_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 of the orders of your Majesty
and of the government; for besides the comforts that are brought from
Castilla at so heavy an expense to the treasury of your Majesty, such
as wines, raisins, almonds, and quince preserves, and other things
which are not found here, and are indispensable for the hospitals--and
although these things and the medicines were delivered to the steward
and apothecary, the said officials did what the religious ordered
them; and, to keep the devotees of religion contented, dispersed
and spent many of those things outside of the hospitals. I made the
steward whom I found in the hospital of the Spaniards settle his
accounts, which were in very bad condition; but it will cost him his
property. I appointed a new steward to whom all the aforesaid articles
which came from Nueva Espana were delivered, on his responsibility
and account. This man asked for the keys to the pantries, in order
to keep them, but the religious refused; consequently, I was obliged
to issue strict order that the keys be given up. The provincial of
that order gave way to anger, saying that the taking the keys of the
pantries to keep them was to his discredit. With the devotion which
I have always had toward that order, and my love for its religious, I
requested the said provincial to charge himself with, or have given to
some religious, the said articles, with the obligation to give account
of his expense at the end of the year to the person whom I should
order to do that. He replied that I could not do that, according to
his rule; nor could he subject himself to give account of anything;
the steward, however, continues to exercise his duty and care.
[_In the margin_: "Having dismissed the discalced religious from the
hospital, although it is thought that in this he will have desired
the greater service of his Majesty and the convenient regulation of
the matter, he might, before executing it, and before having made this
innovation, have given some notice of it, as he has been notified to
do in other points. Let him do that from now henceforth. In regard to
the condition of the edifice and the other matters, let him advise
immediately; and of the manner in which the hospital is governed,
and what has been the practical result of the change, without making
any alteration in the state in which this despatch shall find it,
and without going any farther."]
4. Various decrees of their Majesties, your holy father and your
prudent grandfather, order that a convalescent ward be made in the
royal hospital of the Spaniards. Since my predecessors did not carry
out this plan, I began it with two thousand pesos, of which a governor
of the Sangleys of the Parian made your Majesty a gracious gift. It was
advisable to have this ward pass through certain small cells which the
brothers and religious chaplain had in the said hospital. I courteously
requested the provincial to withdraw them to his convent while the said
ward was being built; but he refused to do so. I again requested him
to remove the most holy sacrament--which was deposited in a ward under
the principal one of the infirmary and exposed to indecency, because
the filth and water from the sick, fell from above--to a place above,
where mass was said to the said sick. He also refused to do that; on
the other hand, he went to the archbishop, who began a suit before the
ordinary. Although the royal Audiencia (the said archbishop refusing
to give the regimental chaplain-in-chief permission to administer
the holy sacraments to the soldiers and others, and refusing to
give it, and [the chaplain] having appealed to royal aid from the
fuerza), declared that he should do what I had asked, the archbishop,
nevertheless, refused to give the said permission--until that, after
he had been exiled from these kingdoms for having refused to obey
the decrees of your Majesty (as I shall recount in another letter),
the bishop of Camarines, who came by act of the royal Audiencia to
govern during his absence, granted to the said chaplain-in-chief
the said permission to administer the sacraments. For these and many
other reasons, of which I shall give your Majesty an account, I made
the said religious leave the royal hospital of the Spaniards, and the
regimental chaplain-in-chief ministers to the sick for the present,
until a chapel is finished (which I ordered to be built in which to
bury the soldiers), and quarters [for them], at the expense of their
pay, which they have graciously given, without any expense to the
treasury of your Majesty. And when the said chaplain-in-chief shall
go to exercise his duty in the said chapel, another chaplain shall be
appointed for the said royal hospital. Sire, the reasons which have
existed for changing the religious of this hospital are those which
your Majesty will please have examined in the papers which I herewith
enclose. At the same time, I petition your Majesty, with all humility,
to be pleased to grant permission to the brothers of [St.] John of
God to come to serve in these hospitals in place of the same discalced
religious, and at their own petition--because of the disorderly acts
that the brothers must have committed in visiting private houses in the
city in the quality of surgeons, and in methods from which, they tell
me, proceeded the relaxation of the order, as well as other things that
deserve correction. For many reasons concerning the service of God and
of your Majesty, it has been, and is, advisable that these hospitals
be administered by the brothers of [St.] John of God, and that the
Order of St. Francis attend to their ministries and the observance
of their rule. In case that your Majesty finds it unadvisable that
the said brothers of [St.] John of God come to these islands, will
you be pleased to have the holy sacraments administered by seculars,
the revenue put in charge of laymen, and several of the very aged
alferezes, who have served long enough and now cannot bear arms, act
as nurses--as they are doing at present with great willingness and
promptness, in order not to lose the accommodations of the hospital by
negligence and poor service. Only the said hospitals of this city and
of the port of Cavite I have withdrawn from the power of the religious
of St. Francis of this city, for the reasons aforesaid, and because
of the opposition which the religious have made to your Majesty's
governor, in their desire to make themselves lords and masters of your
royal hospitals; since neither by reason of their rule, nor by their
own will, nor by anything else can they be proprietors. There was no
hospital at the port of Cavite; but on account of the donations which
some persons have given to your Majesty, I have ordered a house to
be prepared where the governors lived when they went to that port,
and an excellent hospital has been made there. In it five hundred
sailors, three or four hundred convicts belonging to the galleys,
slaves of your Majesty, the common seamen of the galleons, and the
calkers and carpenters of the said port--in all two thousand odd
persons--receive medical treatment. Since this hospital has been
created anew (for a barracks which was used for a hospital has fallen),
the religious do not claim it in ownership, as they do the hospital of
this city. The alms given by the sailors for the said hospital amount
to three thousand pesos per year. With what the calkers, carpenters,
and other workmen who receive pay will give, and a small cattle-farm
that it owns, with some more that can be obtained from some encomienda
when it falls vacant, the said hospital will be sustained without any
expense to your Majesty's treasury. And in order that that of Manila
may do the same, an excellent cattle-farm costing eight thousand pesos
has been bought at the advice of the treasury council with the money
contributed for it. With those ranches that it had, and the three
pesos per year from each soldier, and an encomienda of one thousand
three hundred tributes which has been granted to the convalescent ward
in the name of your Majesty, in virtue of your royal decree despatched
to Governor Gomez Perez Das marinas (and I petition your Majesty to be
pleased to confirm to it the encomienda of the village of Macabebe,
in the province of Pampanga)--with all the above and other things
which I shall endeavor to secure for it, I shall relieve your Majesty's
royal treasury from expense. The expense which I have made in only the
said hospital in ten months, without its being possible to avoid it,
amounts in money to seven thousand pesos for the aforesaid, and more
than that amount in kind. Since your Majesty has so many encomiendas
here, it is right that we relieve the treasury of this expense; and we
shall put to rights many things which I confess to your Majesty have
never been regulated until now. With it the hospitals of the natives,
that of Los Banos, that of Camarines, and others, I have left to the
religious until your Majesty orders what is your pleasure. But it is
not advisable that they should administer them, but the brothers of
[St.] John of God, or secular priests and lay stewards. This is the
truth, as I assure your Majesty as your vassal and minister, whereby
I discharge my conscience of all that shall be placed on it; and,
if opportunity offer, I shall give a detailed account and one to the
royal Council of the Yndias. May our Lord preserve the Catholic person
of your Majesty, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila, the last of
June, 1636.
Sire, your Majesty's vassal kisses your feet,