Contribution of rice.--In the month of October in each year a religious is despatched to the province of Ilocos, in order to push forward the collection and remittance of the proceeds from the encomienda which is assigned to us in that province, and at the same time he asks for contributions among the farmers of that region; he carries, by way of precaution, some medicine, and benevolently exercises the office of his calling; and if the harvests are good he collects offerings of about seven hundred baskets of rice. And so great is the esteem felt in that province for our religious, as they have acknowledged, that when they go away in the month of March (which is the time of the monsoon) the people display to them their regret that they must lack the consolation which they receive during the stay of our religious, in the assistance given by them to the many persons stricken by disease. CHAPTER XV [This chapter is devoted to enumeration of the favors extended by the crown to the hospital order. Maldonado states that the royal grants to the ecclesiastical estate in the islands (in stipends and contributions) amount to more than 81,000 pesos a year, without counting over 11,000 pesos more which are allowed to the royal chapel and the hospitals. The brethren of St. John share in this bounty, to a liberal extent. A royal decree of June 19, 1680, granted to the order an encomienda of 500 tributes for twenty years, in order to repair the injuries caused to the hospital buildings by the earthquake of March 15, 1676, and to aid in carrying on its good work. In accordance therewith, Governor Cruzelaegui assigned to the order (February 9, 1685) the following encomiendas: "The rest of Purao and Tagurin, and the village of Pedic in the province of Ilocos, which consists of 115 tributes, vacant by the death of Captain Don Nicolàs de Ibar, who was enjoying it for the second life. Also the encomienda of three-fourths of Pilitan and its subjects in the province of Cagayan, which consists of 287 tributes, vacant by the death of Juan de Robles Aldaba, which he was enjoying for the second life. The two amount to 402 tributes;" and they were adjudged to the said order, for the repair of its buildings, etc., with the charge of paying from the amount thus collected the amount allowed by the crown for religious purposes and the stipends of ministers, in the same manner as other encomenderos must. This grant was afterward extended (by decrees of September 17, 1705, and July 2, 1735); but the assignment of tributes in Cagayan was later exchanged for another in Ilocos. The net annual proceeds of this encomienda amount to 500 baskets of rice and 250 blankets; "but if those who make the collections dispense with the fees through charity, and if the aforesaid goods are conveyed to us at Manila in the same way, these favors amount to over 100 pesos more." On November 5, 1704, the treasury officials of Manila assigned to the brethren of St.