el tried to
leave port, met a French vessel returning from a raid on Hispaniola, and
tried to scuttle back, but was overtaken and captured at the entrance to
the harbor. Next day, having despoiled the prize, the Frenchman sailed
into the deep harbor, which never before had been thus invaded, and
menaced the town. The town had no defences whatever, and the citizens
were unarmed. Guzman, then just at the end of his administration, was
furious at his helplessness. He railed against the citizens because they
would not rush down to the wharf and repel the invader with clubs and
stones. But railing was in vain, and so there was nothing to do but to
take to flight inland, which most of the officials and citizens did,
carrying all portable treasure with them.

The Frenchman then threatened to burn the town, which Guzman wished he
would do, in order to bring the King's government to its senses and
arouse it to the necessity of defending Cuba. But there chanced to be
in the port a certain merchant of Seville, by name Diego Perez, who was
at least as daring as the Frenchman himself. He had a little merchant
sloop, not more than half the size of the Frenchman, but well armed,
with guns that would carry at least as far as the Frenchman's. He ran
his little craft into water too shallow for the bigger Frenchman, where
he would be secure against ramming or boarding, and there began
peppering the enemy with his long range guns, Perez himself aiming the
best of them. The fight lasted all day, and Perez was ready to resume it
next morning. But in the darkness of the night the Frenchman stole away
and was seen no more in Santiago harbor. Perez had three men killed, and
his vessel was badly damaged; but the Frenchman probably suffered
heavier losses, since two of his men who were killed fell overboard and
were picked up and buried by the Spaniards, and there were almost
certainly others killed. For his valor on thus saving the capital of
Cuba from destruction, Perez received from the King a coat of arms with
a device emblematic of his achievement.

That same Frenchman a little later, having repaired his vessel, wreaked
his revenge upon Havana. When he entered the harbor there the people
fled and left the town for him to loot at his leisure. It is recorded
that he took even the church bells. Moreover, being a truculent
Huguenot, he took an image of Saint Peter from the church and let his
men use it as a target to pelt with oranges! This inc