,
that does not need two or three priests; for most of the villages
of their jurisdiction are 10, 20, or 30 leguas distant from the
chief mission station--from which, as they find themselves alone,
they do not go out to visit their districts as a rule, except once a
year. Consequently many must necessarily die without the sacraments,
and even the children without baptism, because of the laziness of the
Indians and the little esteem in which they hold the faith because of
the lack of instruction. Even the ministers themselves run the risk
of dying without confession, and there are not few examples of that
in those islands. That occurs because they can do no more, and have
no priests who can aid them in their ministries. In order to have
these, they must maintain them at their own cost, in order to meet
the obligations of their consciences. But the regulars in all their
districts which consist of many villages (they have three or four
priests in each district), are ever traveling unceasingly by sea and
land, visiting their villages. Consequently the villages instructed
by the religious are frequent in their use of the holy sacraments,
because of their good opinion of our holy Catholic faith, and their
stricter observance of it.

The ministries of those islands need at least 400 priests who are
religious; for I assume that there must not be only one to a district,
as are the seculars in regions so extensive as these, but three or
four, and sometimes more, and that is a matter involving a question of
conscience, because of their ministries and their own souls; for there
is a district belonging to the seculars where a priest does not arrive
for a whole year, and if one reaches some parts, it is only by chance.

For the above reasons I believe that the governor and the royal
Audiencia of Manila, as those who have the matter in hand, in the past
year of 1665 suspended the execution of the said decrees, giving a
time-limit of four years to the Order of St. Dominic to present the
said reasons to his Majesty and his royal Council of the Yndias. For
it is to be believed that if they found it advisable for the royal
service (as they are so attentive to it) to carry out the exact royal
orders in the matter, they would not have delayed the execution of
the orders for four years, nor have allowed any more replies.

The reasons that the regulars have for petitioning his Majesty to
be pleased not to change the method that they have f