built a very small and dilapidated wooden fort. Neither
on the seacoast nor in any other part was there any defense. On this
account, in view of our danger, I resolved to set about fortifying
the city, although the poverty of the city and of your royal treasury
could not assist me. I have constructed a stone tower on the said
beach, near the city; and lower down, where it seemed more necessary,
I am constructing a very strong and handsome fort, the plan of which
accompanies this letter. [57] In the three months while we have worked
on it, I have the first story, where the heaviest artillery is to be
placed, ready for flooring. God helping, I shall, I believe, finish
it in little more than one year from now. From this fort and beach
near the sea I have dug a deep ditch, thirty-four feet wide, which
fills with the incoming tide, and even at low tide has sufficient
water to float several vessels, which are used in carrying materials
by this ditch to the said work, and for other important things. This
ditch extends from the sea to the river, and at that side around the
entire city, in such wise that the latter is an island formed by sea,
river, and ditch. In place of the wooden fortress, I am going to
build a bulwark to defend the entrance to the river and the beach,
which can correspond to the tower already built; and the new fortress
will defend both sides, the ditch and the sea. Along the river-bank
I have ordered stone breastworks to be built, extending from the old
wooden fortress on one side, where the stone bulwark is to be built,
to the ditch on the other side. With this, I think that this city
will be well fortified; and it would be more so, if your Majesty were
pleased to have us provided with a garrison of two hundred soldiers,
already paid--as could be done, by the plan about which I have written
to your Majesty, without spending anything from your royal estate,
and without harm to the natives.

To build the fortress, as I have recounted, the bulwark, and the other
defenses, as I saw that your Majesty has no income in this country,
with which to enable me to do it, and that the city has no public
property, I made a single assessment on the encomenderos, proportioned
to their Indians and incomes, and on the inhabitants who could stand
it, of three thousand odd pesos. I also assessed on each married
Indian, one real, and on each single Indian, one-half real--which
both classes are paying without any oppression or