e this, and give such commands as are
most expedient for your royal service, in order that these vassals
who are so poor may be encouraged, and the merchandise that they
export may bring in good returns when nothing goes unregistered,
and that the Indians may be saved from ruin. [_Marginal note_:
"Let there be no innovation in this matter which he proposes, and
follow the orders which have been issued in regard to the building
of ships; and tell him that, as he has been commanded, he shall make
no innovations without first consulting the government in regard to
the matter, so that orders may be given him to be put into execution."]

May our Lord guard the Catholic person of your Majesty, as Christendom
has need. At Cavite, July 11, 636. Sire, your vassal kisses your
Majesty's feet.

Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera

THE HOSPITALS AND HOSPITAL CONTRIBUTIONS

_Letter to the king from Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera_

Sire:

1. Your Majesty was pleased to entrust to my predecessor, Don Juan
Nino de Tabora, as he was the person who had the matter in hand,
the regulation of the comfort of the hospitals, the care of treating
the sick, both soldiers and citizens, and the administration of the
revenues of the said hospitals, so that the expenditures would be
well employed and your Majesty's treasury have some relief.

[_In the margin_: "That the purpose in having established the
convalescent ward is approved."]

2. The first thing which I heard on my arrival in this government
was this [matter of the hospitals], in which I have found that your
Majesty spends more money than you ought to spend; and, in the endeavor
to apply a suitable remedy, I ordered the royal officials to note on
their pay-rolls that the soldiers must give two reals from each month's
pay, and the sailors four--as is done in the States of Flandes with the
royal hospital of your Majesty's army, where the soldiers give one real
from each month's pay, and the officers, higher and lower, according
to their pay. This amounts to more than seven thousand pesos per year,
as your Majesty will have seen by the certifications which I enclose.

3. The religious of the Order of St. Francis--to whose brothers the
government and several of your Majesty's decrees have entrusted for
some years back the duty of nurses in these hospitals, and to their
religious priests that of chaplains therein--have both [brothers and
priests] contrived to make an ill use