most learned father, Fray Diego de Contreras—­to whom was given, after a few years, the church of Santo Domingo, the primatial church of the Indias.  He was then professor of rhetoric in the noted university, and rector of the college of San Pablo whose venerating community went out to meet them in solemn procession and with pomp, when they entered their gates.  The learned master gave proof of his ardent charity in his hospitality and cordial kindness, making them very happy.  He prepared a room for them, in which they remained, where they received all comfort and aid, until the father vicar-provincial rented a comfortable house, into which he and his subordinates, and the brethren whom he had with him moved, in order not to give occasion for so much ceremony and so many compliments; hoping for the near opportunity to depart for the port of Acapulco.

That one—­although formerly a secular lodging, now a very strict convent—­could rival the most famous monastery in the matter of observance; for, giving themselves to continual prayers, rigorous fastings, harsh mortifications, and severe penances, all of them were opposing themselves to the best of their ability in the war against the flesh.  They did not leave the house unless summoned for some work of charity, such as to confess or to preach, which they performed very willingly, and to the profit and good of souls.  They voted unanimously not to strive to obtain for themselves or for others, under any pretext, in person or through others, any offices within the order, or out of it—­in order to give, as was actually seen, a solid foundation to the province which they afterward erected so humbly.  Their rigid mode of life there was bruited through the city, and the most noble and the wealthiest, with simple earnestness, asked them to remain.  Some of such persons offered to endow their house, and others to contribute very ample alms.  They begged our fathers at least to leave them the number sufficient to give a good beginning to the convent that they desired to establish.  The master, Fray Diego de Contreras, whom we mentioned above, was aiding and encouraging those arguments, promising that they would become discalced, and that he would carry forward our Institute, [32] with his great authority and power, in that kingdom.  Father Joan de San Geronimo was tempted by those pious offers of generosity, but he did not deceive himself; for many souls would have been lost if he had desisted from that opportune and holy voyage, or if he had lessened the number of the helpers whom he took with him—­who were but few for the abundant harvest that they set about gathering, as we shall note with the lapse of years, in the manner in which it occurred.  Accordingly, having closed his ears to all the proposed advantages, he undertook to go to the port at the end of that year, where we shall leave him continuing with his observance of rules and pious devotions on the roads, although these were horrible, as if he had been in the most comfortable and most quiet convent of all those which he had lately left well established in Espana.