an de Peralta; [63] the third, Fray Jeronimo
de Medrano; [64] and the fourth, Fray Alonso de Carvajal. [65]
Those elected as visitors were father Fray Alonso del Rincon, and
father Fray Alonso Ruiz. They made regulations for the province,
and fortified it with good laws.

Our father Fray Hernando Becerra doubtless forced himself to take
upon his shoulders the weight of the province on account of his love
for it, and in order that it might not go into a decline--although he
would have preferred to rest and to take care of his health; for he
had been ailing for two years, so that he appeared to be rather the
statue of death than a man. The fact that he was still young kept him
alive, for that is a very important point. Although all told him that
his illness was serious, and that it unfitted him for the burden of
government, still he had the greatest courage that one can imagine,
and accordingly was elected prior provincial, on May 2, 1626.

However, he felt better immediately after assuming his new duties,
but this improvement did not last long; for he was like the candle,
which does not fail to flare up when about to be extinguished. He
received very good treatment, and all were diligently striving to
secure his health, for it was recognized that he was the one of whom
the province had need. It was feared that he would be harsh, and that
he would exercise severity; for he showed that disposition, and all
trembled before him--all that harshness being occasioned, perhaps,
by his severe illness. But in the end those fears lasted but a little
while, for on the day of our father St. Ignatius, the last of July,
God took him to himself by a most comfortable death, which left all
the religious envious and full of tears, so that there was no one who
did not shed them at that spectacle. Two years before he had prepared
himself [for death]; and, although he was always a most observant
religious, he renewed that care upon seeing the pass to which he had
come. The deposit which he held by permission in our order he proceeded
to give to the church, dispossessing himself of everything which could
prevent him from dying as a very poor religious. And when death was
about to seize him he left the government to our father Mentrida, and
went to discuss everything with God, and to arrange his affairs with
His [Divine] Majesty-which, as he was a person of great ability and
[spiritual] wealth was less necessary to him than to others. Knowing