ey have
for their superior. At this juncture also arose disturbances made by
the relatives of the said religious, occasioning many scandals; and
the friars, encouraged by the support which these people gave them,
could not be corrected within the convent, and disturbed it to the
utmost. They made promises to the lay brethren to ordain them as
priests in order to draw these into their following; and _so_ far
did they go that all of them together sallied out from the convent
one morning--the second day of August in last year--more than two
hours before daylight, and carried with them the doorkeeper and three
lay brethren, leaving the gates of the convent open. Roaming through
the streets at those hours, with very great scandal, they went where
they chose until daylight; and then they went to the palace, where
they presented themselves before the governor of these islands, Don
Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera--demanding, under pretext of desiring
freedom to prosecute their just claims, that he shelter them under the
royal patronage, take them out of the [Augustinian] convent, and assign
them another where they could reside. The governor, with the prudence
and great zeal which he displays in all the affairs of his government,
rebuked them for this proceeding, ordered that the provincial be
summoned, and charged him to take the religious back to the convent,
but to treat them kindly; and, although recognizing the serious nature
of their act, he requested the provincial not to punish them for it,
and the latter acted in accordance with the governor's wishes.

But those religious continued to cause much mischief and trouble,
and there was reason to fear other and greater difficulties. The
procedure of the judge was so violent that he went so far as to
issue an act in which he represented the preceding [session of the]
chapter as nugatory, and commanded the provincial, with penalties
and censures, to surrender within two hours the seal of the province,
so that it might be given to the person on whom the said judge should
see fit to bestow it. They delayed notification of this act to the
provincial until sunset, so that he could not reply within the time
set; and as soon as morning came, they declared that he had incurred
censures. The governor of these islands, as your Majesty's lieutenant,
interposed the authority of his office; and thus were prevented the
great injuries that were beginning outside the order--and, within it,
the