On the 28th of July the viceroy arrived in Vera Cruz. His first measure was to cause the governor to be tried for cowardice, and sentence of death was pronounced; but an appeal being made, his life was spared and he was ordered to proceed to Spain. The defences of the city were repaired and strengthened, and to ensure the earlier departure of the fleet it was ordered that the annual fair be transferred from the capital to Vera Cruz, which was as yet the only port of entry in New Spain, and now for a few years became the distributing point for the merchandise of Seville.
During the remainder of Laguna's administration, the raids of corsairs and privateers continued almost without intermission. On the 3d of August 1683 news was received in the city of Mexico that war was declared between France and Spain, and in the following year hostilities broke out with England. The operations of the English buccaneers were mainly directed, as we have seen, against the cities of Central America; but those of the French filibusters extended over all portions of the coast of New Spain. On the northern portion of Santo Domingo nearly ten thousand of the latter had their head-quarters, all of them
of Vera Cruz are the contemporaneous accounts of Father Villarroel and Antonio Robles. The former, who was assistant parish priest of Vera Cruz at the time of its capture, has left in one of its registers of births a detailed record of this event. It contains occasional repetitions, and, as I have said, there is some confusion in the dates, but otherwise it is clear and graphic. A literal copy is given by Lerdo de Tejada, in his Apuntes Históricos, 273-85, and another copy, less carefully taken, will be found in the Mosaico Mexicano, i. 399-407. Though the Diario of Robles, i. 370-83, contains only brief items relating to this event, it serves to confirm the main statements of Villarroel and furnishes some additional facts. These are the sources from which the principal writers of later times have drawn their information, though not always conforming to the originals. Among the numerous foreign writers, English, French, and Dutch, who treat of this event in connection with the buccaneers, the author of Sharp's Voyages and Esquemelin are probably the best, though both are biassed, and the latter superficial. The former narrative is meagre, but professes to be taken from despatches sent from Jamaica in August 1683. As his work was published in London during the following year, this is probably the case. Further mention of this writer is made in Hist. Cent. Amer., ii. 510-11, this series, and of Esquemelin in Id., 567. These works are probably the most reliable so far as they relate to the stratagem by which the city was surprised, and to questions of detail relating to the buccaneer armament; for the Spaniards captured no prisoners, and neither Villarroel nor Robles could have known anything definite about these matters.
