niggardly in distributing them, if he has to transact any business;
or he must arm himself with patience, which is very necessary. His
Majesty commands that the religious be provided there with what they
need from his royal treasury for the journey which they must make to
México. They allow them only ten days for the journey, and provide
food only for that period. The road is eighty leguas in length
and is very rough, so that it takes a well-mounted horseman with a
light load all of ten days to make it. How much more must it take
for people going in company, and with a string of pack animals (as
the religious ordinarily travel), who do not expect to go more than
five or six leguas a day. Moreover, they are traveling in countries of
varying climates; one of these being hot and the next cold, they often
fall ill on the road, and some cannot travel farther. It is no small
achievement for those in health to reach México in twenty days. That
which is allowed them for ten days' journey is not enough, as is very
certain, in this country; how, then, will it suffice for twenty?

_In México_. In the City of México, which is the court of Nueva
España, is the fifth stopping-place, where all of the difficulties
which have been experienced at the court of our lord the king and in
the city of Sevilla are renewed; because here one has to deal with
royal officials in order to obtain money, and with the officials of
his lordship the viceroy regarding the formalities necessary for the
second embarcation. And both classes of officials make themselves
so much the owners of the poor religious who has need of them that,
when they again commence their demands here, he would, even if he had
the patience of a Job, need all of it because of the many occasions
which are here offered for his losing it. Although I arrived at México
burdened with the expenses of the journey, and had no food and no
place from which to get it, the royal officials are not obliged to