must be considered, in estimating the value of the funds enumerated in this chapter: first, that when they were founded the profits on the Acapulco trade were reckoned at fifty per cent, but at the time when he writes have diminished at the rate of forty per cent; accordingly, the incomes of the funds have been distributed pro rata to the various beneficiaries. Second, as these incomes depend on the perils of the sea, they have encountered many losses from shipwrecks; or the failure of the vessel to complete the voyage, or even to obtain a cargo at Manila; or the delay in receiving the returns from Acapulco, caused by an unsuccessful fair there, or by other embarrassments.] [THE OTHER HOSPITALS IN THE ISLANDS] [This matter is found at the end of chapter ii of Maldonado's book (pp. 25-29), but is transferred to this place as being more appropriate in orderly sequence; he describes the condition of those institutions at the time of writing his book.] Present condition of the royal hospital of Manila The new royal hospital being reestablished, and all the expenses necessary for its maintenance being provided for in the royal treasury, for its business management and the assistance of the sick there were allotted a steward, a physician, a surgeon, nurses, and the other servants who were deemed necessary; and for its spiritual administration the discalced religious of the holy order of our holy father St. Francis, in the province of San Gregorio of these islands--which arrangement was approved by a royal decree, dated at Madrid, May 20, 1624. It has continued in this manner up to the present century, when, on account of the lack of religious for the Indian villages dependent on the Franciscans, and other just reasons, they were released from the ministry of the said royal hospital, and the government appointed secular priests as chaplains, with a suitable income. The cost of maintaining the hospital in its present condition is reckoned at 6,841 pesos, thus: The chaplain, steward, and physician, at 300 pesos each; the surgeon, 240; [46] the chief sacristan, three nurses, one assistant surgeon, the keeper of the wardrobe, the cook, and the doorkeeper, each 96 pesos; with this the ordinary expense, 1,368 pesos. [It also requires] 960 cabans of rice, 384 gantas of cocoanut-oil, and 8,400 fowls; also 2,000 pesos, at which amount the provision for medicines is permanently fixed, and 215 pesos besides, which sum is allotted for the cost of wine for mass, wax, and other expenses which are incurred for the titular feast day, which is All Saints' day. Interments are made in the royal chapel of this garrison, which also has for the year's expenses 3,220 pesos more, without counting the extraordinary expenses which are necessary during that time in the hospital, for beds, tents, and other needs, and in the royal chapel for ornaments and the other requirements of the divine worship. In the said royal hospital, without a special order