Habit of Alcantara,
governor and captain-general of these Philipinas Islands and president
of the royal Audiencia herein, etc. Inasmuch as by a clause of a letter
from his Majesty dated San Martin de la Vega, April twenty-nine, one
thousand five hundred and seventy-seven, directed to the governor of
these islands, it is ordered that, as it is so fitting and necessary,
as he has been informed, a convalescent ward be established where
the poor soldiers who served in these islands may be cared for and
entertained when convalescing after having left their treatment in
the hospital; and that he shall maintain and supply it by assigning
one thousand Indians as an aid to the support of the hospital, or as
shall seem best to him. That, as is well known, has not been done;
and no effort has been made to fulfil the royal will in so many
years, although this enterprise is so useful to the community. On
the contrary, it has been the cause of many wrongs, as experience
demonstrates; for, by not having had the said convalescent ward,
so many soldiers, sailors, and other poor wretches have died by
reason of lacking care and comfort when they recover from their
illness. And great disorders have been and are caused with such
sick when they leave the said hospital with little health and
strength--some returning to their own houses, and some to those of
others, where because of the little or no comfort, and the poor and
injurious food, with wine, tobacco, buyo, and other similar things,
and the continual temptations to associate with women of evil life,
they relapse, so that their sickness has no cure. These having been
examined by me and certified to me, in order to check these evils,
and to comply with what his Majesty ordered so many years ago but
which has not been done, and as it is so pious a work in itself,
and for the service of our Lord and the good of the community:
I have resolved to establish a convalescent ward near the royal
hospital for the Spaniards of this city of Manila. And [it shall be]
incorporated with the same [hospital] because there is no other place
where it can be established--so that in it may be treated, entertained,
and entirely cured, the sick of the hospital. These, without leaving
the hospital, may pass from the sick wards to the convalescent ward,
where they will be treated and entertained as well as possible from
the proceeds of one thousand two hundred tributes of encomienda,
which I have assigned and