making an entry, seems, however, to have been
somewhat quixotic. As Spain was then at war with the United Provinces,
Cabrera provided for possible contingencies by furnishing the forts with
large stores of provisions and took other measures to prepare for
eventual attacks by the enemy.

These preparations proved to be only too justified. For the Dutch had
fitted out an expedition against the Spanish possessions in America. In
June of that year there appeared a fleet of more than thirty vessels
with three thousand men, commanded by Pit Hein, one of the most famous
mariners of his time. The Dutch had several encounters with the Spanish
fleet and were compelled to retire from Havana, which they had tried to
enter. They gained some advantages over the armada commanded by Don
Juan de Benavides, but in the following year the Spaniards inflicted
great losses upon the Dutch fleet commanded by Cornelius Fels, driving
him back from Havana and capturing one of his frigates.

A little pamphlet published or printed by Heinrich Mellort Jano in
Amsterdam in 1628 gives the Dutch version of the expedition of Pit Hein.
It is entitled "Ausfuehrlicher Bericht wie es der Silber Flotille
herganger wann (durch wen wie und wie viel) solcherin diesem 1628. Jahr
Erobert fort und eingebracht." Therein is related with much detail how
the West India Company, recognizing the rich booty which the capture of
Spanish ships promised, had furnished and fitted out a fleet and manned
it with a crew of brave and hearty sailors and soldiers, with the avowed
purpose of intercepting a silver-laden fleet returning from the colonies
to Spain. The Dutch set out on the twentieth of May, 1628, under the
command of General Petri Peters Heyn and Admiral Heinrich Corneli Lang.

The Dutch reached San Antonio on the west end of Cuba on the fourth of
August. Their arrival became known to the Spaniards and on the
twenty-third of that month Governor Cabrera dispatched some vessels to
warn the silver fleet. General Peters Heyn sailed close up to the
fortifications of Havana and then turned three or four miles out to sea
to meet the treasure-laden ships, which his informers had reported to be
sailing in that neighborhood, but south winds drove him northeast.
Finally on the eighth of September the famous fleet hove in sight, and
the Dutch captured nine vessels, and seeing eight more, sailed briskly
out to cut them off from the port of Havana. The Spaniards arrived at
Matanz