 Then the French pirate Martin Cote struck in 1569 with 1000 men, ransacking the city.A few months after the disaster of the invasion of Cote, a fire destroyed the city and forced the creation of a firefighting squad, the first in the Americas.In 1568, Sir John Hawkins of England tried to trick Governor Martín de las Alas into violating Spanish law, which forbade trade with foreigners, by opening a trade fair in the city to sell goods.