This is a duplicate of a letter sent your Majesty by a vessel which left this port of St. Augustine in the month of February of this year via Havana. I wrote giving an account as I was one of the eleven monks sent by your Majesty to spread the Gospel and teach the natives of this country. When we arrived we were assigned to different places or posts, each one trying his utmost and best to do what he could for the redemption of these souls. It being such an arduous and difficult life, having to traverse on foot, bad roads, with little or nothing to eat at times, that little fruit has yet been yielded, although the harvest, which we hope eventually to reap for the Lord, is worth the trials and sacrifices made, as we know that He suffered death and passion to redeem the souls and rejoiceth over the salvation of one; how much more should we be willing to suffer for the conversion of so many souls as there are in this country and whom we hope to save with the help of God? And so I say that while your Majesty has control of these lands as the Religious have charge of this Garrison in time of need, and they also help to support the Church under their care and the ornaments and other things necessary for the worship of the Divine Lord, not having for this purpose any income from your Royal Finance. There are more than eighty churches which have been built in the different missions and others under construction. We are moved to do this to encourage the Indians who are incapable of good conceptions and obedience. They have always had their ministry so that they listen with little appreciation to what we preach and teach, in grave detriment to the poor newly converted Indians, notwithstanding that our teaching and converting accrues to their own good, as we aid and provide for them in their time of hunger, and when crops have failed. The Indians are so lazy and improvident that if we did not take care of the crops after planting they would have nothing. They do not even save the seed for another planting. Of the Governor I wish to say as little as possible, but the misery, impediment and calamities among Indians and Christians is due to his avarice, and if the poor Spaniards who are in the Garrison of St. Augustine had not the hope that your Majesty would be informed in some way and send them relief from the fearful calamity which this Garrison is suffering, the affliction among the married men as well as the single would become unendurable. They dare not, under any circumstances, send you information, as it would cost them their lives, and so they have prayed and implored me as Chaplain, who live from day to day upon the charity of your Royal Treasury, and have to render a strict account or others would slander us, and our account of the war and other matters must be true. The war with the Indians where many have been killed and many brought in as prisoners was uncalled for and the Indians at “Cabeza de Martyres” are much incensed.