I have not wanted yearly to
recommend, by letters to my subjects, all that concerns thy honour and
thy service. For, doubt not, it will be thus answered;--But your orders
were never put in execution, and you left your ministers, at their own
disposal, to do whatever they thought good.

"I therefore beg your Majesty, by that fervent zeal which you have for
the glory of our Lord, and by the care which you have always testified of
your eternal salvation, to send hither a vigilant and resolute minister,
who will bend his actions to nothing more than to the conversion of
souls; who may act independently to the officers of your treasury; and
who will not suffer himself to be led and governed by the politics of
worldly men, whose foresight is bounded with the profit of the state. May
your Majesty be pleased a little to inspect your incomes from the Indies,
and, after that, look over the expences which are made for the
advancement of religion; that, having weighed all things equally on
either side, you may make a judgment, if that which you bestow bears any
proportion with that which you receive; and then, perhaps, you will find
a just subject to apprehend, that, of those immense treasures, which the
Divine Goodness has heaped upon you, you have given to God but an
inconsiderable pittance.

"For what remains, let not your Majesty defer any longer the payment of
so just a debt, to so bountiful a giver, nor the healing of so many
public wounds. What remedy soever you can apply, what diligence soever
you can make, all will be too little, and of the latest. The sincere and
ardent charity of my heart, towards your Majesty, has constrained me to
write to you in this manner, especially when my imagination represents to
me, in a lively sort, the complaints which the poor Indians send up to
heaven, that out of so vast a treasure, with which your estate is
enriched by them, you employ so little for their spiritual necessities."
The letter ended, in begging this favour of Almighty God, "that the king,
in his lifetime, might have those considerations, and that conduct, which
he would wish to have had when he was dying."

Michael Vaz negotiated so well with King John the Third, pursuant to the
instructions of Father Xavier, that he obtained another governor of the
Indies, and carried back such orders and provisions, signed by his
Majesty's own hand, as were in a manner the same which the father had
desired.

These orders contained, That