east of Pentecost, 1542, after
which a whole year elapsed before the necessary bulls reached Spain and
the friars who were to accompany him were chosen. After arranging for the
reunion of these friars, he set out for Seville, where, on the 30th of
March, 1544, he was consecrated bishop in the chapel of the Dominican
monastery of St. Paul by Bishop Loaysa, nephew of the cardinal of the same
name, assisted by the Bishops of Cordoba and Trujillo in Honduras. On the
21st of March, the newly consecrated Bishop wrote the following letter to
the India Council:

VERY HIGH AND POTENT LORDS: after we left the Court on Tuesday the 4th of
this month, we arrived within sixteen days at this city, in spite of the
heavy roads and great rains we encountered. Upon our arrival here we
found the fleet ready to sail down the river, but on account of the calm
weather and want of wind, no vessel has been able to sail until to-day,
Friday. The ship on which the friars were to sail only got as far as San
Domingo and there, the cedulas did not make it perfectly clear that the
officials should pay their passage to Puerto de Caballos; because the
cedulas say that from there they are to be paid to Honduras, because they
were supposed to go in the vessel that would disembark them at the said
Puerto de Caballos. The cedulas that I obtained, were made out
conditionally should the friars think it better to go to Quacaqualco; so
that should they not think it better to go to Quacaqualco they would for
that reason, be unable to leave Hispaniola. Therefore I beg Your Highness
(55) to be gracious enough to order a cedula to be supplied them, ordering
the officials in Hispaniola to pay the passage from there to Puerto de
Caballos, in case they do not have to disembark at Quacaqualco--as I
believe they will not--and may it arrive soon, as this fleet is on the
point of sailing. Referring to this, the officials of India House have no
funds from which to give me the two hundred and fifty ducats Your Highness
had the goodness to order to be given to start me off, because--leaving
apart what was sent them to keep for the bishops, etc.,--no other monies
from His Majesty have been sent them: so here I am--with the past expenses
for works, and without a maravedi for my provisions, on which account I
have neither done nor bought anything. I do not even know in which vessel
I am sailing because there is nothing that is not muddled, but as I have
no money, I