hose which the king has in Panay
and in other regions of the Pintados, who are all, or most of them,
Christians. The Augustinian fathers, in whose charge these were wont
to be, abandoned them; but since they have returned to take charge of
the religious instruction of that people, and the obligation which
holds them is greater than that of Ylocos, let them cease to claim
houses there until they have more ministers. As for those who were to
be sent to Ylocos, where there was no obligation at all, let them be
sent to the Pintados, where there is so much obligation. With those
who are to be taken from Malate, Laguio, and Paranaque, two or three
houses might be occupied among the Pintados in the king's villages,
which have been without religious instruction now for some time. If
your Lordship carries this out, you will take a great burden from the
conscience of the king and from your own, and those fathers will do
a thing which they are under great obligations to do; for to claim
the charge of Ylocos is only a whim of those fathers, and a desire to
undertake what they cannot carry on vigorously. If your Lordship had
consulted with me, I know that I should have given you much safer
advice than that which others give you; because there is no one in
this country who knows as much as I do about what is fitting, nor is
there anyone who would give it to your Lordship with so little regard
for other considerations as I.

What I have said about the religious, that it is not fitting for them
to go about alone, does not extend to the priests; because these,
by their profession and habit, are not obliged to be together, but
each one goes by himself. This has been the usage of the church,
and, so far, we have not seen that any bad results have followed;
but many indeed have followed from the religious dwelling alone.

There is another great evil in what your Lordship wishes, and it
is that, to station so many religious who are scattered about,
each one by himself, is not to establish religious instruction but
to permit it to go to ruin; for I have always been of the opinion,
and shall be all my life, that a few well instructed are better than
many ill instructed. When they are ill instructed they are like an
ill-cured wound, which, when we think that it is well, breaks forth
again. Thus it is with the ill-instructed Indians; for when we think
that they have profited, we find that they are worse than before
they were baptized. This co