_Of the second election as provincial of master Father Lorenzo de León_


With the advent, then, of the year 1605, in the latter days of April,
our fathers assembled in the islands, as is the custom. On the Friday
before the third Sunday after Easter, our father Fray Lorenzo de León
went to take over the presidency by virtue of his letters-patent,
and they were found to be such as were required. In consequence, he
was received as president of that chapter, over which he presided, not
only as president, but as vicar-general. The election resulted in [the
choice of] his person, as above stated. In it, the first definitor was
father Fray Juan Bautista de Montoya; the second, father Fray Estéban
Carrillo; the third, father Fray Pedro de Aguirre; and the fourth,
father Fray Roque de Barrionuevo. Father Fray Miguel de Sigüenza
had the vote for president in this definitorio, and as visitors were
elected father Fray Mateo de Peralta [10] and father Fray Francisco
Serrano. All assembled, they ordained and enacted the acts that they
judged advisable in accordance with that time. All those acts show
the sincerity of those who enacted them, and they provided not only
for the welfare of the order, but for that of the native fathers
under our charge; for surely, under our shadow they increase and
are sheltered. And if religious were lacking, what would become of
them? Beyond doubt they would be like the wretched boat exposed to
the fury of the winds, which has no greater security upon the waters
than where the winds choose to carry it. For this one orders them,
that one petitions them, and another one seizes and knocks them about;
but with the protection of the religious they are free from all these
annoyances. Very conformably with this, religious were established
in the missions in order to teach them and often to protect them.