e of Maribeles, a Recollect friar,
arrived. With him occurred the quarrel that your Grace will gather
from the following letter written from the island of Maribeles to
the governor by the adjutant, Don Diego de Herrera.

"Sir:

"The prior of Maribeles made great efforts to come to this island
to see the archbishop; but I did not allow him to come until your
Lordship sent the order by the prebendaries. Notwithstanding the order
sent by your Lordship, had I known the intent of that religious, I
would not have allowed him to come. He came here at eight o'clock on
Tuesday evening. The first thing that he did was to ask the infantry
why they subjected themselves to the mandates of a man, and did not
obey the mandates of God. I was angered, and told him not to talk
like that, and that the members of his order are commanded, under
penalty of obedience, to perform certain duties; and that we in our
turn are like religious, and are under penalty of our life and of
[being denounced as] traitors. The prior said that, if the religious
were garroted, his Holiness would publish them as martyrs. Then he
began to cry out to the archbishop not to subject himself to anyone,
for if he submitted now, he would be ordered on the following day to
put his head in the stocks. Then the precentor and the others took
part in the discussion, and began to treat him as he deserved. They
summoned me to tell the archbishop not to be guided by what that
father told him, and that I might cause his Lordship to see how ill
he was advised, and that submission was not damaging to his Lordship
(for the decree was issued in the name of the king, our sovereign),
and the troubles that he could cause. Your Lordship will not care to
know more, than that the prebendaries brought a letter from a religious
of St. Dominic for the archbishop. It said that he should refrain from
executing the [governor's] mandate, and that all would follow him,
even should not a single order be left in that city. The precentor
opened it, and on seeing its contents tore it to pieces. He will
relate everything to your Lordship. The reason that these gentlemen
have not gone to that city is that, in the first order given me by
your Lordship, I am ordered not to allow the archbishop to write to
the government; and in this letter that these gentlemen brought me,
your Lordship does not order me to allow him to write, but that I allow
them to talk and communicate to him as much as they wish