wages for which, in my former letters, I have petitioned your Majesty. By a decree which I have received here from your Majesty, I am ordered to make inquiries as to whether there is quicksilver here, or if it can be brought from the Chinese realms and taken to Mexico, and at what price. I will say that I have dealt with these Chinese, and they are so distrustful that unless the money is given them beforehand, they will not bring the goods the following year. It is true, nevertheless, that they guarantee the fulfilment of their commission. They ask one hundred ducats for a pico of quicksilver, the equivalent of one hundred and thirty Castilian libras. If this price is satisfactory, will your Majesty order as suits your royal pleasure; for they can bring from their land whatever quantity is desired. May our Lord preserve your Majesty for many long years, with increase of better kingdoms and seigniories, as is needed for Christendom. At Manila, May xxxi, 1592. _Gomez Perez Dasmariñas_ Rules for the Manila Hospital Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, knight of the order of Santiago, governor and captain-general of these islands and districts of the West, for the king, our sovereign. Inasmuch as it is advisable, for the service of God, to reform certain matters in the royal hospital of this city that require such remedy, and to decide and establish other matters for its better government and service, for the welfare of its poor sick, and for the perpetuity of the said hospital, as it is a work of so great piety and so much needed in this community: Therefore, by this present, he ordained and ordered that the following articles be observed and kept to the letter, as permanent rules and regulations.