s can not maintain himself,
can ill be acquired by the religious when they go alone and are so
separated as you wish. Would to God that I might see in every house
for Indians, not four such as are in Batan, but six or eight, and not
one, as your Lordship says, because I should expect more fruit from
these six or eight quiet ones than from eighty heedless ones. For as
St. Paul said, speaking to the Corinthians, _Regnum dei non est in
sermone sed in virtute_; for chattering is chattering, and teaching
through works is the true teaching. There are no people in the world
who have so great need of good ministers as have the Indians, or
who notice as much as they do the life which these ministers lead,
and the example which they set them. For one religious to be alone,
although he be a St. Paul, is unsafe; and so it is proper that in this
region we should permit the superiors of each community to govern
their religious and arrange for them as it seems best to them; for,
since they came to convert these souls, it is to be believed that
they will not fail to do so if they can. But they will not, and very
rightly, consent to ruin themselves through maintaining the religious
instruction; but this is not unfavorable to religious instruction,
but rather very favorable to it--since, in the way which I describe,
it is to give them ministers who will profit them; and the way which
your Lordship proposes means to put fire to them which will consume
them. Of this I have more experience than your Lordship or anyone
else who is in these islands, because I was a friar forty-six years,
and minister more than thirty, and have been bishop twelve; and I
know it all and have seen it all, and this is good reason why more
reliance should be placed on me than on any other. This same matter
was discussed in Mexico among all the orders. When they saw that it was
ruinous to them to be alone, they determined to establish houses where
there should be at least four; and, in order that they might support
themselves without being burdensome to the Indians, they decreed that
the orders of St. Dominic and St. Augustine might have some estates
in the Indian villages, by which to support themselves. As it had
been ordered by his Majesty that they should not hold property in the
villages of the Indians, I went to Espana to see about the matter,
and obtained from his Majesty the revocation of this decree. As some of
the auditors of the Council said what your Lor