[Though the Dominican order did not accompany the discovery of these islands, it was not late in entering them; for it found many entire provinces still in the night of heathenism, because the preachers, though good ones, had been few, and because the inhabitants differed so in their language and were spread over so vast an extent of territory. The reports which were sent back of the intelligence of the people, the fertility of the soil, and the amount of the population moved some religious to come to these regions, in grief that so many souls should be lost for lack of some one to rescue them from their errors. The question of establishing the Dominican order was discussed among the grave and holy fathers of the Province of Mexico; and to them it seemed unbecoming to our profession that no religious of our order should be engaged in this new conversion. The first man to put these pious desires into effect was that noble man of God, Fray Domingo Betanços, who refused the bishopric of Guatimala, preferring to be a preacher of the gospel in these islands. By his efforts he persuaded the viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoça, to give command that he should have a vessel and sailors to take him to Philippinas, for which he had permission of his bishop. But the time determined upon by our Lord for this had not yet come, and accordingly it was not carried out. However, he did not give up his desire; and began again in 1580 to discuss the journey. In order that the expedition might be better supported, he talked over with some fathers the plan of sending some one to España and Roma to obtain the necessary documents. Fray Juan Chrisóstomo was chosen as leader of the expedition, and was sent to España and Roma to obtain the usual licenses for the foundation of a new province of this order in Philippinas, Japon, and China. Fray Juan set out in 1581 with letters from various ecclesiastics, among them the first bishop of the Philippinas, Don Fray Domingo de Salazar, a religious of the same order, who happened to be in Nueva España at the time, on the way to his new bishopric. The bishop was greatly pleased with this determination, as he hoped to find through it reparation for his own unfortunate voyage, in which he had brought religious from España for the same purpose, but had lost so many from death or sickness that he had remaining only father Fray Christoval de Salvatierra. The mission of Fray Juan Chrisostomo was successful. [19] He obtained from the general of the order, the Most Reverend Fray Pablo Constable de Ferrara, a charter giving him authority to establish a congregation of thirty brethren of the order for the Philippinas Islands and the kingdom of China, and directing him to follow the usages of the province of Santiago of Mexico. The privileges of the province of Mexico were granted to the new province. The date of this charter is the fourteenth of July, 1582. The general also gave him