[2] In 1735 Moral Sánchez took steps to promote the production of naval stores, spars and masts to supply Cuban shipbuilders, but subsequent governors did little to continue this effort.
[3] That same year, he complained to the viceroyalty of New Spain that the merchants of Puebla (in modern Mexico) made a fifty percent profit on all goods shipped to Florida.
[4] During his administration, Moral Sánchez ordered Captain Rodrigo de Ortega to make a list of all the Native American provinces and towns, both Christian and unconverted, that once paid obeisance to the Spanish Crown.
[1] By 1736, the widely dispersed Franciscan missions of Spanish Florida had been reduced to a few in the area around St. Augustine, and more Indians in the interior were beginning to exchange goods with British and French traders.
Accepting the engineer Antonio de Arredondo's recommendations to improve St. Augustine's water and land defenses, in 1737 Moral Sanchez ordered the construction of two small wooden fortresses where the Indian trail to Apalachee crossed the St. Johns,[8] including blockhouses, barracks, storehouses and batteries.