utista (_vide_ p. 64), who sent
a brother of his Order to establish a hospital for the natives. The
brother went there, but shortly returned to Manila and died. So the
matter remained in abeyance for years. Subsequently a certain Fray
Diego de Santa Maria, an expert in medicine and the healing art, was
sent there to test the waters. He found they contained properties
highly beneficial in curing rheumatism and certain other maladies,
so thenceforth many natives and Spaniards went there to seek bodily
relief. But there was no convenient abode for the visitors; no
arrangements for taking the baths, and the Government did nothing. A
Franciscan friar was appointed chaplain to the sick visitors, but
his very incommodious residence was inadequate for the lodging of
patients, and, for want of funds, the priest abandoned the project
of establishing a hospital, and returned to Manila. In 1604 the
Gov.-General, Pedro Bravo de Acuna, gave his attention to this
place, and consented to the establishment of a hospital, church,
and convent. The hospital was constructed of bamboo and other light
material, and dedicated to Our Lady of Holy Waters.

Fray Diego de Santa Maria was appointed to the vicarage and the charge
of the hospital. The whole was supported by gifts from the many sick
persons who went there, but the greatest difficulty was to procure
food. Several natives made donations of lands, with the produce of
which the hospital was to be maintained. These gifts, however, proved
insufficient. The priests then solicited permission from the villagers
of Pila (on the lake shore near Santa Cruz) to pasture cattle on the
tongue of land on the opposite coast called Jalajala, which belonged
to them. With their consent a cattle-ranche was established there;
subsequently, a building was erected, and the place was in time known
as the _Estancia de Jalajala_. Then the permission was asked for and
obtained from the Pila natives to plant cocoanut palms, fruit-trees,
and vegetables. Later on the Austin and Franciscan friars quarrelled
about the right of dominion over the place and district called Maynit,
but eventually the former gave way and ceded their alleged rights in
perpetuity to the Franciscans.

In 1640 Los Banos (formerly a dependency of Bay, under the Austin
friars) was constituted a "town." The Franciscans continued to
beg one concession after another, until at length, in 1671, stone
buildings were commenced--a church, convent, hos