means of defense for this kingdom, on account of the causes which
I have previously written to your Majesty. Accordingly, I have five
equipped. The flagship has twenty-two benches, the second in command
[_patrona_] and another have nineteen each, and two others seventeen
each. One of these two which have seventeen will be launched within a
fortnight, and has the necessary supply of rowers. These vessels are
not made larger, being thus more suitable for these regions, because
there are many shoals here; and when they are of this size they are
sufficient for the contests which they have to carry on with the
oared vessels employed by the enemy Another reason is the advantage
of keeping down the number of rowers and reducing the expenses, as I
have written your Majesty. These galleys have turned out very well,
because I found here a good foreman; and although he died a few days
ago, I have had the good fortune to find a second, a Genovese, a good
workman. He is well known in Cartagena, where he built a galley. I have
met with much opposition from the archbishop and from the licentiate
Don Antonio de Rivera Maldonado, auditor of this royal Audiencia. If
I had had to follow the opinion of either of them so that they could
restrain my hand, the first stick of wood would still have to be
worked. God knows what I have had to undergo in this, and what I am
still undergoing; and He knows the evil results which follow from such
a state of things in a region so distant from your Majesty, when those
persons undertake to correct matters of war, and to meddle with them,
who do not understand them and have nothing to do with them.

I expect to take with me on the expedition four of these galleys,
and a vessel which has arrived here just now from Acapulco, which
was made here and has capacity to carry a large amount of troops
and provisions; it is of seven hundred toneladas. This vessel I will
have fitted and put in good order. I expect also to take another of