Mazariegos presently became involved in affairs outside of Cuba. Many men deserted at Havana from the vessels of Angelo de Villafane, governor of Florida. Villafane complained and wanted Mazariegos to capture and return them. Mazariegos replied that he could not do it; to which we may doubtless add that he would not have done so if he could. He was desirous of increasing the population of Cuba, even in that way. When Villafane attempted to plant a Spanish colony at what is now Port Royal, South Carolina, and failed, Mazariegos had some correspondence with the King, and probably acquiesced in the royal opinion, that it would be impracticable to establish a colony at that point. In 1563, however, the King learned that the French had been quite successful in planting a colony on that very spot where the Spaniards under Villafane had failed, and he informed Mazariegos of the fact. The governor, acting upon his own initiative, but shrewdly guessing what would be acceptable to the King, sent Hernando de Rojas thither with a frigate and twenty-five soldiers, to see how much of a settlement the French had made, and to destroy it if he was able to do so with that force. In the summer of 1564 Rojas returned, reporting that the settlement had been abandoned by the French. He brought back with him one young Frenchman as a prisoner, and also a memorial stone which the French had set up to commemorate the founding of the place, bearing the date, 1561. Mazariegos commended Rojas for his work, sent the memorial stone to Seville, and then began planning to go in person or to send an expedition to search the Carolina and other coasts in quest of new French colonies. His theory was that the more French settlements there were, the more French vessels there would be, and therefore the more subject Cuba would be to alien annoyance. This, however, was not to be. The end of Mazariegos's administration was already drawing near. He fell into some violent disputes with the citizens of Havana, over the appointment of alcaldes, a duty which they charged him with neglecting. He was also charged with packing the town council with his own creatures, with tampering with the mails so as to prevent people from writing to Spain any complaints of his maladministration, and of other misdemeanors. Bartolome Sanchez, who had returned from Spain and who had a bitter personal grudge against the governor for supplanting him as builder of the fort, petitioned the King to have a judge sent from Hispaniola to investigate him, but the King refused. Mazariegos, learning this, and feeling unwarrantably secure in royal favor, adopted a more arrogant attitude toward his opponents and critics, which did him no good.