n die, they are all so poor that they cannot leave
anything. They have no medicines, and are always ready to beg them, as
they have no other resource. When I came, I had a hospital built; but
the corsair burned it. This served as a lodging-place for poor people;
and, for this purpose, I brought a man from Nueva Espana to attend
the sick. We who are here consider this an excellent institution,
and, because without an endowment there would be no hospital when a
soldier was dying, I apportioned about one thousand Indians to the
hospital, whom it now enjoys because of this need. For the future,
will your Majesty please order that a sum sufficient for its needs
be paid from the treasury, and that those Indians be apportioned to
the royal crown. We need also another house for convalescents where
they may be compelled to follow a certain diet, such as a bit of
fowl. When I find a little leisure from so many toils, I will build
such a house, and establish suitable rules regarding the food. Thus,
besides the service of God, many can be supplied with food, by means
of the person who conducts the house.

101. It is necessary to maintain suitable order for the conservation
of the fort and artillery; and, as an inducement for those soldiers
who perform sentinel duty there, and the gunners who serve there, to
live within the fort, it is necessary to maintain them at the separate
expense of the fort. It is necessary also that, for the same purpose,
the governor of the fort should keep it in repair; and these expenses
should not be confused with those of your Majesty's treasury of the
three keys. I have discovered by experience that each account divided
by itself is much more satisfactory.

102. I have set about fortifying this city; but this work is not yet
completed, as the site is large, and I would not leave the friars
outside, from whom we all receive our instruction; moreover, we have
had so much work and hardship, and the Indians help us but little,
and I do not wish them to neglect their fields. It will, however, soon
be completed. It will be a palisade joined with keys, all along the
shore and across the river; and a cavalier [10] for defense--where
some artillery is to be mounted when the Indians have gathered in
their harvest--will be completed very soon. Likewise twenty thousand
fanegas of rice for the support of your Majesty's camp and fleet will
be stored away.

103. The province which, in all this island of Lucon, pro