The provincial-elect supports those of his faction, on account of the importance to him of their votes for the next chapter; and he overlooks or permits more than what is right. He makes--with ostentation, and with greater authority than that of a bishop--the visitation of the ministries under him; and even if the Indians complain of any extortion, it is not corrected except when the religious [in that village] belongs to the opposite faction. Some complaints reach the tribunals of this city, and, however justified they may be, the provincial does not punish them, except when that suits the interests of his faction; but there are very few who complain, because it is an article of faith, so to speak, among the Indians that the father ministers possess an absolute power and dominion, which compels them to endure or perform whatever the fathers command them. [67] And since in each province, even though it may be of wide extent and contain many villages, there is no Spaniard save the alcalde, and he also fears the said fathers, they are despots; and the Indians are unable to do anything save what their father minister tells them to do. For these reasons, the entire secular government of these provinces remains at the disposal and pleasure of the curas of doctrinas, whose maxim is that which the religious orders most observe, as well as their provincial superiors. In order to fill that office, they give up administering the Indians, but at the end of the provincialate they return to the said administration, in which the same despotism belongs to them. This is absolutely without remedy, and will be so while the curas of doctrinas, besides what I have already said, cannot be subjected to the visitation of the ordinaries. If that were the case, they would prevent any ecclesiastic from taking part in secular affairs, and from oppressing the Indians--not allowing them to compel the natives, contrary to the ordinances of the provinces, to supply fish for the support of the cura; or to pound the rice (in which they employ the young Indian women); or to furnish the other polos or tanorías which they have established, contrary to the laws and the said Ordinances. The ordinaries would also prevent the frequent abuse of their causing the sick to be carried to the church in order to give them the viaticum--as is done notwithstanding the Ordinances and many royal decrees which prohibit this; they would take pains to see that the indulgences of the bull [of the Crusade] were preached; they would visit the brotherhoods and the confraternities. They would take inventory of the incomes of the respective churches, according to the laws of the royal patronage, in order to know how they are spent, in regard to which also I have advanced what your Majesty will find in the expediente for the wine monopoly. They would keep close watch over the schools, to see that instruction be given in the Spanish language. They would restrain the occupation of some