person who mentioned them to me as authority for what he stated and
thought; and I quoted them there that your Lordship might see that
I had not made up my mind without foundation. All this I had need of
in order to justify myself in your eyes, for it seems to you that I
could not reply without the help of assistants; but thus far neither
my king nor his advisers have noticed in me such a deficiency as
that. On another occasion your Lordship told me, in Saint Agustin,
[2] that I had read Father Acosta, although I have never in my life
seen his book; and when your Lordship says that his doctrine is very
pernicious, I have nothing to reply but that no book is written by
any father of the Society which is not very carefully looked over
and examined and approved by all the members. But before God, and
in the name of the holy season [Lent] in which we are, I protest
to your Lordship that all these fathers have not erred toward your
Lordship in anything except that, at my request, they said what they
felt. They are very devoted to you; and if there is in my letter
anything worthy of blame, the fault is mine. I say this that your
Lordship may not lay it upon anyone to whom it does not belong. Nor
am I so fond of the far-fetched reasonings of others that in order
to write a letter I need to use anything but the argument which the
subject itself and its accompanying circumstances carry with them. And
one occurs to me now, which is that matter of having laymen, for lack
of religious ministers, look after and bring together the Indians and
instruct them in our holy faith. This, I say, is in conformity with
the royal right of appointment, where the king expressly orders it;
and although your Lordship says that it is not to be believed that
the king with so much risk should have put into my hands alone so
important a business, I am satisfied with myself and I think that his
Majesty is. For any business which is not of my profession I shall not
direct by my own judgment; in this matter, accordingly, I consulted