To the steward as salary 500 pesos Collected from the encomiendas 200 pesos 200 more from the stock farm 200 pesos From the collector of fowls 200 pesos

1100 pesos

[Endorsed:  “The royal hospital at Manila.  Send a copy of these clauses to the governor and Audiencia, so that they may name an auditor as inspector thereof; and let the senior auditor, if convenient, fill this office.  He shall superintend and audit the accounts of this hospital, and bring its property into the most profitable condition.  As for the customs and mode of life of the officials who are employed in this hospital work, if they have committed any unlawful acts let them be punished, if laymen, according to their guilt; and if they be ecclesiastics, let them be dismissed and sent to their own judge.  Each year, one of the Audiencia shall be appointed, in turn, to take the hospital in his charge; and at Easter-tide, when the general inspection of prisons is made, the governor shall, on the day which he shall consider most suitable, visit personally and examine into the cleanliness and state of the bedding of this hospital and the others, so that all may be encouraged to the greatest diligence and charity.  As for the appointment of a steward and other officials, they shall always be of the honorable and well-to-do persons of the city; and the office of steward shall last two years.  If any persons shall be found so suited to the position that it will be necessary to compel him [to serve therein], this shall be done in the best possible manner, so that people may understand that, after the service of God our Lord this it is that has most weight with his Majesty, in order to employ them in other offices, according to the character and method of their management.  Let there be placed upon the books of the accounts and proceedings of the hospital a copy of this decree.  The Council, November 16, 618.”]

LETTER TO FELIPE III FROM ALONSO FAJARDO DE TENZA

Sire: 

Having left the port of Acapulco on April second with the two ships, men, and other things, as I wrote your Majesty from there, God was pleased to allow us to anchor in this port of Cavite on the fifth of the past month.  One could esteem it a good fortune that although the season was so advanced there were as yet no vendavals in the channel [el Embocadero] of these islands; for we had suffered many light winds and even calms, and had waited for a ship that joined us, in order not to desert it, contrary to the advice of some.  Thanks to His Divine Majesty who gave us so prosperous a voyage, not ten persons dying in both ships.