other convents he assisted in the same manner. When he saw what was
advisable, he approached Manila to arrange what was needful in the
chapter affairs, for the true reformation is, that the superior be
such. If the superior be perfect, then he must try to see that all
whom he rules be perfect also. _Qualis rector est civitatis, tales
et inhabitantes in ea._ [21]




CHAPTER XXXIV

_Of the election of our father Fray Miguel García_


Since the province, as we have seen, was so extensive, and all the
houses had a vote, except that there were some few convents which
were vicariates, the men who collected for the chapter were numerous;
and if I do not deceive myself, they were difficult to count--that
is, they were more than sixty. And among so many men (although it is
true that it was always thought that the province was to be for our
father Fray Miguel García), there are different tempers, and factions,
and they say those things which afterward it were well that they had
not said. They found the president inclined not to make our father
Fray Miguel García provincial--not because there were demerits in
his person, but because he had already governed, and he considered
that enough. Such discussions, although they were in good point, did
not have any effect; for the waters flowed in their usual channels,
and this talk served only to disquiet some. In short, our father Fray
Miguel García was declared elected on the twenty-third of April,