General Sancho Pardo, as a person of great experience, and who had seen and examined the position and approaches of the place, assured Don Pedro Tello and the others who came with him, that the loss of the place was out of the question if our people were only willing to fight and do their duty, and that it was only necessary to take good care of the port, so as to prevent the enemy’s fleet running into it at once; and that, for that purpose, it were as well to sink the two ships which had been agreed on, and on top of them, the frigates with their bows towards the sea to bar the entrance, and that with this precaution the place was quite safe and also the treasure of His Majesty, who, herein, would be well served, and in whose name he called on them to attend to their several duties; and accordingly Don Pedro Tello took under his own charge the defence of the port.
The Bishop offered to say mass the next day, and to preach a sermon to the people, as he did in fact, exhorting them, in a Christian manner, to the service of God and of their king; and he persevered in the performance of this office night and day, visiting the posts where the people were stationed, placing a priest at each of them, and animating his hearers with much zeal.
The same day, the governor and general despatched a barque with advices to St. Domingo, that the inhabitants of that island might set and keep themselves on the watch; so that if the enemy were to go there, as was heard and was written to the President, the information might be immediately forwarded to Cartagena and Sancta Maria.
All the people of the island were immediately mustered, and some of those belonging to the frigates were landed, being thought necessary for the defence of the posts. The whole amounted to ten thousand three hundred souls, of whom seven hundred were fighting men, besides the eight hundred belonging to the frigates and the Capitana of the main-land, and the rest of the garrison, and foreigners, including, also, fifty on horseback with lance and buckler; the whole of whom were distributed in the following manner:
In the curtain of the Morillo [battery], Captain Pedro de Guia, of the order of St. John, with a hundred and fifty soldiers 150