back to Cartagena upon the eastward coast eddy, so as to get well
to windward of Nicaragua before attempting the passage through the
Yucatan Channel.[22] The fleet anchored at Cartagena a second time for
ten or twelve days, where it was rejoined by the patache of
Margarita[23] and by the merchant ships which had been sent to trade in
Terra-Firma. From Cartagena, too, the general sent dispatches to Spain
and to Havana, giving the condition of the vessels, the state of trade,
the day when he expected to sail, and the probable time of arrival.[24]
For when the galleons were in the Indies all ports were closed by the
Spaniards, for fear that precious information of the whereabouts of the
fleet and of the value of its cargo might inconveniently leak out to
their rivals. From Cartagena the course was north-west past Jamaica and
the Caymans to the Isle of Pines, and thence round Capes Corrientes and
San Antonio to Havana. The fleet generally required about eight days for
the journey, and arrived at Havana late in the summer. Here the galleons
refitted and revictualled, received tobacco, sugar, and other Cuban
exports, and if not ordered to return with the Flota, sailed for Spain
no later than the middle of September. The course for Spain was from
Cuba through the Bahama Channel, north-east between the Virginian Capes
and the Bermudas to about 38 deg., in order to recover the strong northerly
winds, and then east to the Azores. In winter the galleons sometimes ran
south of the Bermudas, and then slowly worked up to the higher latitude;
but in this case they often either lost some ships on the Bermuda
shoals, or to avoid these slipped too far south, were forced back into
the West Indies and missed their voyage altogether.[25] At the Azores
the general, falling in with his first intelligence from Spain, learned
where on the coast of Europe or Africa he was to sight land; and
finally, in the latter part of October or the beginning of November, he
dropped anchor at San Lucar or in Cadiz harbour.

The Flota or Mexican fleet, consisting in the seventeenth century of two
galleons of 800 or 900 tons and from fifteen to twenty merchantmen,
usually left Cadiz between June and July and wintered in America; but if
it was to return with the galleons from Havana in September it sailed
for the Indies as early as April. The course from Spain to the Indies
was the same as for the fleet of Terra-Firma. From Deseada or
Guadeloupe, however, the Fl