m endeavoring that [the expense of] this
may be met by donations and gratuitous services, and not from the
royal treasury of your Majesty. I have ordered that a large house,
in which the governors were lodged when they came to this port, be
set aside for a royal hospital. I have had it repaired, and two wings
added; and thus medical treatment can be given in it to the seamen,
the convicts on your Majesty's galleys, the carpenters and calkers, and
some sixty-six slaves of the crown. It was said that your Majesty has
also carpenters ashore, besides petty court officers, and the Lascars
and Moros who serve in mooring the vessels and for all the extra labor
that is needed ashore; and hitherto they have had no hospital, and it
was necessary to take them to Manila for treatment. [_Marginal note_:
"Ascertain what provision has been made for this in other regions. As
for the buildings for parish church, hospital, and barracks for
soldiers, this is explained by another letter from the governor. As
for the shipbuilding, what he says is approved."]

16. In a decree dated Madrid, February 16, 635, your Majesty commands
that I exercise care to see that the religious shall not go to Japon
for the present, because the king of that country has so tightly
closed the door to the Catholics. [_Marginal note_: "Seen."]

17. He has commanded this, with very rigorous penalties of death and
confiscation of property, that no vassal of his shall for ten years
leave his kingdom, in any kind of vessel, so that religious may not
go in their ships; he thus checks the trade with the Chinese also,
so that they may not carry religious. Only the Dutch maintain commerce
with Japon, from which has resulted great loss to these your Majesty's
islands--for they bring from Xapon much silver; copper and tin, for
casting artillery; wheat; and many other products and conveniences
which are very necessary for the said islands. Then the barter of the
silks, fine Castilian cloths, and Spanish leather made from deerskin,
which were carried there from these islands--all this is so cut off
that it seems as if no way could be found to restore the trade unless
God in His mercy shall open one in the course of time. [_Marginal
note_: "Seen."]

18. Don Pedro de Quiroga y Maya, whom your Majesty has been pleased
to send to Mexico to take the residencia of the Marques de Cerralbo;
sends me a certified copy of a section in the instructions which your
Majesty gave him, in w