That the diocese of Chiapa was the poorest in the new World, and so barren of revenues that a subsidy was furnished by the Emperor to enable the Bishop to live at all, contributed perhaps as much as anything to reconcile Las Casas to his new dignity. (54) He repaired to Toledo and appeared before the chapter of his Order which was being held there, to ask that some monks should be furnished him for his new diocese. Las Casas was preconised in Rome on the feast of Pentecost, 1542, after which a whole year elapsed before the necessary bulls reached Spain and the friars who were to accompany him were chosen. After arranging for the reunion of these friars, he set out for Seville, where, on the 30th of March, 1544, he was consecrated bishop in the chapel of the Dominican monastery of St. Paul by Bishop Loaysa, nephew of the cardinal of the same name, assisted by the Bishops of Cordoba and Trujillo in Honduras. On the 21st of March, the newly consecrated Bishop wrote the following letter to the India Council: VERY HIGH AND POTENT LORDS: after we left the Court on Tuesday the 4th of this month, we arrived within sixteen days at this city, in spite of the heavy roads and great rains we encountered. Upon our arrival here we found the fleet ready to sail down the river, but on account of the calm weather and want of wind, no vessel has been able to sail until to-day, Friday. The ship on which the friars were to sail only got as far as San Domingo and there, the cedulas did not make it perfectly clear that the officials should pay their passage to Puerto de Caballos; because the cedulas say that from there they are to be paid to Honduras, because they were supposed to go in the vessel that would disembark them at the said Puerto de Caballos. The cedulas that I obtained, were made out conditionally should the friars think it better to go to Quaçaqualco; so that should they not think it better to go to Quaçaqualco they would for that reason, be unable to leave Hispaniola. Therefore I beg Your Highness (55) to be gracious enough to order a cedula to be supplied them, ordering the officials in Hispaniola to pay the passage from there to Puerto de Caballos, in case they do not have to disembark at Quaçaqualco—as I believe they will not—and may it arrive soon, as this fleet is on the point of sailing. Referring to this, the officials of India House have no funds from which to give me the two hundred and fifty ducats Your Highness had the goodness to order to be given to start me off, because—leaving apart what was sent them to keep for the bishops, etc.,—no other monies from His Majesty have been sent them: so here I am—with the past expenses for works, and without a maravedi for my provisions, on which account I have neither done nor bought anything. I do not even know in which vessel I am sailing because there is nothing that is not muddled, but as I have no money, I am less worried than I should be about the vessel in which I am to sail.