At the coming of the galleon which arrived here from Nueva España at the end of July in last year, 1729, I received two letters from your Grace of the same tenor, dated April 19, 1728. While they gave me most special pleasure, on account of the consolation which is afforded me by all the letters from your Grace which I am so fortunate as to see, I have not been and am not able to express my feelings at the news contained in them of the grievous illness, the inflammation in the chest, from which your Grace has suffered for so long a time; and I am very anxious that you should continue to improve, so that your Grace may be entirely free from it (as I hope you now are), and restored to the excellent health which I earnestly hope you may experience for many years. In the midst of so much vexation as has surrounded me, God has been pleased to grant me the favor of good health, so liberally that it seems as if He had cast me in bronze; for He has preserved me in the midst of so much trouble without the slightest headache, contrary to my usual condition, for which I give thanks without number to His great goodness--remaining, as I always shall, so devoted to your Grace as you must well know. The governor of these islands, Don Fernando Baldes Tamon, arrived here safely in the above-mentioned galleon, and accordingly took possession of this office, in which he continues to show the earnest zeal which, with a desire for what is most conformable to right, actuates him. From the place from which the mails which came in the same galleon were despatched to this city he wrote to me--on account of the news which they gave him there of my troubles--with very cordial expressions of affection; and as soon as he arrived here he began to confirm this impression, not only by his confidences on various matters, and by having cared for the comfort of some of my dependents--about whom unfortunately, doubtless on account of my lack of means, I am nevertheless being undeceived, by experiencing [from them], in return, that ingratitude which always more than abounds here--but by manifesting to the public that he valued above others [even] my uselessness. [He did so] in such a manner that, recognizing this, envy and prejudice were aroused, especially that of the licentiates and auditors, to see how they could deprive me of this gentleman's protection. Not only to show my gratitude for his kind intentions above mentioned, but in order to carry out the prudent counsel which your Grace is pleased to give me, I endeavored to follow from those beginnings the line of returning his kindness, as is proper, manifesting my feeling of obligation as well as I was able, and even in the midst of the many pecuniary losses that I have experienced--which have been caused not by extravagance, since I have tried to live as plainly as a religious, but by the unfortunate result of fairs in which everything has been lost, besides the unlooked-for