regard to the relief of his conscience, for which he sends us to those regions.  Hence it seems that sending us might be dispensed with; the more since his Majesty entrusts this matter to his royal officials to whose direction and command he subjects us religious.  They, perhaps supposing that by showing themselves rigorous in a matter of such piety they are likely to be regarded as zealous for the protection of the royal treasury in all other matters, draw the string until it breaks.  But it is evident that there are royal officials in the Indias who maintain princely houses, perhaps without having inherited means for this from their parents.  With regard to them it is plainly known that they serve the king solely for their own advantage; yet his Majesty trusts more to them than to disinterested religious who ask for nothing but their food and lodging on the road.  If this costs much, it is because the journey is so tedious.  Although at this point it might be said that the accounts of the royal officials have to be audited in due time, and that therefore they are more to be trusted, I, who have seen much of the world and know what happens in it, know also what is the fact in this matter.  It is, that he who goes out of office richest at the time of the residencia goes out the best justified; hence, for fear of that, he never fails to make his profit.  I do not mean to say that there should be no order or system in regard to the grant allowed by his Majesty to the religious for these missions; but I mean that his Majesty should command his officials to believe them at least on their oath, and that when they are obliged to give their oath they should not be annoyed as they have been hitherto.

The only objection to this is the irregularities of the fathers commissaries who have taken religious to the Indias.  These, it is said, have obliged his Majesty to impose such restrictions in this matter, and as a safeguard against irregularities which may occur in future—­because there have been commissaries who have taken fewer religious than the king provided for, thus defrauding his royal treasury by spending on a few that which was allowed for many.  To this I reply, first, that there is no fraud upon the royal treasury, inasmuch as the allowance made by it for four is insufficient for the support of three, as appears from the previous statements of what happened to me in Sevilla.  Hence there is not in this the evil design which seems to exist.  The second point is that, as a result of these oppressive orders, the condition of things is sure to be much worse, since many mare friars are certain to remain in Sevilla and Nueva Spana, even after they have received money from the royal treasury for their ship-stores.  After this has once been paid none of it can ever be restored to the treasury, even if a great excess were left; since whatever would be restored to the treasury, of all this which has been obtained from it with so many documents and precautions, would not