The settlement of Georgia in 1733 by General James Oglethorpe brought the English still closer. Spanish authorities sensed an impending crisis and sent Antonio Arredondo, a competent military engineer and diplomat, to St. Augustine to negotiate with Oglethorpe and survey Florida’s defenses. While Arredondo failed to persuade the English to withdraw from Georgia, under his able supervision St. Augustine’s fortifications were carefully strengthened. Rooms inside the Castillo were rebuilt with arched ceilings of thick masonry to make them bombproof. Backed by Arredondo’s recommendations, Florida’s Governor Montiano secured substantial reinforcements from Cuba, increasing the garrison to around 750 men. _Oglethorpe’s Siege_ Spanish regulations allowed her colonies only limited trading privileges with rival England, which had become a great mercantile nation. To prevent the prevalent smuggling of illicit English goods into their ports, Spanish ships were ordered to stop and search English vessels off their coasts. One of the English merchantmen overhauled off the coast of Florida or Cuba was commanded by a Robert Jenkins. He reported that the Spanish captain, Juan de León Fandiño, cut off his ear and handed it back to him saying, “Carry this to your king and tell him I would treat him in like manner.” Incidents such as this caused rising indignation in both countries. The severed ear, or a substitute, was later displayed by Jenkins before the English Parliament, and gave its name to the war that England declared against Spain in 1739, the War of Jenkins’ Ear. General Oglethorpe of Georgia was ordered to harass the Spaniards in Florida, and proceeded to organize an expedition designed to capture St. Augustine. During the winter be probed Spanish defenses, seizing Fort Picolata on the St. Johns River west of the capital, and a companion fort across the river from it. In early May of 1740 he moved south with 400 of his Georgia regiment and took Fort Diego, a Spanish plantation post fifteen miles north of St. Augustine, in the vicinity of present Palm Valley. Leaving troops to hold it, he then retired back to the mouth of the St. Johns River to await the arrival of his other military contingents. During early April six half galleys from Cuba slipped into St. Augustine’s Matanzas Bay in response to Governor Montiano’s frantic pleas for assistance. They were commanded by the same Juan de León Fandiño, who is reputed to have cut off Jenkins’ ear, and proved an important factor in saving the city. [Illustration: _Map showing disposition of Oglethorpe’s forces, and batteries shelling the town from what is now Davis Shores._] _A_ _View_ of the _Town_ and _Castle_ of S^t. Augustine, and the _English Camp_ before it June 20.1740. by _Tho^s Silver_.