n account
of the religious, who thus go astray in soul; and, again, for the
poor Indians, so needy as they here are. Neither is it right that
your Majesty should go to such expense to bring religious here, and
then have them depart one after another--perhaps because they are not
chosen as superiors in their respective orders, and for other trivial
reasons--or that the superiors of the religious orders should have
power to give them permission to go away. On the other hand, it would
be of great advantage to make arrangements with the governor that he
should not give them passage; if your Majesty would give the governor
notice of this, it would be well.

The Orders of St. Dominic and St. Francis here maintain very
strict discipline among themselves, for which many thanks should
be rendered to God. In the matter of instruction they are doing
wonders in teaching, by word and deed, and in every way are very
exemplary. They are, too, no great burden on the Indians, which is
a serious consideration; but in the matter I mention, of leaving
some missions, and abandoning them to perdition, those fathers are
the most lacking, which is a very serious evil. There is no lack of
friars to go to other realms, yet to relieve the royal conscience
of your Majesty (for which purpose they came to these islands) and
the consciences of the encomenderos, and aid these poor Indians to be
saved, to take in charge mission-houses, and sustain the children that
they have baptized--for these are their children indeed, to whom they
are under greater obligation in spiritual matters than if they were
their fathers in the flesh--these things they do not attend to. This
gives me great sorrow, and particularly as I find that my friars are
not very faithful in these matters, and the devil has disturbed them
of late years with a spirit of unrest. There is not, and has not been
discovered, a people better disposed to conversion than the Indians
of these islands--I mean, as God has now disposed affairs.

It is very necessary that your Majesty should send a visitor for the
religious of St. Augustine. He should be a friar from over there in
Hespana, a man of great ability, very observant, fond of poverty,
etc. He should not come alone, but with a considerable number of
similar religious. He must not come as visitor and vicar-general for
a limited time--for the affairs of this Order here are not such that
they can be set right in two, three, or four years--but