access to Uchees whom they could hire to do their dirty work.* Montiano was incensed by the audacity of the English.* Their virtual control of Spanish land was a mockery of the king’s honor and a stain on the catholic arms.* It was insult enough to trigger rage throughout the Spanish empire.* Once again, Montiano wished beyond measure that Guemes would just send the schooners and sailors that had been allocated to fight these encroachers.* Montiano grimly knew it wasn’t enough to get arms and men, because nothing got accomplished without an effective leader.* He wanted the schooners, the sailors, and a hero of a mariner to make successful use of it all.* Without that maritime force, Montiano was unable to secure the colony he was in charge of.* Instead of safety and prosperity, they were becoming trapped in a corner.* Soon, not a single man would dare leave the city walls anymore, even for food.* They would all just be waiting to perish.* If by some miracle Guemes would fill Montiano’s request for ships, he would need a whole lot more hawser to tie them up.* Meanwhile, Montiano’s strategic mind was clinging to an idea that might help.* People who knew the country well told Montiano about a valuable stretch along the St. Johns River called Mojoloa, not far from Picolata and Pupo.* While the St. Johns was usually too wide for gunfire, the Mojoloa stretch was narrow enough for musket shots to reach any ship from the shelter of trees on the bank.* All boats trying to go south on the river would be exposed at that point.* If the English happened to sail south to reinforce Pupo, or simply to dominate the full length of the river, Spaniards would have an easy shot at them.* Along the Mojoloa stretch, the river looks wide, but most of it is shallows that even the smallest canoe cannot pass through.* The main channel runs very close to the Mojoloa shore.* Now that the English had possession of Fort Pupo, Montiano envisioned building another fort at Mojoloa.* With six or seven eight-pound cannons and a garrison of fifty men under a captain, they would be able to block Pupo from any possible reinforcements.* It was a wonderful thought.* Montiano decided to propose it to Guemes.* He made a list of what he would need.* If the schooners were finally sent, they could transport the artillery and clear the river of enemy boats.* They could capture the intruders, and the enemy at Pupo would hand over the fort without even trying to fight.* After clearing the area of enemies, the schooners would sail back to St. Augustine and stand ready for defense.* Then Montiano would work hard to recruit Indians to settle around the new fort at Mojoloa.* Then the settlers who had started farming two years ago would feel safe to take their slaves out there and try again.* Oh, Mojoloa was surely going to be the salvation of La Florida.* If only those schooners would show up.* Montiano sat down and shared his vision with Guemes.* After he signed the letter with ample praise for Guemes’s wisdom and strength, Montiano received an update from the field.* English boats were spotted in the river as far as 45 miles south of St. Augustine.* They seemed to be seeking an exit to the Keys, as well out to the bays of Carlos and Tampa.* If such openings existed, it would open up three news angles for enemy encroachment in La Florida.* Montiano’s need for a naval force was escalated even higher.* He added this detail in a postscript on the letter, begging Guemes to free La Florida from the death grip they were in.*

Montiano felt a little hasty about announcing his Mojoloa plan to Guemes.* He realized that his intelligence had come from country folk and not an engineer.* To make sure it was possible, he sent the engineer Don Pedro Ruiz de Olano to formally survey the area.* To protect the engineer, he sent as an escort captain of cavalry Don Pedro Lamberto, 25 men of his company and 10 trustworthy Indians.*

Olano’s caravan walked back into town three days later.* Olana said he surveyed the Mojoloa area carefully and found it just like the country folk had said, with one exception.* The wide shallows that reached to the far side of the river were deeper than first reported, reaching half a yard deep at the bank.* The bank they would build on was a bit boggy as well.* Nevertheless, the entire shallow was covered, with no land protruding from below the water’s surface.* And the site was nicely concealed from the sights of oncoming river traffic.* After noting this, Olana took his military escort to inspect the similarly narrow strip of the river at St. Nicholas.* There, the ground ran hard from one bank to the other, with each side offering a little more than musket range.* Olano and his escorts decided that no other place would be more suitable for a fort, especially with the addition of a chain or palisades to prevent passage on the narrow strip of river.* When Montiano listened to Olano’s description, he began to envision a fort in action on that horseshoe bend of St. Nicholas.* The pass would be even more impenetrable if there was a sister fort on the other side, providing for a cross fire at any unwanted vessels.* With that complete blockage of the St. Johns River, St. Augustine could re-secure their communication with Apalache.* Once again, a wonderful solution was at hand.* Once again, Montiano was ready to build.* Once again, he needed that naval force to plow through the English who were in the way of everything.* No matter how magnificent his existing force performed by land, it would still fail without a naval force to regain control of the St. Johns River.* Without that naval force, it would be impossible to fortify and control the river at St. Nicholas.* Without that naval force, it would be impossible to re-capture Fort Pupo.* Without that naval force, it would be impossible to make the river safe, and protect St. Augustine from English attack from their own Fort Picolata, where they were camped the closest.* Without that naval force, nothing seemed possible.*

