in advance that they might prepare there what is needed for the
voyage. One of them with my power of attorney requested the royal
officials there to grant them a house, as is usual and customary,
that they might collect there the ship-stores which are on the way
from Mexico, and might lodge the friars there when about to make the
journey. They presented for this purpose your Majesty's decree which
I possess, and the officials replied that they would not grant them
the house without a command from the viceroy. I sent this to them,
and they made I know not what additions, and so have sent it back
to me. During the two months and more that have been occupied with
these demands and answers, the poor friars have slept on the ground,
without having anyone to take them into his house--except that, being
taken ill, they were received in the hospital. It is with all these
hardships and difficulties that this voyage, so much to the service
of God and of his Majesty, is taken, besides those experienced in
the voyage itself, which are enough to make the beard of the bravest
tremble. His Majesty requires, in spite of all this, that all of the
religious who go from España to Philippinas must proceed thither,
without permission being granted for any to remain in Nueva Spaña;
but there is no means less suitable to gain that end than obliging
them to pass through so many difficulties. They come out of them
so much grieved and humiliated that their courage and good will in
serving his Majesty has come to an end. To transport them by force
most certainly is no profit to his royal service, much less to the
service of God. It does no good to the cause of religion, as I said
in the beginning. Besides this, if your Majesty is pleased that we
religious shall pass through so many registries without having our
word or oath believed in them, because of the fraud that might exist
in the amounts allowed to us from his royal treasury--if we are not
to be trusted in this matter, much less shall be so in regard to the