From the best information he could obtain,—gathered from prisoners and otherwise,—General Oglethorpe ascertained that the Castle of St. Augustine at that time consisted of a fort, built of soft stone. Its curtain was sixty yards in length, its parapet nine feet thick, and its rampart twenty feet high, “casemated underneath for lodgings, and arched over and newly made bomb-proof.” Its armament consisted of fifty cannon,—sixteen of brass,—and among them some twenty-four pounders. The garrison had been for some time working upon a covered-way, but this was still in an unfinished condition. The town of St. Augustine was protected by a line of intrenchments with ten salient angles, in each of which some field pieces were mounted. In January, 1740, the Spanish forces in Florida, by establishment, consisted of the following organizations:[85] 1 Troop of Horse, numbering 100 officers and men. 1 Company of Artillery, ” 100 ” ” ” 3 Independent Companies of old Troops, each ” 100 ” ” ” 2 Companies of the Regiment of Austurias, ” ” 53 ” ” ” 1 Company ” ” ” Valencia, ” 53 ” ” ” 1 ” ” ” ” Catalonia, ” 53 ” ” ” 2 Companies ” ” ” Cantabria, ” ” 53 ” ” ” 2 ” ” ” ” Mercia, ” ” 53 ” ” ” Armed Negroes, 200 ” ” ” White Transports for labor, 200 1 Company of Militia, (strength unknown.) Indians, (number not ascertained.) It was General Oglethorpe’s original purpose, as foreshadowed in his dispatch of the 27th of March, 1740,[86] with four hundred regular troops of his regiment, one hundred Georgians, and such additional forces as South Carolina could contribute, to advance directly upon St. Augustine, and attack, by sea and land, the town and the island in its front. Both of these, he believed, could be taken “sword in hand.” He would then summon the castle to surrender, or surprise it. Conceiving that the castle would be too small to afford convenient shelter for the two thousand one hundred men, women, and children of the town, he regarded the capitulation of the fortress as not improbable. Should it refuse to surrender, however, he proposed to shower upon it “Granado-shells from the Cohorns and Mortars, and send for the Artillery and Pioneers and the rest of the Aid promised by the Assembly;[87] also for Mortars and Bombs from _Providence;_” and, if the castle should not have yielded prior to the arrival of “these Aids,” he was resolved to open trenches and conduct a siege which he reckoned would be all the easier, the garrison having been weakened by the summer’s blockade.