Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/104

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84
Letters of Cortes

yielding three hundred fanegas of wheat; for it is my wish and intention that, by giving the said hospital an annual income in perpetuity of one thousand ducats, I and my successor and successors may be released from all claim upon the said houses, or in lieu of them, the said one hundred thousand maravedis, and the said lands producing three hundred fanegas of wheat; all of which both in whole and in part I direct shall return to the possession and enjoyment of my successors. Should the said hospital not desist from such claim, I direct that this provision and endowment of one thousand ducats yearly income shall be of no value or effect, but this sum shall revert to my successor or successors.

XVIII. Item: I say that, inasmuch as it is seen by experience that the revenues from lands and houses, both in Spain and in New Spain, increase daily, my shops and buildings, above mentioned, may become of greater value, and yield an income exceeding the amount of four thousand ducats which I devise and give forevermore, as is attested by the endowments of the said monastery of nuns, the said college, and the said hospital, and it is my will that should the said shops and buildings become more val ble and yield more rent, that the excess of value and rent, over and above the said four thousand ducats, shall be divided as follows: two parts of the said excess to go to the said college and of the remaining two parts one each to the said monastery of nuns and to the said hospital.

XIX. Item: I say and direct that, by virtue of the grant made to me by the Emperor our King, and Lord of the towns therein mentioned, his rights of patronage over the churches of the said towns belong to me in conformity with a clause of the said grant, in which it is declared that I possess in those towns all the rights, contributions, and customs, and everything else which His Majesty has or may have in the other towns of New Spain, which, excepting the mines and salt, remain the property of his royal crown. Thus, except these two things specified in the grant, the right of patronage belonging to him, belongs for the same reason to me. In addition to the grant made me by His Majesty, I hold the said rights of patronage by concession of His Holiness, the bull