Cartagena’s land neck was defended by a stone fortification only fifty paces wide.

Evidence

A Fortification built of stone worke cleane ouer the necke of the land, verie orderly done, each part answering and flanking the other, hauing a ditch or traich without it, and within were fiue peeces of great ordinance, Sakers and Demi-Culuerins, which did beat right in front vpon our approch, and within the said wall for the gard thereof were also three hundred men, pikes and shot, the said necke of land being but fiftie paces ouer from one sea water to the other. — Mary Frear Keeler, Sir Francis Drake’s West Indian Voyage,…, 2983

Categorization

• XREF: The 50-pace neck and flanking fort geometry is the same kind of choke-point the English sought to force, comparable to Santiago’s approach in earlier chapters.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Mary Frear Keeler, Sir Francis Drake’s West Indian Voyage,…, 2983