Governor Guazo was a man of action and enterprise, besides being endowed with no little military genius. Never once during his administration did he lapse into that passive attitude which was in a large degree responsible for the slow pace at which the Spanish colonies progressed. One of his first aims was to inflict an exemplary punishment upon the outlaws of the seas that rendered insecure the coasts of the Spanish island colonies, and interfered seriously with commerce in the Gulf of Mexico. The militia of Havana had on previous occasions, when called into service on the sea, proved its mettle and displayed so much bravery and perseverance in the pursuit of its tasks that he had unlimited confidence in its ability to do the work he planned. He conferred with the governor of Florida, and they agreed upon concerted action against the English colony of St. George in the Carolinas. He made it known that he intended to dislodge the pirates on the island of the Bahamas called New Providence and for some time settled by the British. For that purpose he fitted out fourteen light vessels, ten bilanders (small one-mast ships, one of them of fourteen pieces), two brigantines (two-masted vessels with square sails) and other smaller ships with munitions and sufficient stores. Then he gathered a force of one thousand volunteers, one hundred veteran soldiers and a few of the prominent residents of the city to whom he entrusted the command of some of the ships. As head of the expedition he named D. Alfonso Carrascesa, a dependable official, and as his assistant D. Esteban Severino de Berrea, a native of Havana and the oldest captain of the white militia. The story of this enterprise as related by Guiteras gives a somewhat different version of the struggles between the French and the Spaniards for the possession of Pensacola as that contained in the preceding chapter. According to Guiteras the armada organized in Havana and placed under command of Carrascesa sailed on the fourth of July, 1719. But it had barely left the harbor, when it sighted two French warships. They were coming from Pensacola, which the French had just captured, and had on board as prisoners the governor and the whole garrison. Carrascesa did not for a moment lose his calm assurance at this unexpected intermezzo. He stopped the French when they turned to flee, and they were in turn captured. With the rescued Spaniards from Pensacola he returned to Havana, considering this easy victory of happy augury for the expedition upon which he had set out. But Governor Guazo persuaded him that the reconquest of Pensacola was of paramount importance. Carrascesa yielded to Guazo's arguments and the entreaties of the governor of Florida's stronghold and started upon his new task. He succeeded in recovering Pensacola and reinstalling the Spanish governor with his garrison. Of the ultimate defeat of the expedition Guiteras has nothing to say.