may be only for a period limited to certain years, it will be an effective remedy for the distress which they now endure.  All that the hospital for the Spaniards now has is the income from one village, assigned to it by Doctor Francisco de Sande when he was governor of these islands, which is worth one hundred and twenty gold taes (equivalent to 500 pesos) a year, more or less, and will continue for three years.  This time seeming very short to the president of this Audiencia, Doctor Santiago de Vera, he ordered that the hospital receive this aid for six years, adding to it the income from another village, which amounts to seventy taes, or two hundred and fifty pesos, or a trifle more.  Besides this, he also ordered that this hospital be given one thousand fanegas of rice and one thousand fowls; whereas for the hospital for the natives he only ordered one thousand fanegas of rice and one thousand fowls [which is not sufficient], and therefore great privations and hardships are suffered by those who are being treated there.

In another royal decree of the above-mentioned month and year, your Majesty orders that this Audiencia endeavor to maintain great peace and harmony with the bishop of these islands, and manifests your displeasure at some differences between us and him concerning precedence in seats, and in regard to the mode of settling Indian lawsuits.  The whole trouble was this:  the bishop claimed a seat on the same side of the church where the Audiencia sits; and, the latter being six or seven steps below the main altar, the bishop would have been higher than and directly in front of the Audiencia, with his back toward them.  This being something unusual in other countries, it was suggested to the bishop that, until your Majesty could be consulted, he should not overstep the usual practice hitherto in vogue throughout the Yndias, and which had until then been observed with this Audiencia; and that he should not meddle with the decision of the Indian suits, in matters under the jurisdiction of the royal crown, as he had done.  Since that time, as this seat was yielded to the bishop, there has been, and is, between him and the Audiencia, the agreement and peace and good understanding which should always exist, and affairs are managed in great friendliness and harmony, so that the people have always understood how much the Audiencia esteems, honors, respects, and reverences the bishop.  We beg that your Majesty will appreciate the spirit in which this matter was settled.  The aim of this Audiencia was to maintain its own preeminence, in the desire that your Majesty be thus better served, since it is through this that the Audiencia keeps up the authority and respect which are its due, especially in so new a country as this, where respect for these offices is of so great importance.