In the spring of 1565, Garcia Osorio de Sandoval was appointed to succeed him as governor. Mazariegos thereupon wrote to the King, asking that there be no unnecessary law suits brought against him, as he was old, and ill, and poor. (He was not yet fifty years of age!) The King granted his request, and in consequence instructed Osorio to make his investigation as little annoying as possible. Osorio obeyed, and although the report of the inquest filled three big volumes, Mazariegos was not brought to trial on any charges and had no fines assessed against him. He remained living at Havana for some time, and then completed his career in the King's service as governor of Caracas, Venezuela. His administration had been a stormy one, but on the whole advantageous to Cuba, and had confirmed the Seville government in its policy of appointing others than mere lawyers to the insular governorship. Garcia Osorio de Sandoval became governor of Cuba on September 12, 1565. As he was not a lawyer, the precedent which had been set in Mazariegos's case was followed in his, of appointing a lieutenant governor who was a lawyer to serve with him. His lieutenant was Luis Cabrera, who did not reach Cuba until later in the year, having suffered shipwreck and been obliged to put back to Spain and await the sailing of another vessel. Osorio appears to have been a soldier, though probably retired from active service at the time of his appointment to the governorship. At any rate he made it his first care to improve the defences of the island. It is related that he bore with him from Spain to Havana a cargo of arms and munitions, including four brass cannon. These he placed upon the fortification, thus making a battery of eight pieces, and built a substantial platform of timber for them to stand upon. La Fuerza was not yet completed, but he took measures to expedite the work and hoped to have it finished in a year. In order to protect the place from possible raids by land, he closed and blocked all roads and trails leading into it from the west excepting the one along the beach. He organized a force of seventy men armed with arquebuses, to be quickly summoned in an emergency, and required them and all citizens to assemble for service whenever a strange sail was sighted. In addition, as a permanent contribution to defence, a spacious arsenal was built near the water front, to contain the stores of ammunition and to shelter the guards and citizens.