4. That to finish the work on the great church entirely, there is needed a tower and sacristy; and that these are not built, for lack of money, which is being raised by various alms and grants.
The work on the great church of this city would have been completed some time ago, but for the lack of money; and, with the tower and new sacristy which Page 234are being built, it will be finished in all points. The work is of stone, moderately elaborate; when the means are at hand it will be continued to completion. I manage always to help it with various alms and expedients, and at present I am assigning it two toneladas for the chalices and ornaments, which sell at two hundred pesos. That you may know how the fourteen thousand ducats which your Majesty, in your royal instructions, ordered me to assign it, has been spent in it, that sum was given toward the building and ornaments; I have ordered that the accounts be rendered, and when they are settled I shall inform your Majesty of their substance.
5. That, in accordance with a royal decree, inspection has been made of the great church, and it has been found very poor in ornaments; and that two prebends and two half-prebends have been erected.
In accordance with a royal decree of your Majesty, directed to the archbishop and myself, your Majesty directed us to make a visitation of the church, inspect the ornaments which it has, and give our opinion regarding the dignities and prebendaries which it would be expedient to have there, and with what stipend. The said visitation was made, and we found the church very poor in ornaments; and your Majesty is informed that for the time being it would be sufficiently supplied with two prebends and two half-prebends, which we established—the prebends with a stipend of two hundred pesos per year, and the half-prebends with a hundred and fifty. I await your Majesty's approval.
6. That the hospitals are in good condition, and are being helped with alms and grants; and there has been incorporated, in that for the Spaniards, the Page 235Confraternity of La Misericordia; and that possession has been taken of that for the natives and the accounts audited, a sworn statement of which goes with this.
Your Majesty orders me, by a clause in your royal instructions, to provide carefully for the hospitals. In fulfilment of this I have inspected them, and have ordered the auditors to do the same in their turn. They are in very good condition, each one having two apartments of its building finished in stone, with its work-room, stewards, nurses, and two Franciscan religious for each, who live in the hospital. At the royal hospital for the Spaniards I have incorporated the Confraternity of La Misericordia, which includes the richest people of this country. It has more than a thousand eight hundred and sixty pesos of income, and I am adding five hundred more for eight years, making in all two thousand three hundred and sixty, besides which they have a farm for raising cattle. The accounts of these funds are kept, for the superintendent, by him who enters in his place each year. The royal hospital for the Indians has five hundred pesos of income, two hundred pieces of cloth from Ylocos, one thousand five hundred fanegas of rice in the hull, one thousand five hundred fowls (which your Majesty presents to them), and a farm for breeding cattle. I am aiding both of them with various alms and grants, and, as I have informed your Majesty, I regularly assign to that of the Spaniards eight toneladas, which are worth eight hundred pesos each year; and to that of the natives four, which are of proportionate value. I took possession of that of the natives in your Majesty's name, according to the royal patronage, and Page 236audited the accounts, a sworn statement of which will go with this.
7. That the seminary for the training of girls is in good condition, and the building finished; but it has little income, and will have to be reduced to a convent of professed nuns, and its income somewhat increased.
The Seminary of Santa Potenciana is in very good condition; for not only has the church been finished for some years, but it has a capacious building entirely of stone, in which some thirty women are leading a religious life. Most of these are the maiden daughters of honorable men; others are poor mestizas, and still others have been left there who have husbands or fathers absent on your Majesty's service; there are also a few older women. They have a superior who is a woman of quality, and who lives a very exemplary and pious life. All of them intend either to remain there in the service of God, or to leave married, and in a bettered situation—as several have done and are now doing (thanks to the good name which the institution has), which is the holy intention of your Majesty. They have a director and a confessor who do not live in the building, as no apartment has been built for them. For two months past the holy sacrament has been administered there. These women, thus secluded, celebrate the divine offices with singing, and with as much veneration and as fittingly as if it were a convent of nuns founded forty years ago. It has four hundred pesos of perpetual income and as much more temporarily from a shop in the Parian of the Sangleys; but this is not enough to maintain it, and so they are in great need. I contrive to help it with alms and various grants Page 237wherewith it may be supported. I have tried to reduce it to a convent of professed nuns and have done my best with the viceroy of Nueva España, to have him send me two religious women, of pious life, from Mexico to found it. He answers me that there is no one who dares to go to these islands, on account of the difficulty of the journey and the inconvenience of the ships. I beseech your Majesty that—as this work is so important to this commonwealth, and in order to place in a better position here the daughters of honorable men who have not the money to marry them, on account of the depreciation of the encomiendas and property—you may be pleased to order the viceroy to be diligent in coming to our aid by enabling these religious to come; and that you will give to this seminary an income adequate for its maintenance, or give me permission to apply to it some repartimiento of Indians.
8. That Captain Don Luis Perez and the fathers of the Society are establishing a seminary for the natives; that this had not been done earlier because the income assigned to it has not been furnished; and that the work should be furthered.
Don Luis Perez Dasmariñas, according to an order which he had from your Majesty, agreed with the fathers of the Society of Jesus that they should establish a seminary for the natives, where they might be taught civilized ways and instructed in religion; and that he should give them the wherewithal to erect a building, and a thousand pesos of income for its maintenance. To begin the work, he presented to the said Society six hundred pesos, and the income was put in the treasury of the fourths. When I arrived here I confirmed these negotiations, according Page 238to the royal decree of your Majesty in which you gave me the same orders; and likewise the royal Audiencia, being petitioned to confirm them, did so. This work has ceased because enough money has not been furnished for it, and because the income is not sufficient, owing to the fact that the said treasury of the fourths is much embarrassed. If it be your Majesty's pleasure, it would be well that this holy intention of your Majesty be furthered, so that the Indians may learn the Spanish language in an orderly manner, and in this way be better instructed. For this it will be necessary to give the said Society the means to build the said seminary, and the thousand pesos of income each year in perpetuity, from the royal treasury of your Majesty, or else a repartimiento of Indians, as soon as one becomes vacant—your Majesty giving me permission to apply it in such wise that, besides this instruction, education and a living may be given there to a few poor students, who will be learning the language at the same time. When they are ordained they will act as ministers of instruction, and will make it unnecessary for so many ministers to come out here at so great cost to your royal estate.