Forts was built on the Rock _Ponti_ landed on, and probably to prevent any one's landing there again, (especially so easily as he did.) The Castle of _Boccachica_ was the Enemy's chief Dependance, as it guarded the Entrance into the Harbour. It is a regular Square, with four Bastions well built, and was capable of making a stout Defence if well garisoned, and would have been much stronger had the Glacis and Counterscarp been finished. There was mounted in it eighty two Guns, and three Mortars, and the Enemy had cleared three or four hundred Yards of the Woods round it, to prevent Approaches being made undiscovered, (as _Ponti_ did in 1697.) On the other Side the Harbour's Mouth was a Fascine Battery of fifteen Guns, called the _Barradera_; and in a small Bay a back of that, another Battery of four Guns; and facing the Entrance of the Harbour, on a small flat Island, stood _St. Joseph_'s Fort of twenty one Guns: From this Fort to _Boccachica_ Castle a Boom and Cables were fixed across, fastened with three large Anchors at each End; and just within the Boom was moored in a Line four Men of War, the _Galicia_ of sixty six Guns, (aboard which was the Admiral Don _Blass D'Leso_,) the _Africa_ and _St. Carlos_, each of sixty six Guns, and the _St. Philip_ of seventy Guns, which spread the Width of the Harbour's Mouth, that there was not room for a Ship either to pass a head or a stern of them, so that it was impossible for shipping to force an Entrance into the Harbour; and had the Enemy here made a Defence equal to the admirable Disposition they had formed, it must have been a difficult Task for the Fleet to have got in, even after _Boccachica_ Castle was taken. About four or five Miles from hence is a Creek, or Passage, that parts the Grand _Baru_ from the Main called _Passa Cavallos_, through which there is Water enough for small Vessels: This Pass the Enemy had defended with two Fascine Batteries, one of eight Guns, the other of four, as well to protect their own Imbarkations that come this Way with Provisions from _Tolu_, and the River _Sina_, as to prevent any Attempts being made this Way. The next place of Defence was _Castillo Grande_, which is about eight Miles up the Harbour. This Castle is a regular Square with four Bastions, strong and well built, and defended to the Land by a wet Ditch and Glacis proper, and one Face towards the Sea has a Raveline, and a double Line of Guns. This Castle can mount sixty one Guns, though there was but fifty seven in it. Opposite to this was a Horse-shoe Battery of twelve Guns, called _Mancinilla_; and in the Middle between these two Forts is a large Shoal with not above two or three Foot Water on it, which divides the Channel into two: In each of these Passages were Ships sunk across, to prevent, if possible, the Fleet's getting by; for that Part of the Harbour above these Castles is a perfect Bason, and seems rather like one Harbour within another, so that if some of the Ships could not