t thither from a large
detachment which was sent to Florida. As La Fuerza was not yet finished
sufficiently to accommodate them, houses were hired to receive them.
Osorio was not notified in advance that they were coming, or that they
had arrived; and after they were there they refused to regard his
authority but took orders solely from Baltazar Barreda, a captain whom
Menendez had assigned to their command. Presently Barreda took charge of
La Fuerza and began moving thither the artillery, including the four
pieces which Osorio had brought with him from Spain. Osorio
remonstrated, saying that the fort was not yet sufficiently completed
for use. Barreda defied his authority, and was sustained by Menendez,
who happened to be in Havana at the time. The governor yielded, for the
time. But as soon as Menendez was out of the city he clapped Barreda
into jail, after a violent physical struggle, and appointed Pedro de
Redroban to the command of the fort in his stead. News of this reached
Menendez and he hastened back and released Barreda. As for Redroban, he
and half a dozen of his men fled to the woods, in well-founded fear of
Menendez.

Now, Redroban was one of Menendez's soldiers, just as much as Barreda,
and was probably as loyal to him as Barreda. But he had deemed it
incumbent upon himself to obey the commands of the governor of the
island. Nevertheless, Menendez charged Osorio with having incited mutiny
in the garrison, and he denounced Redroban as a deserter and traitor,
who should be captured and put to death, and his head exhibited in the
market-place with an inscription proclaiming him a traitor to the King
and disobedient to his commander. Redroban and some of his comrades
were captured, tried, and condemned to death; but on appeal to the crown
their sentences were commuted. Menendez then ordered Barreda to set the
garrison at work digging a moat about the fort, and demanded picks and
shovels from the governor for the purpose. These Osorio refused to
supply, and Barreda thereupon secured them from the people of the town.
Still another cause of friction was found in the coming to Cuba of many
men, both civilians and runaway soldiers, from Florida. These Osorio
received and sent to the interior of Cuba to engage in agriculture.
Menendez complained that Osorio was inciting and assisting desertions
from Florida; and Osorio bitterly replied that affairs were so bad in
Florida under Menendez's rule that people had to flee