int of importunate prayers,
and these necessarily require much going about; this in the streets of
Valladolid in winter is a very arduous task, especially for religious,
who cannot leave their convent whenever they please. Still, to avoid
this going from place to place is impossible if the business is to be
carried on. After obtaining an order from the Council of the Indias,
which one cannot generally get at the first request, it is necessary
to obtain a second order from the Council of the Exchequer with regard
to the allowance for the journey, and both of these must be recorded
by the accountants of both councils. Although this may be necessary
to give further security to the decrees of his Majesty and to relieve
them from any suspicion of forgery, still, as those which are given
to religious persons, and for so pious a purpose as this, are free
from such suspicion, they may well be privileged in some respects and
need not be obliged to pass through so many registries. On account
of the great number of matters which are attended to in Valladolid,
documents cannot pass through all the registries without taking much
time. Accordingly, much trouble is necessarily caused in the hospices
[_i.e._, guest-houses] of the convents where they lodge, and the
commissioner who takes charge of this business is also obliged to
suffer even more inconvenience--finding that for business so much to
the advantage of our lord the king, and requiring so great labor and
responsibility on his own part, and in which there is not a trace of
profit to himself, it should be necessary to make such exertions at
the very beginning. I confess, for my part, that I would have given
up at this first station on the route if I had not supposed that all
the hindrances to this voyage that I could encounter in the direction
of his Majesty would have ended at this point; but later it will be
seen how completely deceived I was in this notion. However, it is as
well that all those who concern themselves with this business should
be so deceived at the beginning, for if they were not they would give
up this work, pious as it is.

_The smallness of the allowance for conducting the religious to
Sevilla._ Further, the amount which your Majesty commands to be
granted in Valladolid for conveying the religious from their convents
to Sevilla, is insufficient by far for the expense thus incurred. I
conducted the religious who accompanied me to Sevilla in the greatest
po