which your Majesty desires would not follow, that is, the service of God and of your Majesty's self in the conversion of souls. Not only would they, if thus treated, destroy more than they would build up, but they would serve only to disquiet those who were there occupied in the building up of that great church. These difficulties themselves are not so small; but it is reasonable to add the other and greater ones, such as are those of sending the religious away, and those which are stated in the following paragraphs. _What occurs at Valladolid in despatching this business._ The first of the difficulties is in the first steps taken to bring the journey before the Council at the court. These steps are many; and anyone who goes thither without money--and those who come from the Philippinas to treat for this matter generally have no money--will find it necessary to take a great many more steps, since the officials regard that time as lost which they spend upon despatching the business of a man who offers them no advantages. Accordingly, it is not possible to obtain documents from them except by dint 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