ith your Majesty's permission sixteen or eighteen of the Order of
St. Augustine, and thus was spent by your Majesty as many thousands
of pesos. They brought still more, as many as twenty-eight--either
with the money that was left over (for your Majesty gives them
too large a sum), or with the money sent them by their order from
here. And, as they are contented with nothing, where one religious
formerly served there are now two or three; and where two served,
there are now four or five. I will tell your Majesty the troubles and
disadvantages arising from this condition of affairs: the first is,
to oppose the alcalde-mayor and your Majesty's justice in every way;
the second, to cause more instruction, so that your Majesty may spend
more in stipends, which they have obtained from the government, by
the requests and presents that they have made to my predecessors;
the third, to make greater slaves of the poor Indians by being
the merchants of their rice and cloth, taking by force from them,
at the price that they choose, whatever the Indians possess; and
fourth, when an assessment [_repartimiento_] of rice, linen, wine,
and other things is made for your Majesty's magazines, and for your
royal service, they offer opposition not only to the alcalde-mayor,
but also to the government, bewailing the poverty of the Indians--so
that the latter may have more left of which these religious can skin
and deprive them. These missionaries, Sire, do not undertake only the
teaching of the doctrines and the administration of the sacraments;
but they are attempting to rule everything. They tell the Indians,
publicly and privately, that there is no other king or pope than
themselves; and they make their fiscals give to an Indian, and even
to his wife, fifty lashes for any childish or foolish act. I shall be
satisfied if your Majesty's name has the fourth part of the sovereignty
and lordship that these fathers have among these Indians. Sometimes
they tell the alcaldes-mayor that their provincials in Manila, and
they in the missions, ought to be obeyed. The above and many other
lawless acts which I have discovered here among these orders have
made me disconsolate; and I confess to your Majesty that I would
serve you more willingly in any of your armies as a soldier than
here as governor. If your Majesty do not have the goodness to have
this effectively remedied, this colony will go to ruin, because
of the multitude of allied friars. The ecclesia