Even with that naval force, any great plan would fall short for lack of food.* If he did get the naval force, he would need food for its personnel, for he didn’t even have enough for the existing people.* In his letter of March 24th, Montiano says the most recent shipment of food from Havana had been exhausted for more than a week, with the exception of a small amount of corn.* This is the one week point, so it must have happened one or more days earlier than this.* The garrison was already subsisting, and the sight of more people coming in just meant more hunger for everybody.* Montiano kept getting slapped with the reality that he must pay as much attention to food management as he did to scouting.* The food had to be intensely rationed and protected from spoilage.*

After contemplating Olano’s vision of a fort at St. Nicholas and establishing control of the entire river, Montiano summoned Captain Don Manuel Montero de Villasante and coached him on all the reasons St. Augustine needed that naval force.* He sent Villasante to Havana in Ojeda’s launch to describe vividly for Guemes all the difficulties presented by lack of a naval force.* He wrote a letter for Villasante to take to Guemes, repeating the entire plea.* He made sure to point out that the ships must be well manned by skilled sailors and commanded by a man of intelligence and valor, and well supplied with provisions for those people.* He begged Guemes to send all this as quickly as possible, so the English could not repeat their occupation of the Florida coast with their squadrons, blocking St. Augustine from all supplies and communications.* Writing his letter, Montiano feared that all his specific details and strategies might just sound like a desire for power such as Oglethorpe displayed.* He assured Guemes that his motivation came solely from his passion to preserve the luster of Spanish arms, the glory of God first, the protection of La Florida, with the welfare of the garrison next.* To prove he was not pursuing any worldly interest, Montiano invited Guemes to appoint anyone else to manage the operation.* He could choose anyone he had confidence in according to the conditions of the expedition projected against Georgia after the equinox of March, 1737.* Montiano invited Guemes to govern that person independently of Montiano, and Montiano pledged to support that person by offering accurate advice on the state of the country, and giving him all the benefit possible resulting from experience.* Montiano swore to Guemes he desired nothing but the best service of the King.* He pledged with all his heart to happily comply with any orders Guemes imposed on the selected leader, without any resistance or alteration to Guemes’s instructions.* He trusted Guemes’s higher powers of judgement through wisdom and expanded sources of information.* After professing his faith in Guemes, Montiano reminded him that while the English had cautiously pushed forth for several years, St. Augustine received no word from the crown on how to stop it.* The Spaniards were lulled into believing the English were keeping the good faith set forth in the preliminaries of the convention of January 14 and 15 of the previous year.* Now, without even intending to, the English had already gained the upper hand.* Montiano enclosed a copy of something that referred to the king’s wishes.* Did he find an old document that helped his cause?* It said they should pay close attention to the operations of the English of Carolina.* It was probably written before Georgia came along.* It contained orders to block the Carolinians’ plans and progress in Spanish territory, using force if necessary.* Montiano said that his obligation to follow that order forced him to keep pestering Guemes for the provisions required, as he was the only person who could give him the assistance he needed, with the promptness required by the present urgency.* Without this assistance, it was clear Montiano was unable to offer any resistance, nor feel like he was doing his job, since he lacked sea forces, and therefore, stores, boats, and seamen for their organization.*

In Montiano’s letter of May 13th, he tells Guemes that on April 13th he sent a courier to Apalache to find out the state of the Uchees and report back to Montiano.* He didn’t return until May 10th.*

The next morning, Montiano got to work on his new naval fleet.* He had cannons mounted broadside on four of the ships.* He had a new foresail fitted for the sprung one.* He had all the missing fittings replaced, and all the arms repairs.* He had grapeshot assembled in canvas bags and stored next to the mounted cannons.*

Four days after receiving his own navy, two English frigates from the north were spotted offshore.*

