35.  With this arrangement, and the royal decrees which contained the permission for their embarcation, and general royal authority to make as many establishments as possible in these islands, and as those new missionaries should deem proper (to which were added other concessions for spiritual matters conceded by the papal legate), and fortified with all these patents and despatches, the good father chose his associates, men like himself.  Most of them were graduated, and most of them eminent men of the Reform.  He well comprehended that such new plantations required, since they were to be conspicuous before all, men of learning and eminent virtue.  Having assembled at Madrid, they set out for Sevilla on the fifteenth of May, in great harmony and modesty.  There they rested somewhat from the fatigues of their journey, and then continued it to San Lucar de Barrameda.  They waited there until a large trading-fleet sailed, which left the bay of Cadiz for Nueva Espana, and those religious embarked in one of its ships.  The confessions that they heard, and their exhortations to the sailors, were a great comfort to the latter, and they did not neglect charitably to assist the sick.  Thus did they acquire unusual estimation throughout the fleet.  The commander-in-chief approached them in his ship, the flagship, when the weather permitted, to inquire after their health, and to offer them what they needed, commending himself to their holy prayers, and placing in their care the prosperous voyage of the fleet.

36.  They reached the port of Vera Cruz with perfect safety, where the ships were sheltered.  They disembarked, and, passing through the town of Los Angeles, went to Mexico.  There they were received in the college of San Pablo by its rector, father maestro Fray Diego de Contreras, who was afterward archbishop of Santo Domingo, the primatial church of the Indias.  He kept them with his hospitable aid until the vicar-provincial rented a comfortable house, in order to avoid receiving favors, which their strict regulations forbade.  While awaiting the opportunity to go to the port of Acapulco, their mode of life was retired and edifying.  Many noble and wealthy persons began to entreat them to remain there, and to establish themselves, offering them their favor and most abundant alms; and they asked that, if that should not be granted, a competent number would remain and establish themselves.  The father maestro Contreras encouraged these solicitations, and promised them to allow them to become discalced, and to give credit to the new institute.

37.  The president Fray Juan considered those so liberal propositions as annoying temptations, to which, through the motive of their zeal, not one of his could consent.  He considered it advisable to avoid them by flight, and resolved upon his voyage to the port of Acapulco.  There was already a ship there about to sail to Philipinas on the day of the invocation of the Holy Ghost.  Having embarked