100. As the soldiers suffer so many hardships, they become sick; and although many even die, they are all so poor that they cannot leave anything. They have no medicines, and are always ready to beg them, as they have no other resource. When I came, I had a hospital built; but the corsair burned it. This served as a lodging-place for poor people; and, for this purpose, I brought a man from Nueva España to attend the sick. We who are here consider this an excellent institution, and, because without an endowment there would be no hospital when a soldier was dying, I apportioned about one thousand Indians to the hospital, whom it now enjoys because of this need. For the future, will your Majesty please order that a sum sufficient for its needs be paid from the treasury, and that those Indians be apportioned to the royal crown. We need also another house for convalescents where they may be compelled to follow a certain diet, such as a bit of fowl. When I find a little leisure from so many toils, I will build such a house, and establish suitable rules regarding the food. Thus, besides the service of God, many can be supplied with food, by means of the person who conducts the house.
101. It is necessary to maintain suitable order for the conservation of the fort and artillery; and, as an inducement for those soldiers who perform sentinel duty there, and the gunners who serve there, to live within the fort, it is necessary to maintain them at the separate expense of the fort. It is necessary also that, for the same purpose, the governor of the fort should keep it in repair; and these expenses should not be confused with those of your Majesty's treasury of the three keys. I have discovered by experience that each account divided by itself is much more satisfactory.
102. I have set about fortifying this city; but this work is not yet completed, as the site is large, and I would not leave the friars outside, from whom we all receive our instruction; moreover, we have had so much work and hardship, and the Indians help us but little, and I do not wish them to neglect their fields. It will, however, soon be completed. It will be a palisade joined with keys, all along the shore and across the river; and a cavalier [10] for defense--where some artillery is to be mounted when the Indians have gathered in their harvest--will be completed very soon. Likewise twenty thousand fanégas of rice for the support of your Majesty's camp and fleet will be stored away.