By dawn, both English frigates were parked right off the bar, at the same point of the compass (pointed north?).* They sat there all day.* A launch left the frigates on what appeared to be run for water.* It appeared to be going ashore near the point and shore of San Matheo.* Someone in St. Augustine sent two launches out to confront the water fetchers.* They must not have seen the Spanish launches coming.* They rested on their oars.* Their flagship fired a warning from their cannon, and the water boys saw the Spanish barges coming down on them.* The flagship fired again, and the water boat rowed back to the safety of the flagship.*

At dawn the next morning, only one of the English frigates was seen.* It was anchored on the bar.* This encouraged Don Juan Fandiño, Don Francisco del Castillo and the pilot Don Domingo de la Cruz.* They formed a plan to surprise the one that remained in sight.* Full of excitement, they laid the plan before Montiano for his permission to proceed.* They were completely confident they could surround the lone frigate and get it to surrender.* They said the remaining frigate only had 18 or 20 cannons.* The plan was to fully arm the six schooners and two barges.* They would wait till nightfall, then 50 cavalry and three officers would sail out in the six schooners and the two barges to confront the frigate.* Surrounded by Spanish vessels, the frigate would easily give up and allow them to come aboard and arrest them.* It felt hasty to Montiano.* He had not seen for himself that the frigate was alone out there, nor how many guns it had.* But there was no time for him to find out.* The captains and the pilot were so excited by the good luck of the other ships being away that they did not want to miss the opportunity to take advantage of it.* Their confidence swayed Montiano, but he approved their plan only with the stipulation that they would not blame him if it failed.* After dark, the men assembled to board the ships.* Don Juan Fandino gave orders for each man's duties in an honorable retreat should it come to that.* All of the officers wanted to be the first person to board the conquered enemy ship.* Just then, the lighthouse keeper on Anastasia Island came into town with news.* At dusk, he had seen a bilander to the north.* The schooner captains decided to wait till dawn to make their move.*

Dawn came, and the six schooners and two launches sailed out through the inlet.* The bilander was nowhere in sight.* The English frigate sat alone out there with no wind to lift its sails.* For some reason, the Spaniards waited until 8:30 to make their move.* Then, they boldly approached the frigate in order to board it.* By that time, it was ready for them.* It opened fire on them furiously.* Luckily, the Spanish schooners were just out of range.* They surrounded the frigate, and it shot at them from all sides except the rear.* The Spaniards sprayed grapeshot and cannonballs at the frigate from all sides.* The Spaniards kept trying to maneuver and approach its poop (rear upper deck), where no guns were pointed them.* The various companies cheered for their commanders to be the first to access the ship, chanting, “Let us board!” But the frigate’s captain would not have it.* The ship moved like it was determined to be master of the coastline and the inlet.* Its oarsmen took their time and frequently pulled away from the fight to prepare their next move.* Meanwhile, the Spanish oarsmen wore themselves out trying to chase the ship and retreat from its gunfire.* The cannon fire continued in a frenzy.* From close up, Spaniards were now counting thirty-some guns, with a seemingly endless supply of ammunition.* The crew was also much larger than expected, many of them wearing the red uniform of an enlisted English soldier.* Every time the Spaniards began a series of shots, the frigate turned its broadside at them, which was too thick for their ammunition to penetrate.* It also put the schooners in range of the frigate’s guns.* Captain Don Francisco de Castillo managed to rip a few shots through the poop, blasting off a gun port that was there.* Soon, the rear cabin and its furniture were reassembled as a barricade, and guns began firing from behind cabin doors, windows, and tables.* The frigate aimed fourteen shots at Castillo’s ship, and all fourteen of them missed.* After two solid hours of getting shot at with no luck and no surrender from the English, the Spanish captains were ready to go back to the harbor.* But the frigate blocked the inlet.* They used their oars as gauge and determined the wind was building from the east.* [Would this blow them straight into the frigate?] They turned their sails and rode the wind down to the Matanzas inlet.* It sounds like the schooners came back to St. Augustine up the Matanzas River.* They had no injury or damage, except one shot that didn’t make any difference.* But the two launches came back along the coast.* The English frigate tried furiously to block their way through the inlet, maneuvering and shooting cannons at the launches.* But the little boats were able to get closer to shore than the frigate could.* They got through unscathed.* That evening, the men were all excited to share their battle stories in town.* Montiano commended Fandino for the good leadership he displayed in coaching the men on an honorable retreat.* Castillo got praised for wreaking destruction on the frigate’s poop, and dodging fourteen cannon shots.* The men recalled the competition to be the first to board the ship.* Montiano’s own artillery men bragged to him about how well they performed, and the good shots they made.* In his mind, however, Montiano believed that if they had attacked at dawn like they said they were going to, they would have caught the frigate unprepared and it would have surrendered or sunk.* The highly competent naval commander he had asked for had not arrived.* In fact, he envied the commander of the English frigate.*

