corsaires so great and that they can appropriate to themselves the land lying north of here near New Foundland, of which they are already lords, and can be sustained by them with ease. Everything should be done to aid me instead of cutting me off, and your Majesty must be undeceived and know that I am much better able than your Majesty to enlarge and aggrandize these your Kingdoms. This Port is 29½ degrees, and the San Mateo which we captured is 31 degrees. The French and their pilots were mistaken. I have had it taken by the sun on land. From here to the Cape of Canaveral there are fifty leagues, three rivers, two ports between here and Havana, one hundred miles, more or less, which are navigable in boats among the keys of Canaveral and Los Martyres, and from there to Havana. I agree to take the good field pieces which we have captured from the French, and one hundred men go along the borders of the coast, the boats by sea, anchoring at night near land among the keys of Canaveral where the sea is as smooth as a river, with the boats they will be able to discover among the keys the best port and surroundings to build a fort. So that with the one in Havana and this one we can at all times guard against the enemy and their entering to fortify themselves. Nor should we expect fleets or boats of the Indians. With the people of Havana, Santo Domingo and Pedro de la Roda, whom I shall have to come to my assistance, I will have until the last of March to build it, then with these vessels go over to Havana and seek these people. Having discovered the Port, and on the arrival of Pedro de la Roda in Havana he will find his vessels which I do not propose to take out of that Port, also his men, so that he may return to Spain as strong as when he left there. That I shall place one hundred and fifty Spaniards in possession to guard against the Indians who are great warriors and whose good will we must gain. Then, by the 1st of April, I shall return to these two Forts, and in six or eight days I shall again take to the sea. By the month of March, leaving these two Forts well equipped and guarded each with three hundred men, I shall go in vessels that draw little water which I will soon have here, most of them the ones taken from the French. I will man as many as I can with five hundred soldiers and one hundred mariners, found a town at Santa Elena, which is fifty leagues from here, and has within three leagues of it three Ports and rivers, the largest of six fathoms of water, the other four fathoms; admirable Ports and the one we call Santa Elena is the third, the one the French occupied is very small; the three are navigable, one within the other, so that he who is lord of one is lord of the three. It is the best place to build a fort leaving three hundred men to finish it, pass on up the bay to Santa Maria, which is 36 degrees, one hundred and thirty leagues beyond Santa Elena; then on to the land of the Indians which is in Mexico, fortify another fort and