ity,
complaining of the severity of his government, in terms that libeled
his uprightness, and other expressions that were very unbecoming and
inappropriate to the dignity of a cabildo. Accordingly, for the sake
of their reputation, his illustrious Lordship was not willing to make
the document public, and he only showed it privately to the governor
of these islands--who was deeply irritated at what they had done,
and promised all his protection to the archbishop for correcting
his prebends. The archbishop did not choose to avail himself of
this aid, because he intended to bring them back to sober judgment
by means of kindness and gentle treatment. He therefore replied to
his cabildo with another pastoral letter, couched in affectionate
terms, and full of learning and paternal affection in which he gently
admonished them to recognize and correct their error. Again they
wrote to his illustrious Lordship, in more submissive tone, although
it was apparently only to pay him compliments; for almost on the same
day they appeared before the royal Audiencia with another document,
making complaint against their prelate of injuries, and saying that
although they had represented these to his illustrious Lordship,
he had not answered them to the point. The effect of this petition
was, that the royal Audiencia issued new commands, not only to the
archbishop but to the father provincial of this province, that father
Fray Raymundo Berart (of whom the cabildo bitterly complained) must
leave his association with his illustrious Lordship, and depart to the
ministries among the Indians; this was carried out (at the instance of
the father himself), in order to wreak the wrath of those who were in
power. On this occasion the royal Audiencia also ordered that a secret
investigation be made of the lives and conduct of our religious,
commencing with the archbishop; and, although a beginning was made
in the fabrication of this information, the plan soon fell through on
account of another and public report which was made, by command of the
archbishop, in favor of the religious--in which their reputation was
so well vindicated by testimony that those who undertook to blacken
it through the secret inquiry were left confounded and abashed.

All these occurrences that we have mentioned were preludes and omens
of some outbreak; for the minds of the people were disquieted, and
jealousy of the archbishop was plainly evident on the part, not only
of the