Hence, considering this, and because I know that it will be of great convenience and advantage to the service of God our Lord, and of his royal Majesty; the good, profit, and relief of many poor, and of the wretched and needy; and the common benefit, welfare, and service of this state—therefore I am of the opinion and belief that it may be very advantageous Page 27and extremely useful, and may conduce to the improvement, good management, and systematic conduct of the royal hospital that the hospital of the Confraternity of La Misericordia should be joined with it. The resulting advantages will be recapitulated; and the causes and reasons on which I rely, and which I find for this, are the following.
The first reason is that this is a work of so great service to the Divine Majesty of God, and the royal Majesty; to the state a very great advantage, profit, and benefit; to the poor, the advantage, attendance, and healing of their maladies and miseries, bodily as well as spiritual.
Conspicuous among the advantages is the service to God done by caring for His poor, whether Spanish or not, which latter are a forgotten and wretched people—although some of their masters, for charity and the love and service of God, provide and afford them their support, their good, their care, and their salvation, spiritual and temporal.
The royal Majesty will be much advantaged, because by the charity, good order, and system that will exist, several salaries for persons employed in the said hospital may be dispensed with, and there will be more profit and increase of the revenue; while for the support of the poor there will be a larger fund, in addition to the fact that they will be better cared for and served. The result will be that health will more abound, and that perhaps mortality will be lessened, together with these great sicknesses—a great service to God and his royal Majesty, and the state; for his Majesty will have more soldiers, by which he will reap a profit, and in this case a great one, because of the great cost and expense of sending Page 28and bringing them here. The state will also have a larger population, more citizens and men to defend it, in addition to the great private and ordinary benefit received by the people thereof, in saving much expense on their property incurred for the care of their servants and slaves, as well as trouble, care, and responsibility, by their being cared for in the said hospital bodily and spiritually.
Then the importance of this for the souls and bodies, not only of the Spaniards but those of the slaves, may easily be seen and understood. For the former, the Spaniards, fail not to have and to suffer great and special need in their illnesses and deaths, of someone to minister to them, or at the least to aid and comfort them therein; while the latter, the slaves, as a people cast off and the greater part of them ordinarily belonging to the royal crown, and of so different races—some or many of them yet to be converted, or imperfectly instructed and entered in the Christian faith—still more require that there should be someone who in the love of God, and with zeal for the good of their souls, should aid them and secure their welfare and health, spiritual and temporal, in the one case as in the other.
Further, the reward, merit, and crown befitting the service done to God our Lord by this, and to the royal Majesty, and the good to this state and these islands, will not be small; since the result and the advantages which will arise from it are so great and so special, important, and universal; and this is a cause for applying the compassion and Christian charity in this state to the glory and service of God, to the welfare, relief, and consolation, perhaps the salvation, of His creatures and the poor thereof; and Page 29to the edification and confusion of the great numbers of barbarians, heathens, and infidels whom we have as witnesses about us looking at us, and who will see nothing that can move and edify them like such works of true charity, performed without worldly payment and profit.
It will also result from this that the Confraternity of La Misericordia, which is of such importance, and which succors, aids, and relieves so many general and public necessities, would ordinarily be supported in this state and would be more continuous, and that charity and compassion would be more exercised, as has been said. The hospital would be more frequented and more fully occupied, and the poor better provided and served; and all this would result because of the good order, careful accounting, and system which would exist, on account of putting the control in the hands of persons of such security, gravity, and commendable zeal as the deputies of the said Confraternity. This will also be a cause that for the love and service of God our Lord, as also for their own characters and persons, and their own interest in their own property (namely, their slaves), more people will visit the hospital, and aid it with greater care and liberality, and less hesitation; for one month brings the chance upon one, another upon another, and in this order it comes to all. This will be occasion and cause that the devout women, and those of the greatest influence, after seeing the work and perceiving that it is under the care of religious who are servants of God, and under that of their husbands, and that it is for the good of their slaves, will please and desire to see them, and to visit the hospital, and take the poor some dainties; and from the visits made Page 30to some of them will result the good, the comfort, and the consolation of the rest.
Further, as for the order, good accounting, and systematic management of the expenditure, and the care of the estate of the said hospital, it can be carried on by no hand with more clearness and security than by persons of so great honor and so high standing, persons who are required to be such, and who are themselves cognizant of and acquainted with all that is done. Thus the defects, if any there are, will be more known and observed; and if they arise from need the hospital will finally have more, and those from among the best in the state, who will be active in their efforts to supply and provide what is lacking.
The service of the hospital, which is of so great importance to the health and comfort of the sick, will be better and more punctual, and not so expensive, being attended to by persons undertaking it for charity, and not for gain.
Besides all that is said and referred to above, there will be avoided in the aforesaid way many sinful speeches and murmurs, inasmuch as the business will be in the hands of persons of such charity, poverty, holy zeal, and high standing; and thus with reason there will be more occasion for glory and praise to God for this work than for murmurs and condemnation.