For at least three more days, a lone frigate still sat outside St. Augustine’s harbor.* It appeared to be the same one they had battled.* Remnants from the battle floated up on St. Augustine’s shores.* There were sleeping berths, windows, tables and other fragments, plus the cannon port Castillo had blown off.* Most of it appeared to be the makeshift barricade the frigate had erected during the fight.* On April 24th, a lookout reported seeing another frigate near Matanzas.* They assumed it had cruised down to Cape Canaveral and back.*

By the 26th, it looked like the frigate outside the harbor was the one from Matanzas and not the one from the fight.* A dispatch boat had joined it.* They assumed it was delivering news of what had happened to the other, and to advise her not to approach the coast and risk getting caught without wind.* As of the 27th, it appeared the English intended to occupy the coast for quite a while.* Montiano wrote the chain of events to Guemes, starting with the joyful receipt of the naval fleet.* He described his improvements to the ships.* He relayed the appearance of the frigates, and the timely opportunity of the lone frigate.* He shared the plan the captains had contrived for attacking, and wrote a detailed account of the battle.* He commended the captains and crew for their great work and spirits, but acknowledged the plan probably would have succeeded if the element of surprise had been maintained.* He closed the letter with the status of the English frigate camping out at their inlet.*

On May 9th, the frigate and dispatch boat were still blocking the inlet and appeared to have no intentions of going anywhere.* As Montiano watched the inlet for the supply ships he had been begging for, he could see that they would not make it past the frigate unless they came with an armada.* He also heard there was another frigate blocking the inlet at Cape Canaveral.* Nevertheless, on May 9th, desperate for food, he transferred six thousand dollars in coins from the treasury to one of the government sloops.* Captain Don Domingo de la Cruz had the dangerous job of carrying all that money to the colony of Guarico (in Venezuela?).* There, he was to purchase flour and other stores for the support and maintenance of the St. Augustine garrison.* Somehow, Cruz made it out of St. Augustine, despite the blockade.* The same day, Marcos de Torres’s sloop sailed out, captained by Pedro de Echeverria, heading to Havana.* Presumably, both boats sailed down the Intracoastal Waterway and exited through the Matanzas inlet.*

Back on April 13th, Montiano had sent a courier to Apalache to find out the state of the Uchees and report back to Montiano.* He returned nearly a month later on May 10th.* He said it was extremely difficult journey because the countryside was crawling with Indian allies of the English.* The courier had news.* He said Pablo Rodriguez was sailing to Apalache with supplies when an English sloop at the Key of Bones (Key West) began to chase him.* The English sloop ran aground, but then it sent a launch with twelve armed men on board, including several Indians.* Rodriguez’s men defended themselves with their two stone-mortars and one firelock gun.* Rodriguez escaped, although wounded in the breast with a musket ball.* The courier’s story showed Montiano that he now had English on the other coast to contend with.* Any future attempts to get help to Apalache would be a shot in the dark.* That same day, either before or after the news from the courier, Montiano ordered 2nd Lieutenant Don Joseph de Rivas to take a note to Guemes in Havana.* The note detailed the current state of distress La Florida was in from insufficient provisions.* Rivas sailed in Bartolome de Espinosa’s schooner.* To get past the English frigate, Espinosa sailed down the Intracoastal Waterway and went out the inlet at Matanzas.*

On May 11th, the English frigate and dispatch boat were still sitting outside the St. Augustine Harbor.* On May 13th, Montiano wrote that another frigate was stationed in the channel off Cape Canaveral.* It looked like he found this out before the 13th.* It was apparent that all entrances to St. Augustine were blocked, and if Guemes ever did send a supply shipment, it would not get through the English blockade.*

On May 12th, the frigate and dispatch boat were still out there.* That night at (the beginning of the night/one o'clock in the morning), a soldier arrived with sad news for Montiano.* He was from the watch stationed at the Matanzas inlet.* Pedro de Echeverria had come to Matanzas with sad news.* The morning after they left St. Augustine, they were sailing about eight or nine miles south of the bar of Mosquitoes.* A frigate was sitting near the shore.* Echeverria tried to sail past it, but as they passed, the frigate opened fire on them.* It had about 40 guns.* Echeverria’s men shot back and tried to get away, but the frigate began chasing them.* The frigate caught up and forced Echeverria to run aground just north of the Mosquito inlet.* Did they turn around and try to sail back to Matanzas? Did they lose the sloop to the English? Did Rivas get past that point in Espinosa’s schooner?

