Note 59 — Chapter V · THE SEMI-JUDICIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS OF THE AUDIENCIA.

On several occasions the audiencia assumed the initiative, or assisted materially, in the accomplishment of various functions of an extraordinary character. It played an important role in checking the epidemic of smallpox which ravaged the Islands from 1790 to 1794. On January 18, 1790, Governor Marquina reported that this disease had been playing havoc with the Indians in various parts of the Islands.59 He had raised 2385 pesos by voluntary contributions from different officials and corporations, and had appointed a committee to administer the funds. This committee consisted of representatives of the different religious communities and the consulado, the archbishop, the chief of the contaduría, the fiscal, the regent and the magistrates of the audiencia. Soon after this letter was written Marquina’s residencia was taken, and the king, on January 24, 1794, wrote to the regent, asking him to act as executive of the general committee already appointed to conduct the campaign against this epidemic, and to report what progress had been made in combatting it, suggesting that a general committee of sanitation should be constituted to handle such cases in the future.60