t to have him investigated, and the
court commissioned a judge for that purpose, who declined or at least
failed to act. This was in August, 1554.

Now trouble was renewed with France, the sixth war between Henry II, who
had succeeded Francis, and Charles beginning in 1552 and continuing
until 1559, Charles meanwhile abdicating in favor of Philip II in 1556.
The French navy was more potent than ever, and French privateers swarmed
the Spanish Main. Every Cuban port was warned to be on its guard against
attack, Havana most of all, since it was now the richest and was in the
most exposed situation. It was not until the fall of 1553 that the
official news of the renewal of hostilities reached Cuba, and great was
the consternation which it caused.

Juan de Lobera was at that time the commander of the fortifications of
Havana, to wit, La Fuerza. He appears to have been a man of strangely
mingled temperament, at times fearful and timorous, at others resolute
and valiant. At the beginning the former characteristics prevailed. He
realized, only too truly, that the fortifications and petty garrison
would be entirely insufficient for the protection of the place against
any considerable force, such as even a single French ship might bring
against it, and he fell into something like a panic. Happily, however,
he did not desert his post, but made passionate demands upon the
governor and the town council for additional guards. Happily, too, in
the presence of menace the animosities of faction were stilled, and the
council cooperated heartily with the governor whom it had just been
trying to depose and whom only a little later it denounced to the court
as worthy of investigation and indictment.

New guards were supplied. Day and night the beach was patrolled.
Watchmen were stationed on the Morro headland to espy approaching
vessels and to signal the tidings to the fort and city. At the mouth of
the Almendares River, where it was supposed that invaders were likely to
land, horsemen were stationed, to hasten back to the city with news of
any such landing or of the appearance of a hostile vessel. Twelve men,
expert in arms, were held in readiness day and night to man the fort the
moment a strange vessel was reported; La Fuerza being otherwise without
a garrison--which amply justified the commander's lack of faith in its
defensive efficiency. In case of an attack, all able-bodied citizens
were to present themselves in a massed levy under