obtaining religious, on their own side, as they are the sons of many mothers; and as soon as they begin the journey they hear a thousand things in regard to the evils of the country where they are going.  Even if nothing more is said of it than that there is neither bread nor wine therein, that is enough to daunt a giant.  Then those who by their strength of character overcome these difficulties at the edge of the water are frightened at the sea, and at the dismal prophecies that are usually current, that the fleet will be lost on account of sailing very late (as it almost always does) from Espana.  Thus many of the religious have not courage to embark; while those who overcome this difficulty and do go aboard, being new to the sea and seeing themselves in so narrow a space as is that of one ship, and being very seasick—­indeed, there are many who during the whole voyage cannot raise their heads—­are delighted to find themselves on shore alive.  Then having set foot on the land of Nueva Espana, from which they understand that they are obliged to pass anew through all that they have already suffered, and over a much larger ocean, they are put to the test by the climate; some die, and others find themselves attacked by a thousand sicknesses.  They get there no better report about the country to which they are going than they had in Espana—­indeed a much worse one, as it is 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.