as I wrote in the
last despatches. The answers which we gave to their propositions and
letters seemed somewhat satisfactory to them; for this year they have
again sent two ships, with letters from the governor of Nagansaqui. In
these he tells me that the trade is open as before, and that ships may
go there from here, and that others will come here from there. That
nation is very cautious, and there is little confidence to be put in
them. If a person should come here whom they wished to go there to
trade, I would not dare for the present to permit it, until matters
are on a more firm basis; for it is certain that their hearts are
not quiet, nor will they easily become so. They take vengeance at
a fitting time. May they bring us bread and ammunition, as they are
doing. I gave them good treatment here, so that it is now procured
that the gains which they make on their merchandise and the lapse
of time will accommodate all things. Their king died, leaving his
son as heir. There are fears of war, that Christianity may not be so
persecuted. I do not think that it would be a bad thing to have a bit
of a revolution because of their contempt and selfishness. In these
ships were sent one hundred and thirty poor lepers exiled to these
islands, whom the heathen had tried to make renegades to the faith of
Christ (as many others have become); but their entreaties had no effect
on these people. I called a council of state to determine whether
those lepers should be received, and in what manner they should be
received. It was not because I hesitated to receive them; for, even
though they might fasten the disease on me, I would not dare to leave
an apparent Christian in the sight of so many opposed to the faith,
and in the face of the persecution which has been raging in that
kingdom. It was determined that they should be received immediately,
and taken straight to the church; and that they should be welcomed,
entertained, and supported with the alms which this community desired
to apportion. A beginning has been made in collecting alms, and a room
has been arranged in the hospital of the natives where they are to be
put. Your Majesty gives that hospital a yearly alms of five hundred
pesos and a quantity of fowls and rice, with which aid it has now so
increased the number of sick [who are cared for]. For a work so pious,
and so worthy that your Majesty accept it as your own, I do not doubt
that you will have its alms increased somewhat,