For it must be understood that Blood's refusal to attend
councils had related only to those concerned with determining the
nature of the enterprise to be undertaken.
Captain Blood was the only one amongst them who knew exactly what
lay ahead. Two years ago he had himself considered a raid upon the
place, and he had actually made a survey of it in circumstances
which he was presently to disclose.
The Baron's proposal was one to be expected from a commander whose
knowledge of Cartagena was only such as might be derived from maps.
Geographically and strategically considered, it is a curious place.
It stands almost four-square, screened east and north by hills, and
it may be said to face south upon the inner of two harbours by which
it is normally approached. The entrance to the outer harbour, which
is in reality a lagoon some three miles across, lies through a neck
known as the Boca Chica - or Little Mouth - and defended by a fort.
A long strip of densely wooded land to westward acts here as a
natural breakwater, and as the inner harbour is approached, another
strip of land thrusts across at right angles from the first, towards
the mainland on the east.
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