Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 07).djvu/36

This page has been validated.
32
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
[Vol. 7

Manilla

This city of Manilla was founded in the island of Luzon, which is very fertile and populous. Outside of it, within the circuit of five leagues, are settled seven thousand five hundred Indians; four thousand of these belong to his Majesty, and the rest, three thousand five hundred, are allotted to four encomenderos. There are eight Augustinian friars, in four residences, and in another house are two Franciscans, one of whom is a lay brother, all of the rest being priests. In order that sufficient instruction be furnished the Indians, five more religious are needed.

This city has eighty citizens. It contains the cathedral and the bishop's house, and the ecclesiastical dignitaries—the latter consisting of an arch-deacon, a schoolmaster, two canons, thirteen clerics who are priests, and a few candidates for holy orders.

The monastery of St. Augustine, which usually has seven or eight religious, four priests, and three brothers and candidates for holy orders.

The monastery of St. Francis, which usually has four priests, and eleven or twelve other professed members and novices.

Of the Society of Jesus, the father superior, with two other fathers and two brothers.

A royal hospital for Spaniards, and another (in the Franciscan monastery) for the Indians.

There are, ordinarily, two hundred soldiers in this city, quartered among the citizens and in the houses of the Indians near them. These soldiers are very poor, and are sustained by alms, as are likewise the inmates of the monasteries and hospitals—although four hundred pesos are given every year from the treasury, besides two hundred fanégas of rice, for