Edited translation

A perfect style of language [is] that in which a man speaking to 500 people, of all common and various capacities, idiots or lunatics excepted, should be understood by them all, and in the same sense which the speaker entended to be understood.
Daniel Defoe

español original: Cinco años más tarde, en Roma, se ordena sacerdote y vuelve a América.

inglés traducción: Five years later, in Rome, he became a bishop and returned to America.

recommended: Five years later, in Rome, he was ordained a priest. (In my Larousse unabridged Spanish-English/English-Spanish dictionary, obispo means bishop, whereas sacerdote is defined as priest or high priest.) AUTHOR COMMENT: TIENES RAZÓN. TU TRADUCCIÓN ES LA CORRECTA.

español original: La justicia, pues, era lenta, tortuosa, muy imperfecta, y los pleitos demoraban décadas en fallarse, no sólo por la copiosa legislación y lo difícil que resultaba remitir los enormes legajos por medio de flotas inseguras, sino también por la propia naturaleza de los procedimientos legales y administrativos. De entonces queda alojada en el idioma la peor de las maldiciones: «tengas pleitos, aunque los ganes». A lo que se añade como colofón una desmayada resignación: «hay dos tipos de pleitos: los que se resuelven solos y los que no tienen solución». Los americanos ―incluidos los españoles del otro lado del Atlántico―, sencillamente, abrieron los ojos al mundo convencidos de que no había justicia bajo el sol. Y eso era grave, porque la función primordial del rey debía ser ésa: impartir justicia. Más aún: dentro de la mejor tradición hispánica la soberanía era, en rigor, «jurisdicción», es decir, la facultad de aplicar la ley y dictar sentencias justas sobre un territorio. En España eso funcionaba mal. En América, peor.

English translation: In addition, justice was slow, tortuous, and highly imperfect.  Legal struggles took decades to fail, not just from copious legislation and the difficulties in remitting the cumbersome legalities by means of insecure floats, but also from the very nature of the legal and administrative proceedings. From then came a phrase that lodged itself into the language as the worst of curses, “May you have trials, even if you win them.”  To which can be added the colophon of a tired resignation, “There are two types of fights; those that resolve themselves and those that have no resolution.” The Americans  - including the Spaniards in the hemisphere - sensibly opened their eyes to the world convinced that there was no justice under the sun.  This was a grave thing, as the most basic function of the king was to dispense justice.  Further, within the best hispanic tradition, the ideal was jurisdiction, that is, the ability to apply the law and dictate just sentences throughout the territory.  In Spain, this aspect was functioning poorly; and in America worse.

recommended: In addition, justice was slow, tortuous, and highly imperfect. Legal struggles took decades to fail, not just from copious legislation and the difficulties that resulted in delivering massive files by means of insecure fleets, but also from the very nature of the legal and administrative proceedings. From that time a saying lodged itself into the language as the worst of curses, “You have trials, even though you win them,” to which is added as a colophon this tired resignation, “There are two types of [LEGAL PROBLEMS]: those that resolve themselves and those that have no solution.” The Americans, including the Spaniards on the other side of the Atlantic, sensibly opened their eyes to the world, convinced there was no justice under the sun. This was a grave thing, as the most basic function of the king ought to have been just that: to impart justice.  Further, within the best Hispanic tradition, sovereignty was, strictly speaking, “jurisdiction,” that is, the faculty to apply the law and dictate just sentences throughout the territory. In Spain, this aspect was functioning badly; in America, worse. AUTHOR COMMENT: (Así es mucho mejor)

español original: Se pensó, durante un tiempo, que la influencia de los estoicos paganos ―sostenedores de la fraternidad entre todos los hombres― y la posterior llegada del cristianismo habían sido un freno a la esclavitud, pero las pruebas documentales que existen abonan en la otra dirección...

English translation:  It was thought for some time that the influence of the stoic pagans - maintainers of the fraternity of all men - and the eventual arrival of Christianity would put a halt to slavery, but existing documental evidence shows the opposite.

recommended:  It was thought for some time that the influence of the stoic pagans –sustainers of the fraternity of all men– and the eventual arrival of Christianity had put a halt to slavery, but documented proof points in the opposite direction. AUTHOR COMMENT: (ME GUSTA)