Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 08).djvu/55

 pal thing, but our works show what it is that we care most about. Ordinances, decrees, and provisions which speak in favor of it, we have in plenty; the fulfilment of them will come when there is nothing temporal to be looked after, which will be very late. If your Lordship does not think so, ask what is going on in the island of Panay. Of what do they take most account, of the galleys and ships which are being built there, or of the religious instruction which was to be preached there? Because I have seen with what dislike your Lordship hears of what is going on there, I have ceased to inform you of it—which I did, hoping that if you understood the situation, you would find means to improve it. Letters and messengers from there have told me things which are enough to break one's heart; but now I am hardening it, because I see that it is of no use for me to grieve over them. This I say in reply to the statement in the preface to your Lordship's letter, in which you say: "If they would allow me to be bishop, I would maintain better order in my bishopric than there is, and the natives would be much better instructed and not so harassed." But where there are so many to order and so few to obey, he who leads this dance can ill guide it to the place where it ought to go. For this reason many things are going so far astray, and they will go astray as long as he who has care of everything does not have the authority which he ought to have. For how can I arrange for the religious instruction, or take away here or place there, if after I have ordered it someone says that he chooses not to abide by it, but to do what he thinks best? Allowing, in general, that in moral matters there is a little improvement,