Excerpt from The Casa De Contratacion of Seville But the restriction as to ports was scarcely less severe at the American end Of the route than in Spain. At first a ship might sail to America whenever it was ready and had received the proper license; but later they were allowed to go only in fleets and under a naval escort. This was the usual order, and while it prevailed two fleets were sent annually, one to Porto Bello, on the Isthmus, the other to Vera Cruz, in Mexico. Under the immediate control of the India House, the fleet might not, be announced nor the Officers chosen except under the order of the Council of the Indies. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.