[6] As a young man, Ayala sailed for two decades on Spanish merchant vessels in the Caribbean, where he learned established trade routes and how to navigate the channels and harbors of the islands and mainland coastlines.
[5] He eventually settled in Cuba, where he married the daughter of the adjutant to the sergeant major of the presidio of Havana and decided to join the Royal Spanish Army.
In the years when the royal subsidy, or situado, was late in coming or never arrived at all, and the people of the city were on the verge of starving, he illegally obtained food from the English merchants of South Carolina to sell in his store at grossly inflated prices.
[8] Ayala was promoted to sergeant major of the presidio of Saint Augustine, making him second-in-command to the governor, and in the following years he continued to rise in military rank.
[10] The Creeks asked Ayala to rebuild the fort at San Marcos de Apalachee, which the Spanish had burned and abandoned in 1704 to prevent the British and their Indian allies from taking it.
[10] Ayala was replaced on August 3, 1718, by the new governor, Antonio Benavides,[1] a zealous reformer, who formally charged him with trading in contraband.