oa and Remedios, and
the spreading of the epidemic being checked, the island soon returned to
normal conditions.

Like other governors before him, Gelder showed a deplorable leniency
towards those elements of the population that carried on contraband
traffic with negroes. But he displayed great energy in the persecution
of pirates. During his administration Captain Rojas de Figuerosa
captured the island of Tortuga, which had been a formidable base of
corsair operations. The news of this exploit caused great rejoicing in
Havana and was celebrated by a Te Deum under the direction of Bishop
Torre. Gelder also devised a plan to protect Havana from invasion by
land. He proposed to open a canal from the extreme interior bay running
north and extending to the sea, which would have surrounded the town by
water and make it practically safe. But the suggestion did not seem to
meet with approval. Before any other plans could be drafted, he died of
apoplexy, on the twenty-third of June, 1654, and in the interval between
his death and the arrival of his successor from Spain, the government
was administered by the Regidor D. Ambrosio de Soto and D. Pedro Garcia
Montanes, commandant of Morro.

The newly appointed governor, Field-marshal D. Juan Montano Velasquez,
was inaugurated in June, 1655, but dying within a year, did not vitally
influence the course of affairs in the island. His plan of fortifying
Havana consisted in enclosing the city with walls from the landside,
running a rampart with ten bastions and two half-bastions. For the
execution of this plan the neighborhood of Havana offered to contribute
nine thousand peons (day-laborers) and the town corporation imposed a
tax on every pint of wine sold to assist in defraying the expenses of
the construction. The king approved heartily of these offers and ordered
that the treasury of Mexico should aid by an additional contribution of
twenty-thousand pesos. But the historian Arrato reports that the whole
scheme was soon after abandoned on account of the war in which Spain was
about to be involved.

The British, their appetite for colonial possessions once being
awakened, saw in the growing weakness of Spain an opportunity to get
hold of some of her dominions. It was well known that Cromwell, although
England was then at peace with Spain, tried hard to increase and
strengthen its political and commercial power in America. The British
had already conquered the islands Barbadoes and