received from eye-witnesses, both laymen and friars; and they dare
not go on farther. All these difficulties have to be conquered by
the commissary who conducts them, by means of his prudence, of which
he needs a goodly supply. He is obliged to conduct them with love,
for the religious are not of a character to be treated with rigor
and violence, especially in a matter contrary to flesh and blood,
when they exile themselves to those distant countries, so hot and
so sterile, leaving their own land, which perhaps they can never
forget. Hence, if they were to be treated with violence the result
which your Majesty desires would not follow, that is, the service of
God and of your Majesty's self in the conversion of souls. Not only
would they, if thus treated, destroy more than they would build up,
but they would serve only to disquiet those who were there occupied in
the building up of that great church. These difficulties themselves are
not so small; but it is reasonable to add the other and greater ones,
such as are those of sending the religious away, and those which are
stated in the following paragraphs.

_What occurs at Valladolid in despatching this business._ The first
of the difficulties is in the first steps taken to bring the journey
before the Council at the court. These steps are many; and anyone who
goes thither without money--and those who come from the Philippinas to
treat for this matter generally have no money--will find it necessary
to take a great many more steps, since the officials regard that
time as lost which they spend upon despatching the business of a
man who offers them no advantages. Accordingly, it is not possible
to obtain documents from them except by dint of importunate prayers,
and these necessarily require much going about; this in the streets of
Valladolid in winter is a very arduous task, especially for religious,
who cannot leave their convent whenever they please. Still, to avoid