none of them have I been so well pleased as in this one, for the many difficulties and dangers. The lack of means for completing the fortification, the invasions and the lack of forces in which I find myself, as you will see by the lists I forward you of the subjects who are disabled and old and enjoy the privileges of false muster through your kindness. The soldiers and sailors, who at present run on these vessels and are absent most of the time, and those who are on guard as sentinels. So, when the boats are obliged to go out for supplies I am left with about eighty men who can serve. Besides this, we have no ammunition nor supplies, so much so that when I arrived the want was so great that families were obliged to go in the woods and hunt for roots to keep themselves from starvation. So exposed and in need were they that had a vessel landed and offered them food they would have miserably surrendered. And we are always thus exposed to this fatality, because we have no warehouses of food supplies as in every other port such as San Juan de Ulloa, Acapulco and Morro of Havana, in these parts. My experience in Flanders, Castillo de Amberes, Gante y Cambria, they have supply stores of vegetables, biscuit, cheese and hung beef, enough to last at least one year. I have sent them supplies for a long time, for in cases of accident, and here on account of the distance and slowness of communication there should be more care. Havana, the nearest point, is two hundred leagues, and New Spain is five hundred, so you see the vessels have to sail a long way exposed to the fatalities of storm, weather and pirates, which can at any time overtake them. I have thought proper to place all these statements before you, as being so important to your Royal Service you may consider them. And I beg you will aid in this building of the Fort, by sending the required means for its continuance. It would be a very great affliction for these Provinces to leave it in its present state. While I have seen many castles of importance and great renown, none surpass this one, nor have been built at so small a cost in the Indies, as will be demonstrated to you in the accompanying certificates given by the Royal Officer. It seems that the peons earn only one real a day and three pounds of corn, making the twenty-five pounds come to eight reals, which is the correct price. Their living in other places would be at least four reals. Two of the Captains who assist in the building and hewing of stone, earn only six reals a day, where in other places they would make at least three and four dollars per day. All the material and other things needed are in other places placed convenient for the workmen, so that had it been built elsewhere than in this Garrison it would have cost more than eighty thousand dollars. I find it very damaging for this Garrison to be without any fortification. We are obliged to tear down the old Castle