Guazo had warned British privateers to desist from raids upon the Spanish possessions and in the year 1719 had to address the same warning to the French. For the rupture of diplomatic relations between France and Spain had once more increased the insecurity of the Spanish-American coasts. The privateers fitted out by the Cuban government and authorized to retaliate upon the French and British vessels they would meet, were under the command of men of tried valor, like Gonzalez, Mendreta, Cornego and others. They succeeded in capturing a number of bilanders (small one-mast vessels), which carried cargoes of over one hundred thousand pesos in value. On one of these expeditions the soldiers and sailors attempted to revolt against the customary discipline, but Count Bayona suppressed the incipient mutiny before it had the time to develop.
As soon as war had been declared between France and Spain the promoters of the French colonization schemes that had modestly begun to materialize along southern coast of the American continent, embraced this opportunity to attack the Spanish settlements in Florida. On the fourteenth of May, 1718, Bienville, the brother and successor of the famous d'Iberville, arrived at Pensacola and in the name of the French king demanded the capitulation of the town. Unprepared for such an eventuality and unable to resist superior forces, D. Juan Pedro Metamores, the governor of Pensacola, surrendered and the garrison left with all honors of war. They were transported in French vessels to Havana. But already on this involuntary voyage Metamores was considering measures of retaliation. When the French vessels Toulouse and Mareschal de Villars reached Cuba and landed the prisoners, they were seized by the Governor of Havana, who on learning of the disaster at Pensacola decided upon its recapture. A fleet consisting of one Spanish warship, nine brigantines and the two French vessels was quickly made ready and Metamores with his captured troops embarked for Pensacola. On the sixth of August he entered the harbor with the French vessels flying the French colors as decoys. The French commander refused to surrender and a cannonade began. Then the French demanded an armistice which was followed by the exchange of more shots and finally the garrison of one hundred men marched out, also with honors of war, under the command of Chateaugue. They were sent to Havana and were to be transported to Spain, but in the meantime were imprisoned in Morro castle. Metamores resumed his governorship of Pensacola.
But in September Bienville, the brother of Chateaugue, assisted by a French fleet under Champmeslin, with a large force of Canadians and Indians, attacked Pensacola once more. Metamores was defeated and with some of his Spanish troops sent to Havana to be exchanged for the French prisoners held there since August. The remaining Spaniards were sent to France as prisoners of war. It seems from the records of the historian Blanchet that Governor Guazo in the following year made an attempt to reconquer Pensacola. He sent an expedition of fourteen ships and nine hundred men under the command of D. Esteban de Berroa, who succeeded in taking the place. But in the further course of the engagement between the two forces, the French regained possession and defeated the Cubans, many of whom were made prisoners and sent to Spain.
Of Governor Guazo's efforts to improve the fortifications of Havana, an inscription on the inner side of the gate of Tierra bears witness. It reads:
Reynando La Majesdad Catolica del Senor Felipe V. Rey de las Espanas y Siendo Gobernador de Esta Ciudad, E Isla de Cuba El Brigadier de los Reales Exercitos D. Gregorio Guazo Calderon Fernandez de la Vega, Caballero del Orden de Santiago. Ano De 1721.
In the reign of His Catholic Majesty Philip V. King of the Spains, and when the Governor of this town and island of Cuba was the Brigadier of the royal armies D. Gregorio Guazo Calderon Fernandez de la Vega, Knight of the Order of Saint James. In the year 1721.
CHAPTER XXVII
The wonderful impetus which the discoverers and explorers of Spain gave to the spirit of adventure by opening to the world the gates of a new and strange world, promptly began to bear fruit among those nations who had always been daring navigators. Young men with no ties, either of family or profession, to hold them, were suddenly fired with the desire to see the new continent which the genius of Columbus and his associates had brought within their reach, and set out in quest of what promised to be a precious new experience. Most of these men were fairly well educated and sensed the importance of all these enterprises. They set out as eager observers and they did not fail to record their observations and impressions in the frank and unadorned manner of unsophisticated onlookers. Some kept a daily record of their experiences, others jotted down what seemed to them the most striking incidents; still others embodied their reflections on what they had seen and heard in letters that were sent home whenever an occasion presented itself.
Out of this great mass of personal records of travel in the New World a number stand out as deserving of more than passing notice, and though a careful perusal of these books shows a tendency on the part of some authors to repeat what they had heard or read in the reports of their predecessors, there is something worth noting in every individual volume. Among the writers who were evidently the source from which many authors drew to corroborate and complete their personal observations is Tordesillas Herrera, his Spanish Majesty's Chief Chronicler, traces of whose "Description of the West Indies," which was translated into Dutch, English, French and other languages are found in many books. The writings of that worthy prelate and Champion of the Indians, Bartolomeo de Las Casas, have also been drawn upon by many writers. Almost amusing in the light of later day events, is a copiously illustrated little book in which a pious German translator dwells with unctuous self-righteousness on the cruelties practised by the Spaniards upon the natives of the islands.