in the islands.  He obtained audience with the supreme pontiff, Paul V, to whom he related the labors of his associates in the benefit of infidel souls.  His representation was very well received by the supreme pontiff.  The latter conceded him many favors and indulgences for the missionaries engaged in conversions and reductions.  In order to aid father Fray Gregorio [64] in his claims, he was detained a long while.  Those public interests and the most important affairs of those conquests disappointed private interests.  Powerful rivals advanced their claims, but the procurator ought not to have abandoned his own affairs.  He trusted too much to his prompt and favorable commissions, in whose durability the quickest despatch is not enough; for the agents on the opposing side, availing themselves of his voluntary absence, began to depreciate the mission that had been conceded.  They declared that the Recollects were not necessary in Philipinas; that those who had gone there before were but few and useless.  The procurators of the provinces of Philipinas—­who by having taken the habit were not divested of human passions, for they considered it [i.e., the Recollect mission] as a grievance, instead of being moved by a just and charitable zeal—­interested themselves in that report.  There was much that had to be tilled and cleared.  Whole provinces were begging for spiritual aid.  But now, since their zeal was mitigated, they were excusing themselves from labors, and were contenting themselves with tranquillity.  To say that new missions were necessary, without some of these entering the labors of others, was very apparent to them, and on very superficial considerations reprehensible.  Their immoderate opposition reached such a point that they declared publicly that they [i.e., the Recollects] were not men who could prove at all useful to the infidels.

16.  Their procurator, Fray Pedro, was well able to answer those calumnies (for they were calumnies), and to restrain insinuations so pernicious and prejudicial to the interests with which he was charged; for he had discretion and a spirit for everything.  The most effective thing in that was the pressing need of his commissions, and the contents of his credentials.  But death, which overtook him at Milan on his return trip, prevented those advancements and important efforts; and there was no person to whom to entrust the favorable outcome of his negotiations at Roma, nor his papers as procurator, which were the essential part of the negotiation.  Upon that so unexpected disaster, inasmuch as there was no substitution of powers, nor, as it happened, anyone in whom to substitute them, the above opposition and contradiction had their opportunity—­thus disappointing the arrangements of several religious who were already preparing for that voyage, in their anxiety to embark quickly, and assist their associates in the islands, and extend their laborious work.  Those misfortunes and disturbances were unhappily