The news of Marcos de Torres’s sloop getting run aground prompted Montiano to call a council of war meeting.* They discussed their extreme shortage of food, and the sea blockade that prevented any food from arriving.* The frigate and dispatch boat were still sitting out there, and another frigate was stationed in the channel off Cape Canaveral.* An English sloop was guarding Florida’s west coast from the Keys.* No boats sent by Guemes could reach them.* The food shortage was taking a serious toll on the people of St. Augustine.* However, to try to send another boat to Guemes would mean losing yet another boat to defend the town.* All the local schooners were gone.* The six naval schooners remained to protect the town.* If the English had smaller, more agile boats in the Keys and sent them into the St. Augustine Harbor, Montiano only had one remaining launch.* It was not enough withstand an attack from other small boats.* Meanwhile, the courier from Apalache had confirmed the danger building from Indians in the interior.* More and more Indians were accepting bribes from the English to kill Spaniards and their Indian allies.* Spain’s Indian allies were in danger simply because of their affiliation with the Spaniards.* They couldn’t even hunt or forage for food safely.* Many of them were ready to sever their Spanish connections.* Some might even turn on the Spanish for the compensation offered by the English.* The only way to convince them to at least remain neutral was to provide the provisions they were unable to acquire normally.* They counted the people affected by the siege.* It included every Spaniard and ally in La Florida.* There were St. Augustine’s local garrison and their families.* There were the visiting sailors, convicts, and galley slaves.* There were the runaway slaves at Fort Mose.* There were the Indian villages that had migrated to the city.* There was Lamberto’s group at Apalache.* There were the outposts at Anastasia and Matanzas.* Altogether, St. Augustine’s usual population of 300 now amounted to over 2400 mouths to feed.* Unless something changed, people would start dying of starvation, or in a fight with the English ships, or by Indian attacks.* The people in the council of war meeting decided to sacrifice one of the naval schooners to send one last request to Guemes.* They asked for a food supply to be sent with sufficient naval force to get past the English frigates.* They asked for enough food for the colony to outlast the blockade.* They asked for enough provisions to stock the Indian storehouse ample enough to outlast the competition for Indian alliances.* As he wrote the note, he bitterly relayed the English’s success in blockading La Florida.* There were English boats at St. Augustine and Cape Canaveral.* Marcos de Torres bilander was run aground at Mosquito Inlet, and Rodriquez’s boat was chased at Key West.* He included a copy of the note Rivas had taken in Espinosa’s schooner, just in case they hadn’t gotten past the blockade.* It was incomprehensible to Montiano that Guemes had allowed Montiano’s warnings to come true, despite all of his previous cries for help.* Maybe Guemes thought he was exaggerating? He told Guemes he carefully avoids making hyperboles so that the dire conditions he describes may be perceived for how dire they truly are.* Montiano sadly described the desolation that would soon settle over St. Augustine and the 2400 people he was responsible for.* He told Guemes this was the last cry for help he would send, because he needed every vessel he had to protect St. Augustine from the impending English invasion.*

Montiano had a hard time finding Indians to take the assignment.* The way was dangerous, more so from hostile Indians than from Florida’s snakes and alligators.* It was also doubtful they could really get the canoe through the marshland that covered much of the Intracoastal.* Nevertheless, Montiano managed to get one Spanish soldier and three Indians into the canoe.* Although his letter is dated May 15th, he says in his June 11th letter that the canoe did not leave until May 25th.* Nevertheless, he bundled all the letters to Guemes together, including copies of previous letters that very well could be lost, and copies of the Apalache statements from Don Joseph de Rivas.* Once again, he handed his pleas for help over to a boat captain.* This time, it was a canoe that carried his mail.* And they paddled away on their long, long journey down the Intracoastal Waterway.*

