alled upon for no business except of charity, trust,
and good administration, while the superintendent will hand in the
accounts for the said Confraternity. Thus the whole, if your Majesty
please, will be in one; and on other conditions the Confraternity will
not undertake it. At least I regard it as a matter of the highest
importance and advantage that your Majesty give commands that the
archbishop and the Order of St. Francis place four religious--two
priests and two laymen--in the said hospital; and that, in case
this order cannot undertake it, the Society of Jesus do so, for,
being persons of great charity and good government in all things,
it will be of great advantage for them to have this in their charge;
so that in this way it seems that many great evils would be remedied,
and many great advantages result. Our Lord keep your Majesty many
long years, as His Divine Majesty has power, and as we all desire
and have need. Manila, July 20, 1597.

_Luis Perez Dasmarinas_

[_Endorsed:_ "Let the president and auditors and the archbishop state
what they think best to be done in the case; and in the meantime
let them give such orders as they think best for the good conduct of
the hospital."]

Considering and reflecting that the royal hospital of this city is
one of the most important and considerable establishments in this
country and these islands, it is very essential to the same, for the
best advantage and comfort of the poor, and for the good order and
system of the administration of the hospital, that it should be under
the charge of persons who are influenced by the love of God and by
zeal for His service and for the welfare and advantage of His poor,
and by no payment or temporal interest. Since all the other hospitals
of this city have this advantage, it is a pity that it should be
lacking in this one alone, which is of so much importance; and that
although it has so good an income and other advantages, it should not
surpass the others; and that there should be cause that many refuse to
go to it to be cared for, and prefer to go elsewhere. That is proof
of either carelessness and disorder, or of necessity; and, although
there is some of the latter, yet I believe that it must be mainly the
former. Likewise it spends and requires on its part certain salaries
and expenses for persons who serve in the said hospital. Great injury
is done to the service of God our Lord and of his Majesty the king,
if such an institut