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7 over ambition and considered it the end of the ambitious young general's career. Once again they were wrong. Instead of dispersing the expedition, which would have meant the end of his com- mand, Gálvez simply acted as if its departure had been post- poned, and immediately begun to regroup his ships and men for the next attempt against Pensacola. Several months passed. e old generals kept dragging their feet, so by the end of January he had merely a portion of the expedition ready. is is when, according to some historians, Gálvez devised a secret plan. 15 He demanded reinforcements just for the defense of Louisiana while, at the same time, he carefully draed his own orders to, if "a happy opportunity appeared, engage in a new effort the inhabitants of those provinces, and fall upon Pensacola." 16 Just to be sure that everything was going to go according to his "secret plan," he le behind in Havana his trusted friend Francisco de Saavedra, invested both by him and by his uncle, the minis- ter of Indies, with large powers to ensure that the rest of the troops would depart as soon as they were ready. Finally, on 28 February 1781, a fleet of 27 transport ships escorted by five warships carrying little more than 1,500 men sailed from Havana. Even though the old generals still thought that its destination would be either New Orleans or Mobile, Gálvez gave orders to go directly to Pensacola. After an uneventful journey they arrived at Santa Rosa's Island, south of Pensacola Bay, where reports stated that the British had built a fort. e reports were wrong, and the Spanish troops disembarked unop- posed, taking possession of the island and its beachhead from which to deploy their artillery against the two British frigates anchored inside Pensacola Bay. e next phase was to be more difficult. In order to take the troops to the mainland, the ships needed to bypass the British defenses. e navy did not want to expose their ships in what they considered to be a suicide mission. Gálvez could not give direct orders to the navy since it was just assigned to the expedition but not under his direct command. He went aboard the small packet-boat Galveztown, 17 a priva- teer which was under Gálvez's direct command as governor Fig. 5. e Prise de Pensacola, a French engraving by Nicolas Ponce (Paris, 1784?) imagines the crucial moment during the siege when a Spanish cannonball hit and ignited the powder magazine in the Queen's Redoubt, a formidable link in the Brit- ish defenses. is is probably the most popular contemporary image of the siege. THE CAPITOL DOME