"Roanoke" and they also renamed that part
of Florida after the Queen of England; calling it "Virginia." The news
of this invasion appears to have been known in Cuba, by the way of
Southern Florida, before it was known in Spain, and a fleet vessel was
accordingly sent from Havana to bear the tidings to the King and to ask
for further protection from Cuba.

There was a period of hesitancy and uncertainty, and then the storm
broke. On January 10th, 1586, Sir Francis Drake landed in Hispaniola and
occupied the City of Santo Domingo, the nominal capital of all the
Spanish West Indies. Some of the judges of the Supreme Court at that
place escaped and fled to Cuba, where they arrived a week later with the
startling news. Luzan, as already related, was then at Bayamo, and it
was there that he received the news. He was startled and alarmed, but
appears not to have been panic stricken. Indeed he acted with coolness
and judgment and in a manner which must be regarded as going far toward
redeeming his reputation from the reproaches which he had formerly
incurred. Discreetly assuming that Drake's attack upon Cuba, whenever it
was made, would be not at Bayamo but at the Capital and metropolis
itself, his first thought was for Havana. Immediately upon receiving the
news from Santo Domingo he dispatched horsemen across country from
Bayamo to Havana to bear the tidings to Quinones, bidding them also to
spread the news through all the country as they went and to command all
towns to marshal all available men and send them on to Havana for the
reinforcement of that place. As soon as possible he also sent two
vessels from Bayamo to Havana laden with men and supplies. Ignoring
their former quarrels in the face of the common danger he wrote to
Quinones outlining his plans for a defense of the Island and urging that
an appeal should be sent to Mexico for aid, from which country it could
be procured much more quickly than from Spain. Then he hastened to
Santiago and from that port sent two vessels to Spain to tell the King
what had happened at Santo Domingo and what was being done to avert, if
possible, a like calamity at Havana.

The Governor's appeals to the various municipalities were not without
effect. The people of Cuba seemed to be aroused by the imminence of
danger to a better degree of public spirit than they had ever before
manifested. Bayamo, Sancti Spiritus, Puerto Principe, and even poor
little Trinidad, the smallest and weakest