sick people, in a low apartment, or room
above the ground-floor of the episcopal residence. As the land is so
poor there, it is very difficult to found and preserve a hospital;
and more so since scarcely a Spanish inhabitant of importance is to
be found there now, for the reasons that were given in the proper
place. [73]

Chapter IX

General summary of the Christians who compose the ministries of
these islands

I do not doubt that the souls ministered to throughout the islands of
this archipelago, by the secular and regular priests, will exceed one
million and many thousands additional, inasmuch as the children who
are not yet seven years old are not found mentioned or enumerated in
the registers [_padrones_] of the ministries. Consequently, I shall
give attention only to the reckoning made a few years ago.

The ministries corresponding to those souls are first, as I have
written, those of the venerable clerics, who have sixteen beneficed
curacies, in the archbishopric of Manila; in the bishopric of Cebu,
fifteen; in that of Camarines, eighteen; and in that of Cagayan,
four. Consequently, the clerics have fifty-three beneficed curacies, in
the archbishopric of Manila and the three suffragan bishoprics. In them
there are, according to the best reckoning, one hundred and forty-two
villages, besides the visitas, collections of huts [_rancherias_],
and missions. This year of 1750 the Christians therein are reckoned
at one hundred and forty-seven thousand two hundred and sixty-nine.

The calced Augustinian religious have charge of two hundred and
fifty-two thousand nine hundred and sixty-three souls, in one hundred
and fifteen villages. The order of the seraphic father, St. Francis,
of one hundred and forty-one thousand one hundred and ninety-three
souls, in sixty-three villages. The Society of Jesus, of two
hundred and nine thousand five hundred and twenty-seven Christians,
in ninety-three ministries. The Order of St. Dominic, ninety-nine
thousand seven hundred and eighty souls, in fifty-one regular villages,
without counting the visitas and missions. The Recollect religious of
St. Augustine have charge of fifty-three thousand three hundred and
eighty-four souls, in one hundred and five villages. Consequently, in
five hundred and sixty-nine regular villages, not counting visitas,
groups of huts, and missions, nine hundred and four thousand one
hundred and sixteen Christians are ministered to in all these Filipi