On Receiving Notice Of All These Events Which Had Taken Place In Cuzco,
And That Holguin Had Marched From Thence
With his troops, Don Diego judged
that Holguin would endeavour to form a junction with Alonzo de Alvarado
who commanded
In Chachapoyas, and would therefore proceed by the mountain
road towards the north; he resolved therefore to march in such a direction
as might enable him to intercept Holguin before his junction with Alonzo
de Alvarado, but did not think it prudent to attempt this before the
arrival of the force under Garcias de Alvarado, whom he had recalled from
the originally concerted expedition against Alonzo de Alvarado[5]. While
passing through Truxillo, levying men and providing arms and horses,
Garcias proposed to have attacked Alonzo de Alvarado, but was resisted by
the inhabitants of a town in the province of Chachapoyas named Levanto,
and receiving his orders of recal from Don Diego he relinquished his
design, and marched in all haste for Lima. Immediately after the return of
Garcias, Don Diego began his march against Holguin, with a force of 300
horse, 100 musqueteers, and 150 pikemen; but before his departure, he
banished the children of the late marquis and of Gonzalo Pizarro from the
country, and executed Antonio Picado, having previously put him to the
torture to endeavour to extort confession from him as to any hidden
treasure belonging to the marquis.
"As during the civil dissentions in Peru, all intercourse with Spain was
suspended, the detail of the extraordinary transactions there between the
marquis and the elder Almagro, already recounted, did not soon reach the
court[6]. Unfortunately for the victorious faction, the first intelligence
was brought thither by some of Almagro's officers, who left the country on
the ruin of their cause; and they related what had happened with every
circumstance unfavourable to Pizarro and his brothers. Their ambition,
their breach of the most solemn engagements, their violence and cruelty,
were painted with all the malignity and exaggeration of party hatred.
Ferdinand Pizarro, who arrived soon after, and appeared at court with
great splendour, endeavoured to efface the impression which their
accusations had made, and to justify his brother and himself by
representing Almagro as the aggressor. The emperor and his ministers,
though they could not pronounce which of the contending factions was most
criminal, clearly discerned the fatal tendency of their dissentions. It
was obvious, that while the leaders entrusted with the conduct of two
infant colonies, employed the arms which should have been turned against
the common enemy in destroying one another, all attention to the public
good must cease, and there was reason to dread that the Indians might
improve the advantage which the disunion of the Spaniards presented to
them, and extirpate both the victors and the vanquished. But the evil was
more apparent than the remedy. Where the information which had been
received was so defective and suspicious, and the scene of action so
remote, it was almost impossible to chalk out the line of conduct that
ought to be followed; and before any plan that should be approved of in
Spain could be carried into execution, the situation of the parties, and
the circumstances of affairs, might alter so entirely as to render its
effects extremely pernicious."
"Nothing therefore remained but to send a person to Peru, vested with
extensive and discretionary powers; who, after viewing deliberately the
posture of affairs with his own eyes, and inquiring on the spot into the
conduct of the different leaders, should be authorised to establish the
government in that form which he deemed most conducive to the interest of
the parent state and the welfare of the colony. The man selected in 1539
for this important charge was Christoval Vaca de Castro, a judge in the
court of royal audience at Valladolid; and his abilities, integrity, and
firmness, justified the choice. His instructions, though ample, were not
such as to fetter him in his operations. According to the different aspect
of affairs, he had power to take upon him different characters. If he
found the governor still alive, he was only to assume the title of judge,
to maintain the appearance of acting in concert with him, and to guard
against giving any just cause of offence to a man who had merited so
highly of his country. But, if Pizarro were dead, he was entrusted with a
commission that he might then produce, by which he was appointed his
successor in the government of Peru. This attention to Pizarro, however,
seems to have flowed rather from dread of his power, than from any
approbation of his measures; for at the very time that the court seemed so
solicitous not to irritate him, his brother Ferdinand was arrested at
Madrid, and confined to a prison where he remained above twenty years[7]."
"Vaca de Castro, who left Spain in 1540, was driven by stress of weather
in 1541, after a long and disastrous voyage, into a small harbour in the
province of Popayan; and proceeding from thence by land, after a journey
no less difficult than tedious, he reached Quito. In his way he received
accounts of Pizarro's death, and of the events which followed upon it, as
already mentioned. He immediately produced his commission appointing him
governor of Peru, with the same privileges and authority which had been
enjoyed by Pizarro; and his jurisdiction was acknowledged without
hesitation by Benalcazar, adelantado or lieutenant general for the emperor
in Popayan, and by Pedro de Puelles, who had the command of the troops
left in Quito in the absence of Gonzalo Pizarro. Vaca de Castro not only
assumed the supreme authority, but shewed that he possessed the talents
which the exercise of it at that juncture required. By his influence and
address, he soon assembled such a body of troops as not only set him above
all fear of being exposed to any insult from the adverse party, but
enabled him to advance from Quito with the dignity that became his
character.
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