Havana more than two hundred fighting men, all told. This gives, by the
way, a hint concerning the rapid growth of the place at the time of
Mazariegos. A town containing two hundred men capable of bearing arms
must have had a total population approximating two thousand.

Ribera's arguments and appeals appear to have been more effective than
those of Menendez. The Council for the Indies, and the King, too,
ordered practical steps to be taken for finishing and equipping the
building which had so long been neglected. As Cuba, or perhaps
especially the port of Havana, was of no great importance to the Spanish
colonies on the mainland, for the safeguarding of their shipping, and
also as Cuba had been so drained of men and supplies in former years for
the exploitation of colonies on the main land, it was but justice as it
was a matter of practical convenience and expediency for the government
to call upon Mexico and Castilla del Oro to contribute largely to the
payment of the cost of fortifying Havana. That place was a little later
called, by royal decree, "Llave del Nuevo Mundo y Antemural de las
Indias Occidentales," or Key of the New World and Bulwark of the West
Indies. Certainly it was fitting that the New World should pay for its
key and that the Indies should pay for their bulwark.

So Mexico was required to contribute four thousand ducats, and Florida
to provide fifty good men to form the garrison of La Fuerza. The cost of
maintaining the garrison was charged against Venezuela and Darien. The
providing of labor was a more difficult matter. It seemed to be settled
that negro slave labor must be employed. In order to secure it at little
cost it was proposed to give slave-traders the privilege of taking as
many slaves as they pleased to Cuba, provided that they would lend them
to the government to work on La Fuerza until its completion; after which
they might be sold or otherwise disposed of at the traders' will. The
objection to this from the traders' point of view was the length of time
that it was expected to take to finish the fort. The government
estimated it at three years. Now the traders would have been willing
thus to lend their slaves for a shorter time, for six months, or for a
year. But they considered three years entirely too long. After working
for so long a time, under a rigorous taskmaster, the average slave would
be so nearly worn out that his value would be much impaired. So that
scheme failed.

The