In the month of December, 1594, the father provincial Fray Alonso Ximenez assembled a council of the religious in the neighborhood of Manila, to serve in place of an intermediate provincial chapter. The rules which they adopted were of much importance. It was determined that on visitations the hours should be kept as in convents. It was also ordained that the convents should be visited in order, as might best be done. It was also provided that no business should be done with Indians or Spaniards, except in case of the necessity of sick persons, before prime or after the Ave Maria, or for one hour after meals. Also that no religious should have any peculiar mark on the table, or on his cup or on his spoon, or should carry either with him, that there might be absolute uniformity. This order was made because the father provincial Fray Alonso Ximenez used a marked spoon, not because it was any better than the others, but that he might neither receive nor give others anything to cause disgust; and, though it was so trifling a thing, they would not permit it to the provincial, but discussed the matter, and placed their resolution in their public formal acts--so precise were they and so closely did they follow the rule that the superior shall have nothing more than the rest, and that all things shall be uniform. While the religious were in council, the governor, Don Luis Perez das Mariñas, appeared before them, and called their attention to the great need, for the Spaniards in the city and the province of Nueva Segovia, of a priest to confess them; and to the still greater need of someone to teach and preach the holy gospel to the native Indians in that province--who, though they had now been many years subjects of his Majesty, and had paid tribute to his encomenderos, had never had anyone to preach the faith to them, and were as blind and as heathen as if they had never accepted as king a Catholic prince. The petition of the governor made such an impression that, in spite of the small number and the heavy duties of the religious, they assigned two to this mission. The need was indeed very great, for the Spaniards who lived there had been more than six months in constant danger of death, without having any priest. The Indians were enemies of the Spaniards, very valiant, and very numerous considering the small number and the discord of the Spaniards who were in that province. As superior, father Fray Diego de Soria (who afterward became bishop of that region) was appointed, the ecclesiastical chapter giving him full power in spiritual matters, and the governor in temporal matters. His associate was father Fray Thomas Castellar. They found that they needed all the authority which they had received, to bring to some order the great laxity which prevailed among the Spaniards. It was this, and their great perversity and pertinacity in dissensions, which had caused the priests whom they had had to leave them. After those priests went