ed three of them and put their crews to the sword. But joy over
this victory was offset by the epidemic of malignant fever which broke
out and raged among the population. Another great loss to Spain was
occasioned by the hurricane which in the following year sank on the
reefs of Los Martires several vessels of the fleet that had been sent by
Marquis de Cadreyta, D. Lope Diaz Armendiarez, and were returning to
Spain with great riches.

Governor Venegas had in obedience to instructions from his government
armed an esquadron, for the maintenance of which he had imposed upon the
people a special tax. But on his death, on the eighteenth of April,
1624, it was found that the work on the fleet was far from complete, and
in spite of the constant menace of invasion by pirates, nothing was
heard of a resumption of the task during the governorship of his
successors. The political governor who temporarily assumed the reigns of
the administration was D. Damian Velasquez de Contreras, assisted by
Juan Esquiro Saavedra as military governor. During their interimistic
rule a prison was built and a new monastery established.

The successor nominated in the place of Venegas in the year 1624 was
the Governor of Cartagena, Don Garcia Giron, who, however, resigned on
the twentieth of July of the same year. During the interim occasioned by
his resignation the names of Esquival Aranda and de Riva-Martiz are
mentioned in connection with the management of the island's affairs.
There finally arrived from Spain D. Lorenzo de Cabrera, a native of
Ubeda, corregido of Cadiz, field-marshal and Knight of the Order of
Santiago. He was duly installed in his office on the sixteenth of
September, 1626. In the command of the Morro Esquival was replaced by
Captain Cristobal de Arranda and in the government of Santiago Rodrigo
de Velasco was succeeded by Captain D. Pedro de Fonseca.

During the administration of Cabrera, Cuba was agitated by many exciting
occurrences. Cabrera and the Marquis de Cadreyta, who commanded the
fleet that had brought him to Havana, made a thorough inspection of the
fortifications in order to report on their condition and propose
improvements. Among the most urgent Cabrera considered the manufacture
of a copper chain to shut off the entrance to the two forts; he also had
an intrenchment constructed capable of sheltering two companies. The
plan to block the entrance of the port with trunks of trees in order to
prevent pirates from