Note 2 — ROJO’S JOURNAL

“The English knew as much of the weakness of that city as the Spaniards themselves, because of the voyages that they made there annually. There was (and the same was true in 1766 and 1767) the greatest freedom of going everywhere, of seeing and visiting everything. When I left that city, I could easily have given an idea of the plan of the fortifications of that place. The Spaniards were without distrust in this regard. The English knew besides that the garrison was very weak, and composed of Mexican soldiers, good enough indeed, but of little skill in the military art, as they had never fired a gun; and composed, in a word, of soldiers, sufficient to impose on Negroes, but incapable of opposing well disciplined troops, accustomed for some years to fighting in India.” See Le Gentil, ii, p. 236. ↑