Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 06).djvu/323

 no necessity for a college, or the assigning of an income to them, unless your Majesty is willing to give them something for their subsistence. However, because of the poverty that they were enduring, this Audiencia has already ordered that the same amount of alms be given them as to the Augustinian religious—namely, one hundred pesos and one hundred fanégas of rice annually to each priest, to be given from the royal treasury. This kindness can be accorded them if your Majesty consents, and will be of great benefit to them.

In another royal decree of the same year, dated January 11, your Majesty orders that this Audiencia look after, and help in every possible way, the two hospitals established in this city, and report as to the best manner in which to provide for and remedy their necessities. This order will be observed very carefully, as your Majesty commands; and as in this country there is nothing with which an income could be furnished to them sufficient for the care of the many Spaniards who are treated there, your Majesty might order, if you so please, that enough Indians be allotted to them to pay to each hospital one thousand pesos, one thousand fanégas of rice, and one thousand fowls, this amount to include what is already given them. Although this grant may be only for a period limited to certain years, it will be an effective remedy for the distress which they now endure. All that the hospital for the Spaniards now has is the income from one village, assigned to it by Doctor Francisco de Sande when he was governor of these islands, which is worth one hundred and twenty gold taes (equivalent to 500 pesos) a year, more or less, and will continue for three years. This time seeming very