ter their arrival here, although they
attempted it with great earnestness. The case being as above stated,
there is 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 fanegas 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 fanegas 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 short to
the president of this Audiencia, Doctor Santiago de Vera, he ordered
that the hospital receive this aid for six years, adding to it the
income from another village, which amounts to seventy taes, or two
hundred and fifty pesos, or a trifle more. Besides this, he also
ordered that this hospital be given one thousand fanegas of rice and
one thousand fowls; whereas for the hospital for the natives he only
ordered one thousand fanegas of rice and one thousand fowls [which
is not sufficient], and therefore great privations and hardships are
suffered by those who are being treated there.

In another royal dec