Note 8 — Chapter VII

The father master Fray Alonso de Carvajal governed this province during his triennium with general acceptation and credit, and he increased the regular observance there by example rather than rigor. The time having arrived for the new provincial chapter, it was held in the convent of San Pablo in Manila, May eleven, one thousand six hundred and forty-seven. Father Fray Alonso de Lara, senior definitor of the preceding triennium, presided, as no letters-patent had been received from our most reverend father-general to enable any one else to preside. Father Fray Diego de Ordás was elected provincial with the greatest harmony, by the fathers voting. He had been a minister for many years in the province of Bisayas, and had come to these islands in the year 1624. In the year 1635 he had brought a fine mission of religious, as we saw in its proper place. The definitors elected were father Fray Jerónimo de Paredes,8 Fray Andrés de Fuentes,9 Fray Pedro Valenzuela,10 and Fray Gaspar López.11 The visitors present were those of the preceding chapter, father Fray Juan Gallegos and the father lecturer Fray Diego de Ochoa. For the near future were elected fathers Fray Pedro de Mejía and Fray Tomás de Villanueva.12 Afterward, in a private meeting of the definitors, on May 18, father Fray Martin García13 was chosen procurator-general in España, and definitor of this province for the general chapter of the near future. He was given the authority to appoint a discreto. It was determined to buy a hospice in Méjico for the care of the religious who come to these islands on the missions that are conducted from España. But that was not put into execution until many years after, when father Fray Juan de Borja14 obtained it by buying some houses which belonged to Onofre de Lorenzana along the highway of Tacuba, where the hospice is located at present. Neither did the embarcation of father Fray Martín García take place, because the Dutch fleet was in the Embocadero of San Bernardino, waiting both for the galleon from España and for the one about to sail from Cavite for the port of Acapulco. For the same reason the provincial was given dispensation so that he was not required to go to visit the Bisayan provinces, in order that he might avoid the same danger.