ges and benefits which have resulted to these fathers
from my protection and favor, as your Lordship is accustomed to say,
because you will not give any. I will tell you of several things in
which, by my interfering and inclining to your side, they have lost
what was due them; for in Cagayan I took away from them a resident's
house which was worth one hundred and fifty pesos of rent to them;
in Tondo, the lands to which the Indians laid claim; and the property
in Laguio and Nuestra Senora de Guia, which was theirs. When they
were saying mass in their house to the Indians, with considerable
notoriety and scandal to them, and no little affliction to the fathers,
they were ejected from the [_illegible in MS._] at my instance;
for I asked it, and chose to give them this punishment, in order to
palliate their offense. Thereupon your Lordship [_illegible in MS._]
occasioned some disturbance to result. This is what I have done for
this order, and the way in which I have favored them, which in truth
I might have done in many things most deservedly, and very rightly
and justly. But I protest before God that I neither have now nor have
had any other consideration or regard in this or in anything else,
except a desire that in some way or other so evident an obligation
should be fulfilled, and that religious affairs should be settled
as they ought, according to the adjustment and amendment which they
themselves sought [_illegible in MS._] In accomplishing this, let not
your Lordship understand that the royal exchequer is to suffer, because
[_illegible in MS._] his royal intention is that there shall be no
lack in this. Accordingly, we shall have recourse in other districts
to the clergy whom I mentioned above as being at leisure, who will be
occupied with their own support. The plans for this, as I say--taking
away here, and replacing there, and distributing and selecting them in
order that each one may receive a little--this is all matter for your
Lordship and for the obligations of your office. It is much more your
Lordship's duty that you should attend to this business than it is to
prevent the king and his encomenderos from enjoying what in justice
they ought to, because they do not give you ministers or because they
have not them. Your Lordship can remedy and provide for this only in
one of three ways--either as a protector of the Indians, or as bishop,
or as one who has a special commission for it from his Majesty. As
protecto