Note 3 — Letter from the Fiscal to Felipe III

Fray Diego Aduarte, Bishop of Nueva Segovia, wrote to the [165n] king (July 7, 1606), as follows: “Your Majesty possesses here a royal hospital which is one of the most necessary and useful things in this country for the welfare and care of the poor soldiers and others who serve your Majesty. Although the income which it has is small, it would be sufficient aid, with the many alms given by the citizens who are well to do, if there were some one who could distribute it well and take it in charge as his own affair. It is a most necessary thing for its good government and maintenance that your Majesty should send four or five brethren of the order called Juan de Dios, with the authority of your Majesty and his Holiness, and with power to receive others. For the institution is already founded and everything necessary supplied; and these brethren might come with the religious whom your Majesty sends here, either Franciscan or Dominican; or you might command that some of the excellent hospitallers who are settled in Nueva España should come to these islands, which would economize in expense and hasten their coming, and make it more certain.” [Endorsed: “September 24, 1607. Have the four brethren whom he mentions sent, and entrust the matter to Señor Don Francisco de Tejada, that he may arrange it with the elder brother of Anton Martin. Have a copy sent to Señor Don Francisco.”]