[CHAPTER LXXIII]
How Idiáquez arrived at the camp of Vaca de Castro to treat for peace just when the Governor wanted to send messengers to Vilcas.
VACA de Castro and his captains consulted together, after the camp had been pitched in the manner related, as to what should be their next step, being now so near the enemy. All agreed that messengers should be sent to Don Diego, demanding that he should withdraw his unjust pretensions, enter his Majesty's service, and deliver up his banners and troops. The messenger was also to take letters and despatches to some of his principal adherents. The Governor had just ordered his secretary to get the letters written when Lope de Idiáquez and the factor Mercado arrived and went in to see Vaca de Castro. The letters of Almagro and his captains were presented together with the protocol of terms proposed, which were that Vaca de Castro should disband the force he had collected, that Don Diego would do likewise with his, that Vaca de Castro would withdraw to Lima and remain there as Chief of New Castille, and that Don Diego would return to Cuzco and the province of New Toledo until the king should make his pleasure known; and other things not needful to quote. The Governor Vaca de Castro displayed some anger and vexation at the letters they had written to him. But he had doubts whether to pursue the war, and privately desired peace, knowing that there would be a great slaughter, since there were men of such fortitude and undaunted spirit on both sides, and that it would lie in his hands to give battle, but in God our Lord's to award the victory to whom He pleased. So, wishing in his own mind to avoid a day so critical as must be that on which the battle would take place, he had his most influential supporters summoned to a consultation, together with his captains, and they discussed the question of what they ought to do, somewhat hotly. They decided that Vaca de Castro should write to Don Diego and to all his captains, in a kindly and mild tone, to attach them to the service of his Majesty and to propose that Juan Balsa should come to the royal camp to ratify peace, while, to fully assure him of safety and that he need not be in any fear of treachery, Alonso de Alvarado would go to Don Diego's camp.
So the Governor ordered his secretary, Pero López, to write the letters forthwith, urging Don Diego to yield to the call of his Majesty's service, and reminding him of the labours undergone by his father to acquire honour and fame; so that he should not lose, by his conduct, all that the old Adelantado had gained. The letter to Don Diego pointed out too that nothing had been altered by his father's death, as it was understood that he [the son] lacked level-headed and prudent men to give him temperate advice but that, nevertheless, he ought not to pin his faith on arms and artillery alone, for if the conscience be not clear, force avails but little, seeing that it is ordained from above by command of the Most High God that justice must prevail. Besides this, he wrote other things counselling him what was proper, and bidding him give ear to what Lope de Idiáquez and the factor Mercado would say, from him, when they should get back. Letters were also written to the captains, urging them to join the service of the king, and they gave private letters to the messengers for many other persons in the camp.
[CHAPTER LXXIV]
How Vaca de Castro, notwithstanding that he had entered into these negotiations, sent Alonso Çamarilla as a spy to the camp of Don Diego, with letters to many who were there, and how he was captured by Juan Diente when scouts were sent out from Vilcas, and on confessing what he went for, was put to death.
HAVING issued the despatches to the messengers who were to carry them, the Governor Vaca de Castro resorted to a precaution, by which he sought, privily and without the messengers who were engaged in the negotiations knowing it, to send a spy. This spy was a certain Alonso García Çamarilla, a great walker whom we mentioned in an earlier book, when he was sent by Hernando Pizarro, during the siege of Cuzco, to Yucay with Manco Inca. They then wanted to kill him, but he escaped from thence by his swiftness of foot, because his place of sepulture was destined to be at Vilcas. In all the land there was not a man ready and fitted to act the spy, unless it were this one, and Juan Diente who captured him, as we shall relate. Having removed his beard and casting off his Spanish clothes, he put on the garb of an Indian, rubbed his lips and back teeth with that precious herb which grows on the skirts of the Andes, and leaving the sword of which he was unworthy, he took a staff in his hand, and in a pouch or small wallet he put the letters which Vaca de Castro gave him for the camp of Don Diego. Having acquainted himself with the features of that camp and the method that was observed in it he was to return with all diligence and make his report. In such wise was Alonso García despatched, that anyone who saw him set forth from the camp would, of a certainty, have believed he was some Indian. Lope de Idiáquez and the factor Mercado also took their leave of the Governor.