pass the Gulf of Florida is impossible should they lose the Havana where they rendezvous victual water and provide all things necessary for their return to Spain. When this is done, they wait for a convenient season of weather (being much observed from the changes of the moon) in order to pass the dangerous strait; for to say truly, the Spaniards are neither very fit for sea nor for land service, excepting some officers and soldiers bred in Flanders, for the latter and a few Biscaniers for sea affairs. They are so sensible of their weakness, and jealous of their riches in those parts that it is very difficult for any ingenious man, once taken by them, to get his liberty, fearing he might give such intelligence as would be the cause of their ruin, witness their blindfolding of all strangers, when they pass their cities and castles, for they much dread an old prophecy among them, _that within a short time the English will as freely walk the streets of Havana as the Spaniards now do_, which indeed had been easily performed with a third of the army sent to Jamaica and a far greater advantage to the nation; for I esteem that port and harbor of the Havana in the West Indies to be as great a check upon the Spaniards as Tangier in the straits of Gibraltar; and if we were once masters of both they would without doubt be so straightened as absolutely to admit us a free trade into their ports of America, where they import our commodities and sell them for ten times more than they first cost in Spain, by reason of the great plenty of silver, which trade would not only be of great advantage to us, but also prevent their future enslaving our nation in chains, as they now do; for being employed in their fortifications, they are worse used, all things considered, than if they were taken by the Turks. I have seen other parts of the West Indies, where the Spaniards might be fleeced of considerable quantity of riches; as at Panama, where there are silver bars piled up in heaps in the open street day and night, without guard, four, five or six months together, waiting the arrival of the armada, which when arriving in Puerto Bello, they transport it thither with so slender a guard for so great a treasure, that it would be easy prey for a thousand resolute men the expense of whose expedition would be small in comparison to the prize. But there is no resting or long tarrying about the business, the Spaniards being numerous here as in all other places of the main land; a catch and away. This island of Cuba hath adjacent to it great conveniences of salt and fishing and in it is very great plenty of horses, meat, sheep and hogs, both wild and tame, of a far larger and better breed than in other parts of America. Which hath also many rich mines of copper already open and it is the only place which supplies all the West Indies with metal for the infinite number of ordnance they have in all their ports and