He Continued His March Accordingly,
But Very Slowly And With Infinite Difficulty, On Account Of The Extreme
Labour Which Was Requisite For Bringing Forward His Artillery.
All the
cannon and warlike stores had to be carried on the shoulders of Indians,
by means of levers
Or long spars, for which purpose the guns were taken
off from their carriages, and it required twelve Indians to each gun, who
were hardly able to go above a hundred paces under their load, when they
were relieved by an equal number. On this account, 300 Indians were
assigned to each gun, so that the artillery alone, with its ammunition and
stores, required above 6000 Indians to conduct it over the mountains.
Several gentlemen and other persons of consideration who accompanied
Gonzalo, began to repent of being engaged in the enterprize. They had
concurred with the rest at the beginning, in the propriety of
remonstrating against the execution of the obnoxious regulations, and had
even offered to risk their lives and fortunes in that measure; but on
seeing the turn which affairs had taken, and that Gonzalo gradually
assumed an authority to which he had no pretensions, they wished sincerely
to get away from the engagements into which they had entered. Before
leaving Cuzco, Gonzalo had seized the treasure belonging to the crown, not
only without the consent and authority of the magistrates, but contrary to
their advice and desire. They were anxiously desirous, therefore, of
retracing the dangerous and criminal steps which they had taken, and the
rather because they already believed that it would be unsuccessful.
Gaspard Rodriguez De Campo-rondo, the brother of the deceased Captain
Pedro Anzurez, and who had succeeded to the management of his estate and
Indians, was the leader of these persons who wished to return to their
duty. He and the rest concerted with each other how they might best
abandon Gonzalo and join the viceroy; but they were somewhat afraid of
trusting implicitly to Blasco Nunnez, in consideration of the extreme
severity of his character, fearing that he might punish them for the share
they had taken hitherto in the insurrection, notwithstanding of this their
intended tardy abandonment of Gonzalo. For this reason they resolved to
take effectual measures for securing an indemnity, and sent off, by a
secret and unfrequented road, letters for the viceroy and the audience, in
charge of a priest named Baltasar de Loaysa, by which they craved pardon
for the past and a safe conduct for their compearance at Lima; adding,
that, as they held some rank in the insurgent army, being captains under
Gonzalo, all their friends and dependents might be expected to follow
their example, by which in all probability the army of Gonzalo would fall
to pieces of itself. Besides Rodriguez, Philip Gutierez, Arias Maldonado,
Pedro de Vila-Castin, and others to the number of twenty-five, concurred
in this plan of abandoning Gonzalo.
Loaysa went in all haste to Lima, and, for the better concealment, he
avoided uniting himself with Gabriel de Roias and the others who had
formerly set out from Cuzco to join the viceroy.
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