Lordship must understand that I am not so careless of the life that the priests lead that I am not on the watch, and they know this well; and if sometimes they come to Manila it is with my permission, or on business which cannot be avoided.  In this I know that there is more to be remedied elsewhere than in my priests.  If the scattering of these ministers in so many regions is, as your Lordship suggests, that the king and the encomiendero may collect their taxes, it seems to me that this is not a good means for it; because where there is not sufficient religious instruction, as there is not where there is one minister in an encomienda, neither the king nor the encomenderos can receive as much as your Lordship wishes to give them.  And I know well from the Christian spirit of our king that, if he were informed of the truth which I know and have told you, he would never consent that any money which was so ill gathered should enter his treasury.  Some day this truth will be known and we shall see who will weep for not having believed it.  His Majesty understood this very well when, in an article of the letter which he wrote to me, he bade me to try to provide sufficient religious instruction; for his Majesty sees clearly that what is actually done is rather to neglect than really to provide the Indians with what they need.  Would to God, as I know that what I say is true, that I might satisfy my conscience by not saying what I am going to pass over in silence, and that I might be in peace; for I desire this more than to see myself in the midst of disputes and hard feeling.  But the obligation which I have, to fulfil the duties of my office, does not allow me to keep silent, but I have to speak and say what I feel.

I do not understand what your Lordship says about the Augustinian fathers and do not wish to reply to it until you have explained it to me, because it never entered my thoughts to be sorry that you should favor them, for they deserve it and your Lordship should do so.  But when your Lordship says that since you came here they have lost some of their rights, I do not wish to agree to that, nor do I think that they will say so; but let this wait for another time, for I do not wish to treat of it here.

At this point your Lordship makes a long digression, trying to give me to understand what my office is and what I can do and what I can not do, and for this your Lordship makes distinctions of protector and bishop and commissioner.  Your Lordship need not have taken so much trouble; for, as Captain Becerra dares to write to me not to take so much trouble to give him light, because he has enough from God, so it would not be very much for me to dare to tell your Lordship not to take so much trouble as you have taken in this letter to teach me what my office is and what I may do in conformity with it—­because, speaking with the respect which is due to your Lordship, you did not come to this bishopric to teach me but to be taught by me.  In truth I do not understand