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.*

All this time, the two English frigates had been steadily watching the St. Augustine and Matanzas inlets.* On June 11th, five more English vessels joined them.* However, some of those vessels appeared to be merchant ships and not war ships.* Montiano believed his vessels, the Vizarra, the San Juan, and the Pingue, could resist the English force if they approached.* Meanwhile, Matanzas inlet was still open for Spanish supply boats to get in to reach St. Augustine by the Intracoastal, if any ship could make it up the coast.* If supply ships came to Matanzas and the English moved down there to blockade them, Montiano would send troops and three schooners down there to put up enough of a fight to get the supply boat in.* He was confident his force could resist the hodge podge of English boats.* Montiano wanted to make sure Guemes knew Matanzas was the safest way to send a supply shipment.* The launch was still stationed further south at Mosquito Inlet.* Montiano sent a note to the launch, hoping someone from Havana would appear, and take the letter back to Guemes.* In the letter, Montiano informed Guemes of the loss of the four men trying to reach him by canoe.* He told him about the loss of Fort Diego, and about the five additional ships blockading the harbor.* He pointed out that this was clear proof of a siege, and said if fighting broke out, that St. Augustine would make a strong resistance with three schooners and the land troops.* Why only three schooners?

On June 14th, a stranger arrived in St. Augustine. He had deserted from the English. Montiano was thrilled at the chance to get some answers. He questioned the man, who said General Oglethorpe brought 900 men. Three hundred of them were his regiment of regular soldiers. The other six hundred were militia from Carolina, who came with four months’ worth of supplies. The man didn’t know if more would join Oglethorpe from Virginia or other parts. Montiano asked the prisoners from Mose if they knew anything about a four-month timeframe on this siege. They said it didn’t matter. Oglethorpe would convince his crew to stay until they conquered St. Augustine, even if it took a year.

In his letter of June 24th, Montiano reported that the English were in possession of Anastasia Island, its watch-tower, the entire coastline all the way up to San Mateo, and the village of Mose one mile away.* The blockade consisted of seven frigates with 23 to 30 mounted guns, two packet boats with 10 or 12 guns, three sloops, six schooners, and twelve scows, plus launches for the larger boats.* At nine o'clock in the morning, the enemy began shooting large-shell grenades from a mortar.* A few splinters of the grenades fell into the fort, but most of them passed over.* Mass confusion broke out in St. Augustine.* The Castillo was the only protection from falling bombs.* The soldiers’ families abandoned their houses and came to the Castillo.* They huddled under the gun deck.* Montiano found the sight absolutely pitiful.* However, it brought the food shortage to center stage.* Everyone looked to the governor for protection and sustenance.* Montiano sat down and wrote the update to Guemes.* He gave Guemes an inventory of the vessels that formed the blockade.* He reported the beginning of gunfire.* He described the families seeking refuge in the Castillo.* He tried very hard not to sound melodramatic, but found himself again asking that any hyperboles he might use would not discredit the reality of the peril his people were in.* He sent the letter by way of Apalache, since all water routes had failed.*

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.*

On July 28th, Montiano re-sealed his letter and delivered it to Palomares.* However, Palomares failed or was unable to sail, through his carelessness and neglect before Sunday the 31st.*

Palomares sailed out of St. Augustine to Havana three days past his scheduled departure, taking Montiano’s account of the end of the seige with him.*

On August 3rd, Don Juan Ruiz del Canto brought a letter from Guemes to Montiano.* It appeared to be quite confidential, because Montiano says that Guemes entrusted Canto with the letter, and Canto said he had remained in his cabin.* In the letter, Guemes had suggestions for Montiano to get prepared for Oglethorpe’s return.* Guemes also said he was preparing the frigate Santa Catarina under the command of Don Joseph de Herrera, two other frigates equipped for war, two transports and a sloop with stores.* Per Guemes’s suggestions, Montiano sent a boat with eleven men to remain stationed on the bar of Mosquitoes.* They were to report the state of St. Augustine to Captain Don Joseph de Herrera, so that when the time was right, Bartolome de Espinosa could leave to take Guemes a duplicate of the report of the withdrawal of the Generals Oglethorpe and Pierse.* As of August 3rd, Montiano still had not received confirmation of whether the enemy had evacuated the St. Johns River.* However, more deserters had come into St. Augustine, and they assured him that they were to embark on August 5th.* They also said the English had sent a few launches into the river to pick up the cannons at Pupo and demolish the fort there.* Another defector confirmed that the English were maintaining themselves at San Juan, including all the troops, militia, and smaller boats.* To verify these reports, Montiano sent various patrols of cavalry and Indians to spy on any remaining English in Florida.* He instructed them to very carefully observe the Englishmen’s movements so that the Spaniards could guard against any treacherous intentions.* It was tempting to send troops to follow the English rearguard.* However, Montiano did a headcount and found that more than one hundred men were missing from the eight visiting companies.* The remaining troops were exhausted.* After surviving the siege, he did not want to expose St. Augustine to any further risk.* On the other hand, he did want that risk eliminated once and for all.* He sat down and wrote a letter to Guemes confirming Guemes’s plan to get prepared.* He pledged that if Guemes sent more backup, St. Augustine would be ready to deliver the final blow.*

