but rather very favorable to it--since, in the way which I describe,
it is to give them ministers who will profit them; and the way which
your Lordship proposes means to put fire to them which will consume
them. Of this I have more experience than your Lordship or anyone
else who is in these islands, because I was a friar forty-six years,
and minister more than thirty, and have been bishop twelve; and I
know it all and have seen it all, and this is good reason why more
reliance should be placed on me than on any other. This same matter
was discussed in Mexico among all the orders. When they saw that it was
ruinous to them to be alone, they determined to establish houses where
there should be at least four; and, in order that they might support
themselves without being burdensome to the Indians, they decreed that
the orders of St. Dominic and St. Augustine might have some estates
in the Indian villages, by which to support themselves. As it had
been ordered by his Majesty that they should not hold property in the
villages of the Indians, I went to España to see about the matter,
and obtained from his Majesty the revocation of this decree. As some of
the auditors of the Council said what your Lordship says now, I freed
them from that error, and proved to them that it was not expedient that
the friars should live otherwise than in a community. I discussed the
same thing with his Majesty, and it seemed well to him and so it was
provided. In confirmation of this, the fathers of St. Dominic who came
to these islands brought a brief from his Holiness, confirmed by the
royal Council, which orders that in each house there should be at least
four religious; and they tell me that in the [_illegible abbreviation
in MS._] they praised it greatly and were much edified. In this way,
wherever your Lordship thinks of making a short cut, you take a longer
route. To give to the Indians ministers [as you propose?] will be to
give them those who would destroy them, or at least who would be of
very little profit to them. Do not think that I am so careless that I