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Frenclt Settlement and Spain's Renewed Interest
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of the Bay of Santa Maria de Galve, the point suspected of being the objective of the French expedition. 10 The royal cedula reached Mexico on July 14, 1698. The effect was immediate. After hurried consultations, active preparations for an expe- dition to carry out the order just received were begun immediately in Veracruz. Four months of feverish activity saw Andres Arriola, 11 the newly appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the expedition, ready to set out. On October 15, the little fleet sailed from Veracruz in search of Pensacola Bay. Arriola was given two sets of instructions, one to be followed in case the French were found in possession of the bay, the other in case the place was found unoccupied. I!? Unfavorable weather detained the expedition on the high seas for more than a month and it was not until November 21 that the coast of Florida was reached. Imagine the surprise of Arriola when he found the bay already occupied. A cautious reconnaissance revealed, however, that the occupants were Spaniards. Four days before, on November 17, Captain Juan Jordan had taken possession of the port and all the surrounding country in the name of the king of Spain. Jordan had come directly from Spain to Havana in the fleet of Zavala, with special instructions to proceed to Pensacola without delay. Agreeable to his orders he had, with the cooperation of the officials in Havana, fitted two vessels, and taking fifty men-his orders asked for one hundred-he had set out from Havana for Florida on November 6, to carry out his instructions. 13 Spain had won in the race for Pensacola Bay. It was not until January 26, 1699, that early in the morning five cannon shots announced to the bewildered Spanish garrison the presence of a small foreign fleet just outside the harbor. Arriola and his men, unable to perceive clearly the movements of the new arrivals, and suspecting hos- 10 Real Cedula, April 19, 1698, in Testimo11io de Autos ejecutados en Virtud de Rl. Cedula de su Mgd. ... A. G. I., Aud. de ,~!exico, 61-6-22 (Dunn Transcripts). 11 Andres de Arriola was a typical Spanish adventurer. Up to 1691 when he became sergeant major of the Presidio of Veracruz, he had seen service in three different fleets. In 1694, he was made general of a relief expedition to the Philip- pines. By a fortunate coincidence he made the trip from Acapulco to Cavite in less than four months, making the round trip in less than eleven months, the best record in those days for trans-Pacific navigation. This put him in line for promo- tion and secured for him the appointment as governor. Dunn, op. cit., 176-177. 12 Instrucci6n dada al Mre. de Campo D. Andres de Arriola, in Testimo11io de Autos ejecutados en Virtud de Rl. Cedula ... (Dunn Transcripts). 13 Jordan to the Viceroy, December 6, 1698, in Testimo11io de Autos ejectuados, A.G. /., Aud. de Mexico, 61-6-22 (Dunn Transcripts).
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