1. In the text the author relies on the ambiguous French translation of an administrative directive of 1769 concerning succession, (p. 49, note 20) This was, indeed, the form in which the local authority received it, but Arnold's rendering of the French text without reference to the Spanish original misrepresents the Spanish law. The Spanish original reflects Spanish law accurately. AGI, Cuba, leg. 2357. The author's disconcerting Anglo-American habit of using the term ‘probate’ when he refers to succession is exemplified in this discussion and elsewhere. Though I have not been able to examine the document to which the author refers, (pp. 55-56, note 45), I very much doubt that the governor meant to criticize his commandant as ‘timid’. The commandant was not timorous in any case, but he performed his judicial function improperly, as the governor pointed out.(pp. 55-56).