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We indeed believe that the President and judges are acting in this fashion since they are new and have no experience in these lands. In view of the damage arising out of this, they have amended their actions because we requested them to do so and gave reasons for doing so, and although they do their duty by us with fine words, their deeds do not correspond to their words because they rule in favour of anyone citing this decree, which they call resolved, and those citing it go away so content that they no longer have regard for any friar or priest. And as the Indians do not understand this language and neither do many Spaniards, so much of the credit and authority of the faith has been lost among them that it is better for us to abandon our preaching than to continue with so little effect. And if the judges continue with what they have begun it is to see us get up to be knocked down again until Your Majesty definitively decrees that we have authority in this mission and to do what is necessary, and if for reasons which perhaps are apparent in Spain but which we are not aware of here what we ask is not possible, we request Your Majesty to graciously instruct us how we can live, since the life we are now leading cannot be tolerated nor can our souls tolerate the manner in which we live.
If we wished to supply copious evidence for our statements herein, we could indeed do so since the walls and stones call out and confirm much more than we state here, but let us not do so since our intention is not to bring a lawsuit and we believe we do not need to bring witnesses before Your Majesty as we are certain that you will believe our statements as one can only state the pure truth when addressing Your Majesty.
Your Majesty is well aware that not all laws can be the same everywhere since they must be adapted to the temperament of the people and the quality of the land. It would be difficult to understand the temperament of these Indians and the anguish and difficulty involved in bringing knowledge of the truth to these Indians and how easily they stray from it after having received it if we did not live among them. And for this reason, decrees cannot be issued in Spain in respect of difficulties encountered here; rather, those of us here who put God and what His law and reason require first, must make use of such methods as are necessary and appropriate to achieve this end, and if such confidence is not placed in us our mission will be diminished because, out of all the people here in these lands, no-one can know as much about this matter as us, because they are in this city and in their houses with...
320
We indeed believe that the President and judges are acting in this fashion since they are new and have no experience in these lands. In view of the damage arising out of this, they have amended their actions because we requested them to do so and gave reasons for doing so, and although they do their duty by us with fine words, their deeds do not correspond to their words because they rule in favour of anyone citing this decree, which they call resolved, and those citing it go away so content that they no longer have regard for any friar or priest. And as the Indians do not understand this language and neither do many Spaniards, so much of the credit and authority of the faith has been lost among them that it is better for us to abandon our preaching than to continue with so little effect. And if the judges continue with what they have begun it is to see us get up to be knocked down again until Your Majesty definitively decrees that we have authority in this mission and to do what is necessary, and if for reasons which perhaps are apparent in Spain but which we are not aware of here what we ask is not possible, we request Your Majesty to graciously instruct us how we can live, since the life we are now leading cannot be tolerated nor can our souls tolerate the manner in which we live.
If we wished to supply copious evidence for our statements herein, we could indeed do so since the walls and stones call out and confirm much more than we state here, but let us not do so since our intention is not to bring a lawsuit and we believe we do not need to bring witnesses before Your Majesty as we are certain that you will believe our state- ments as one can only state the pure truth when addressing Your Majesty.
Your Majesty is well aware that not all laws can be the same ev- erywhere since they must be adapted to the temperament of the people and the quality of the land. It would be difficult to understand the tem- perament of these Indians and the anguish and difficulty involved in bringing knowledge of the truth to these Indians and how easily they stray from it after having received it if we did not live among them. And for this reason, decrees cannot be issued in Spain in respect of difficulties encountered here; rather, those of us here who put God and what His law and reason require first, must make use of such methods as are necessary and appropriate to achieve this end, and if such confi- dence is not placed in us our mission will be diminished because, out of all the people here in these lands, no-one can know as much about this matter as us, because they are in this city and in their houses with
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