verty, for many of them went on foot, and he who was best equipped
rode an ass. Yet I arrived in Sevilla burdened by a debt of more than
two hundred ducados, merely from the expenditure which I was obliged
to make on their account.

_In Sevilla._ In Sevilla, which is the second stopping-place, another
troop of difficulties are encountered. In general, it is customary
at the House of Trade to make some additions to the decrees of his
Majesty; in order that these be accepted a great number of requirements
must be fulfilled, the lack of any one of which is sufficient to
invalidate the documents. Usually some one of these is lacking, from
which it is easy to understand the embarrassment in which he must be
who has charge of this matter, when he finds himself and his companions
already in Sevilla without sufficient means for their support. This
happened to me, and I am certain that I was not the first, and that
he who follows me will not be the last, thus situated. I found myself
in such embarrassment as the result of this that I was almost on the
point of abandoning the enterprise at that time.

_The small allowance for provisions on the voyage._ Moreover, the
amount granted in Sevilla for the entire support of the religious
is far from sufficient for this purpose. If the amount commanded
to be granted to them is divided into vestments, bedding, carriage
of books, and freight-charges from Sevilla to Sanlucar, the amount
allowed for the ship supplies for each person comes to only twenty-two
ducados, which is all that they actually had. It is easy to see that
it is impossible to obtain with this, or even approach, all that is
necessary. It is certainly true that for bread and wine alone, I spent
almost all of what the king granted me for supplies on the voyage;
and that I had to encroach upon what was granted me for vestments and
what clothes the friars themselves used for apparel. In addition,
I was unable to pay all that we owed in Sevilla to the convent for
the days during which we had remained there; accordingly, when I left
it I was out of favor with the prior and the other brethren of the
convent and yet I reduced to a very limited amount the supplies for the
voyage. This is the statement of facts _in verbo sacerdotis_; for it
may be evident in what straits we were, to anyone who has received as
allowance for this purpose no more than that which the king gives, as
ordinarily those who come from the Philippinas have onl