Brotherhood of the Confraternity of La Misericordia ["mercy"].  In the year five hundred and ninety-three, the Confraternity of La Misericordia was started in this city.  It has continued to increase daily to greater estate, until now it is of the utmost importance in the city, because of the many needs that it succors and relieves, and the charitable works that it undertakes.  It was founded with the same rules and for the same end as that of the city of Lisboa, and others that were begun in imitation of the latter in Portuguese India—­whence it must have been introduced here on account of its nearness to, and communication with, these islands.  It has two hundred brethren, and every year twelve of these are chosen, who are called “brethren of the bureau of accounts.”  They, together with one brother, who is their chief, have charge of the government of the said confraternity.  They beg alms two days of every week and collect whatever they get from this source and from the bequests left by most of the dying.  They spend annually on the average more than twelve thousand pesos, which includes three thousand six hundred of income that they now possess, that was bequeathed them by certain persons.  That sum they use for the general support and relief of self-respecting poor men and women who live uprightly; on the poor of the prison, whose suits they urge; on helping many of the girls sheltered in the seminary of Santa Potenciana; on the support of certain collegiates who study in the convent of Santo Thomas of the Order of St. Dominic, and in that of San Joseph of the Society of Jesus; in marrying girls and orphans; on the support of the hospital built by them where slaves are treated, and which I mentioned above; on the alms for masses, and for other similar purposes.  Many of the dying appoint the brethren of the bureau of accounts as their executors, and they carry out the terms of the wills with great strictness.  They attend to the burial of the poor, and of the bones of those who are hanged, which duty they see to once each year.

Colleges of Students

College of the Society of Jesus, called San Joseph.  There are two colleges for students.  One was founded by Captain Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa, and is named San Joseph.  It is in charge of the Society of Jesus, and the collegiates go to attend lectures at the residence [colegio] of the same Society (which is close by) in grammar, philosophy, and ecclesiastical and moral theology.  At present it has twenty collegiates who wear the beca. [48] Some of them pay their tuition, but others are aided by the Confraternity of La Misericordia; for the income of the founder falls somewhat short now of sustaining the college, because of expenses in erecting the buildings of the said college.