pay a single maravedi until all the party have passed through their
registers. This will be done when they please. They inquire from the
religious where their homes are, and who are their parents--a very
unpleasant thing. One requires great assistance from Heaven in order
not to resent it bitterly. They put so little confidence in his word
and oath that what they do not see with their own eyes it is not worth
while to swear to them. It happened, on the day when they registered
me, that I did not have with me three religious, who were lying sick
in the city of Los Angeles, which is on the route hither. Although I
told the royal officials of this and swore it _in verbo sacerdotis_,
that did not avail to make them give me the subsistence which I was
obliged to send to those sick men. After this, since the stay in
Mexico is long, lasting for almost a half a year, they asked money
whenever they paid the tri-yearly allowance, and for every warrant
they charged ten pesos, which comes to eighty [13] pesos. The payment
is made in silver, to exchange which for current money causes a great
deal of loss. Thus all of these pilferings consume the little which
is given to the religious. I pass over the fact that it is impossible
to collect money due without taking many steps and hearing many rude
answers and sometimes insulting language. At one time when I was
making such claims, one of the Mexican accountants uttered to me,
before respectable witnesses, an insult which cut me to the heart,
because I felt it as a man; and if he had uttered those words to one
of his slaves, it might have wounded him.

_In Acapulco_. At the port of Acapulco is the last stopping-place. I
do not even know what happens there, for at the time of writing this
report we have not arrived there; but I have sufficient evidence
that it must be the most burdensome of all. It is about three months
since I have had three religious there, being obliged to send them