Majesty, and needed remedy, it seemed to me that in order to provide
for them it would be best for me to represent them to your Lordship
in this letter; and I beg of you to see to them in order that they
may be provided for and adjusted as may be most fitting and may best
serve our Lord.

The preaching of the gospel is the matter in which we serve God
most in these regions to which it came so late; and this is the
first intention of his Holiness and of his Majesty, and it is the
principal care which your Lordship and all of us who have come here
must have. Yet, although this is so, there is nothing which needs
more to be provided for and set right than this, on account of the
lack which there is of ministers, whether clergy or religious, to
do this work. For although his Majesty in his holy zeal has sent
so many and continues to send them, there is need of a great many
more, considering the many regions which we must reach. So we must
not only make all possible efforts to have a sufficient number of
ministers come, but must try to find means to distribute in so wide
a field the force that we have here, endeavoring with all equality
to arrange and stretch the line as much as possible, that there may
not be an over-abundance in some parts and a distinct lack in others;
but rather we should act as one who has much to cover and but little
cloth, who plies the shears with no little prudence, being watchful
in marking his outline to see how it can reach here and there. This
may cause some inconvenience to the religious themselves, for it
comes to this [_illegible in MS_.] since we have not the fulness
and abundance that there is in España. I have already asked this
from your Lordship at other times, as being one who was under such
obligations to set about it, as well for the good of the souls as for
the temporal good of the king and of his encomenderos, by selecting