By the time Montiano wrote his August 7th letter to Guemes, 22 English deserters had come into St. Augustine.* All of them confirmed Oglethorpe’s plans to return within four or five months, or next spring.* Some of them said he planned to build more schooners like St. Augustine had, except larger.* It seemed impossible to Montiano that Oglethorpe could rally the Carolinians to his cause again.* However, they definitely had their own beef with St. Augustine.* The Spaniards blocked the Carolinian’s apparent determination to exterminate the Indians of Apalache so they could occupy Florida.* Perhaps they would ask the king for someone besides Oglethorpe to command an expedition against the Spaniardssomeone more able to reconcile all parties involved.* If England somehow granted Oglethorpe the rumored two regiments or the two thousand troops in order to reap the benefits of holding Florida, they surely would double the manpower of the first attempt.* If that happened, Montiano would need enough men to match the increased size of the enemy.* Florida’s borders were far flung and wide open to the enemy. It was easy for enemy forces to traverse the frontier and close in on St. Augustine from all sides.* Montiano envisioned his people again squeezing into the fort, awaiting starvation.* Even before starvation set in, the men would lose their fighting spirit just from having the sad voices and tears of the women and children right under their nose.* At some point, Guemes told Montiano that he himself was preoccupied with the defense of the island of Cuba.* It was a treasure in the Caribbean that all the European powers wanted, and Guemes had to keep putting out fires to protect it.* That, along with the Junta’s opposition, helped explain why Montiano had so much trouble getting help from Guemes.* Nevertheless, Montiano had no choice but to keep begging to be among Guemes’s highest priorities.* He referred to his original orders for the position of governor, and to the circular of January 30th that reiterated his duty to protect Spain’s property and people, especially those in America.* He recalled the king’s order that troops be sent wherever they are needed to resist foreign invasion.* And if that failed, Montiano was to lay his needs at the feet of Guemes.* As of August 7th, Montiano needed more men.* First and foremost, he needed to replace the ones he lost to the English invasion.* Between the prisoners captured, people killed and wounded, and deserters, he was down 394 men from the 750 Guemes had allotted him.* As far as he was concerned, he needed at least that many to get back to par.* As of August 7th, 116 of his original 350-man garrison remained fit for duty.* Only 240 remained of the 400 men that Guemes sent in eight companies.* If Guemes would send 370 infantry and 24 artillerymen, St. Augustine would be back to par.* However, the next English attack promised to be twice as large and angry, due to their upset during the siege.* So Montiano wanted to raise the manpower by another 300 armed men if signs of war continued.* He asked Guemes for 300 mulattoes and free negroes from the militia of Cuba.* Was this because they were easier to get than enlisted soldiers? Or was this because those in St. Augustine had proved to be more loyal than the soldiers? Montiano asked that these militia be recruited as soon as possible, and sent to Florida as soon as recruited so they could start training.* He also asked that they be provided with arms upon signing up, and that they very clearly understand that they are being hired to do armed duty when necessary, and manual labor all the time.* If that workload seemed daunting or impossible to potential candidates, Montiano suggested they be offered part-time schedules, such as working a week or month at a time.* In their off time, they could pursue other opportunities, and Montiano could rotate them with other part-timers.* Either way, it was important that any new recruits come well-armed, because St. Augustine was now a “hospital,” according to Montiano.* Montiano was worried that all his fears of English takeover would come to pass, and he would somehow get blamed for not preventing it.* He pointed out to Guemes that there’s no way the king could blame Montiano without also blaming Guemes, since Montiano had put everything in Guemes’s hands.* He also pointed out that all his begging was simply following royal orders to apply to Guemes for all his needs.* When Montiano first got the governor position, he showered Guemes with praise and supplication. By the end of the siege, his praise had given way to disavowing blame and claiming his own job well done.*

