the royal aid for these unfortunate vassals of Spain, and briefly outlines the matter and arguments of the memorial. Vindel states (Catálogo of 1896, p. 94) that the printing of this memorial was forbidden by the Council of the Indias. It is of much importance, not only as showing the condition and needs of the islands after the English invasion, but for the light it throws on the condition of Spain, her relations with the rest of Europe, and with her colonies, and the national characteristics of her people. The memorial is here presented in full, except a few passages which are briefly synopsized, as they have but minor and indirect importance. Viana writes with authority, as being royal fiscal of the islands, a man equipped with the best learning of his day, and an ardent patriot. The university of Salamanca originated in the cathedral school, before the twelfth century; and in 1243 it was made a university under the royal protection of Ferdinand the Saint, his son Alfonso X continuing this aid, enlarging its scope, and granting it many privileges. Later kings and several popes did much to aid and strengthen Salamanca, and it became the greatest educational institution in Spain, and one of the four greatest in the world; in 1584, it had 6,778 students. In 1401 Bishop Diego de Anaya Maldonado founded the first college for poor students, which was called the college of San Bartolomé, and later "the Old College." In 1845 Salamanca and all other like institutions were secularized, and placed under the control of the government. (Ramon Ruiz Amado, in the new and monumental Catholic Encyclopedia, now in process of preparation.) [120] "Since our entrance into this land, the Moorish [i.e., Mahometan] following has been greatly increased--not only through the ordinary traffic which the people of Macazar carry on in it; but because the santons of Meca, proceeding by way of the strait of Moca, come to Sumatra, and from there pass, by the strait of that island, to our islanders, with a diabolical inclination; they bring Alcorans in Arabic, and by means of these instruct our natives. A great number of these books were seized in La Sabanilla, and I saw them in the hands of Sargento-mayor Ponce, in the year 1724." (Torrubia, Dissertacion, pp. 2, 3.) [121] Probably referring to the Hudson's Bay Company, although that was actually organized in 1670; and the explorations of 1746-47 here mentioned evidently allude to the expedition of William Moor and Henry Ellis in those years, "for discovering a Northwest Passage"--a discovery for which the English parliament had offered a reward of 20,000 pounds. This expedition, however, was not under the auspices of the company, whose officials, on the contrary, treated Moor and Ellis with much harshness and even inhumanity.