There are very few soldiers here, for I only brought 270, and about 40 of those have died already. Before they reach here, those who are sent die and desert on the way. In fact the soldiers of Nueva España are not suitable, and consequently, it will be advisable for those who come here to be sent from España.
The pay also that is given here to captains, officers, and soldiers is very little toward their maintenance. Therefore I petition your Grace to favor this, so that they may increase in service to his Majesty, and so that I may have more leeway in rewarding them and encouraging them to [exert themselves] in his service.
There was no ammunition here nor a house for it, or any magazines or money to get ammunition or other very important things. There were no barracks for the soldiers, who were quartered on the houses of the citizens, to the great discomfort of the latter. That also gave opportunity to the soldiers themselves to live loosely and sensually. Consequently, I have built a barracks that will accommodate 400, and they will be readily accessible for guard duty and for anything that arises.
I have surrounded the city with a suitable stone wall, that stretches from the point of a fort which is being built to another which was built in a very improper manner, and will only serve now for show. This wall is about one thousand brazas long and has a foundation below ground of about one and one-half estados. It is about 16 feet broad, [at ground level] while above ground level it tapers in another one and one-half estados from the 16 feet, to twelve feet. From the 12 feet thickness it tapers to about one vara of slope if one measures from the level of the ground. Then begins the right curtain, and it has a width of 8 feet—a space sufficient to drag a piece of artillery along it. At the very least it will serve for a good entrenchment on any occasion. At present all the seacoast side is in some state of security and suitability. I trust, God helping, that in one year’s time, it will have so much security that it will be seen that it will not be as heretofore; for one would believe that we have been here only as guests, and have been awaiting no more than the arrival of the hour of departure, and to leave it as it was. [113]