ection
of the completed fort.

In addition to La Fuerza, Mazariegos built the first forerunner of the
Morro Castle. In 1563 he built on the Morro headland a tower of masonry
more than thirty feet high. It was intended primarily as a landmark, and
was therefore painted white in order to make it visible at the greatest
possible distance. But a watchman was generally kept in it, to espy
approaching vessels and to signal to the city news of their approach.
The tower is said to have cost only 200 pesos, and was paid for by the
city of Havana.

Mazariegos presently became involved in affairs outside of Cuba. Many
men deserted at Havana from the vessels of Angelo de Villafane, governor
of Florida. Villafane complained and wanted Mazariegos to capture and
return them. Mazariegos replied that he could not do it; to which we may
doubtless add that he would not have done so if he could. He was
desirous of increasing the population of Cuba, even in that way. When
Villafane attempted to plant a Spanish colony at what is now Port Royal,
South Carolina, and failed, Mazariegos had some correspondence with the
King, and probably acquiesced in the royal opinion, that it would be
impracticable to establish a colony at that point. In 1563, however, the
King learned that the French had been quite successful in planting a
colony on that very spot where the Spaniards under Villafane had failed,
and he informed Mazariegos of the fact. The governor, acting upon his
own initiative, but shrewdly guessing what would be acceptable to the
King, sent Hernando de Rojas thither with a frigate and twenty-five
soldiers, to see how much of a settlement the French had made, and to
destroy it if he was able to do so with that force. In the summer of
1564 Rojas returned, reporting that the settlement had been abandoned by
the French. He brought back with him one young Frenchman as a prisoner,
and also a memorial stone which the French had set up to commemorate the
founding of the place, bearing the date, 1561. Mazariegos commended
Rojas for his work, sent the memorial stone to Seville, and then began
planning to go in person or to send an expedition to search the Carolina
and other coasts in quest of new French colonies. His theory was that
the more French settlements there were, the more French vessels there
would be, and therefore the more subject Cuba would be to alien
annoyance.

This, however, was not to be. The end of Mazariegos's administration was