hat time, however, Pensacola was to know no peace, for the French
cast ever a covetous eye upon that Spanish settlement. Nor did the
authorities of Pensacola hesitate to harass the settlers to the west,
resenting the appearance of any rival neighbor. Governor Ravolli made an
expedition in 1700 against the French who had settled on Ship Island,
but he himself was soon to experience that he was being surrounded by
neighbors determined to show their hostility towards Spain by open or
secret operations against the Spanish settlement in Florida. Governor
James Moore of South Carolina, which bordered on Spanish Florida,
undertook in the year 1702 an expedition against the old Spanish town of
St. Augustine, in the defense of which a Cuban force was eventually to
take part. The British succeeded in making their entry into the town and
ravaging it; but they could not reduce the fort, which the garrison
defended with desperate determination. The British sent to Jamaica for
some heavy artillery. But in the meantime the Spanish viceroy had been
informed of the attack and sent two war ships for the relief of the
town. The governor of Cuba, too, dispatched five vessels with troops of
infantry and militia, which sailed from the port of Havana under the
command of Captain D. Esteban de Beroa, a Havanese of great enterprise
and valor. When the Spanish fleet arrived near the harbor, Moore with
his South Carolinians made a hasty retreat by land, leaving behind his
vessels and stores of ammunition. The help which D. Esteban had lent the
garrison of St. Augustine in this critical moment was highly appreciated
by the King of Spain, who took notice of this valuable service in a
cedula addressed to the Captain General of the island in 1703, in which
he especially lauded the exploits of D. Esteban.

The administration of D. Diego de Cordova Lazo de Vega, Knight of the
military order of Santiago and General of the Galleons, was profoundly
affected by the political unrest of Europe, due to the controversies
about the succession and by the conflicts with the French and the
British in the newly settled continent, which began to darken the future
of the Spanish possessions. Cordova had entered upon his office on the
third of October, 1695, and was reported to have bought the governorship
for fourteen thousand dollars. Some very important internal improvements
were made during his time of office. The territory from the gateway of
la Punta to la Tanaza