At some point, Montiano heard that Guemes had sent another convoy of supplies to St. Augustine in the brigantine of Andres Gonzales and a sloop belonging to Spain.* The convoy never showed up.* Montiano learned of its loss, so apparently he knew what happened to it.* As a result, he turned to privateering in order to feed his garrison.* He had the Campeche sloop fitted with arms for attacking other ships to steal whatever they could find.* It went out on October 17th with Domingo Quintana and Don Juan de Hita on board.* One translation says the Campeche belonged to Joseph Sanchez Rodriquez; the other translation doesn’t mention him with this debarkation.* Shortly thereafter, the privateer sent loot back to St. Augustine.* Quintana and Hita sailed into St. Augustine in a Carolinian schooner they had captured, along with two boys and a negro.* The privateer was not with them.* Presumably, she was still out looking for food to steal.* Six days later, the Campeche was sighted at the entrance to St. Augustine inlet.* She did not come in.* A pilot went out in a launch to help guide her into the harbor, but the Campeche sailed south and they didn’t get to speak to each other.* The men in the launch followed, but since the Campeche kept sailing south, they figured she thought they were English attackers.* As of his January 2nd letter, no one heard anything about the missing privateer.* Rumors floated around that she had been lost in some storm.* Others speculated the crew was slain while drunk or asleep by three English she had aboard, the two boys and a woman.* A few days later, Oglethorpe's sergeant major was captured.* Apparently, it happened during a confrontation with an English Frigate and dispatch boat.* The frigate had 18-pound cannons, which killed one of Montiano’s men and wounded another out of commission.* Montiano told Guemes these casualties were caused by poor management.*

Fandino hoisted sail on December 3rd and sailed out of the harbor with a good wind.* Fandino intended to sail to Cape Ferro, station himself out of sight of land, and wait for unsuspecting ships leaving the cape.* However, on December 5th at dawn, they found themselves on the bar of Charleston.* As the morning light brightened, they could see another sloop leaving the harbor, apparently on its way out to privateer also.* The local harbor pilot was also close byso close that they captured his launch while watching the other privateer sail out.* Three of Fandino’s men took over the launch, while Fandino chased down the other privateer.* The three men in the launch watched for a while, as both privateers sailed around shooting cannons at each other and occasional musket fire.* The men in the launch held back a ways in fear of getting re-captured by the Carolinian.* After a while, they sailed the launch back to St. Augustine.* When they arrived, they told Montiano about the encounter.* The captured pilot said the Carolinian was on its way to Jamaica.* The last they saw, the Carolinian turned and went back into the Charleston harbor, and Fandino sailed out to sea, out of sight.* One of them said that before he transferred to the launch, he heard Fandino say he would go farther north because now Carolina knew they were out there.* The captured launch resembled a boat Montiano already had in St. Augustine, with a deck.* When it was captured, it only had two ship biscuits.* The crew managed to catch enough fish with a hook to last the trip back to St. Augustine.* The launch also contained a young negro about ten or twelve years old.* He/she said that the largest and best part of Charleston, which was the waterfront, had been burned.* The fire lasted two weeks.* He/she also said the town’s powder magazine blew up, and that there were three man-of-wars in the harbor.* It is hard to imagine three man-of-wars sitting there while their pilot launch was captured and their privateer exchange cannon fire outside the bar.*

On December 19th, a schooner much larger than that of Mugaguren anchored on the bar outside St. Augustine.* It was captured and sent by Fandino, along with a letter for Montiano.* Fandino had written the letter from Cape Ferro.* Montiano forwarded a copy of the letter to Guemes.* The new schooner came with prisoners.* Montiano took statements from two of them and had their testimonies sent to Guemes.*

On December 29th, Fandino sailed back into St. Augustine’s harbor.* His crew wanted to come home.* They could not handle the cold winter on the water.* Fandino came ashore and told Montiano of another schooner he had captured but lost.* It was caught in a storm in the Bahama Channel and swept out to sea.* It didn’t have any good supplies, except a few useless things, such as liquor, honey-cakes, and pottery.* AN181 Fandino had both captains from the captured schooners on his own cruiser.* Montiano took statements from both of them and from the harbor pilot and forwarded them to Guemes.*