Concludes the former chapter down to the imprisonment of the Licentiate Vaca de Castro.
The Viceroy was not ignorant of what was passing in the city, and the great tumult showed him that the citizens were very unquiet. He came out of his room declaring that any who said that Gonzalo Pizarro had not rebelled, would presently be given a flogging of a hundred lashes publicly. In these days Vaca de Castro always went to visit the Viceroy, who was so angry with him that one day he ordered him to be arrested and imprisoned in the old room of the house of the Marquis, where the Viceroy lodged. He was there for eight days, feeling the treatment he was receiving from the Viceroy very acutely, and he regretted that he had not gone at once to render an account to the King of his government.
The Bishop Don Jeronimo de Loaysa was much distressed that the Viceroy should have thrown Vaca de Castro into prison. He besought him to release his prisoner, which the Viceroy did at the Bishop’s request. But he proclaimed that anyone who had been aggrieved by Vaca de Castro was to send in his complaints in order that he might be punished if he had acted without justice. After a few days he again arrested Vaca de Castro and imprisoned him on board a ship. This imprisonment, according to what the Viceroy published, was due to a suspicion that Vaca de Castro meditated something against the Viceroy’s person.
Lorenzo de Aldana had come from the province of Xauxa to see the Viceroy, having first written the letter already mentioned. The Viceroy thought that the letter had been taken from him and was in a furious rage. For this and because his authority was great and he had always been a friend of the Pizarros, the Viceroy ordered him to be arrested on suspicion, and he was sent on board another ship as a prisoner. He was there several days and then released, the reasons being given why the orders had been issued for sending him on board.
At this time the Viceroy ordered that there should be a fleet on the sea. He appointed his brother-in-law Diego Alvarez de Cueto to be Captain-General, and Jeronimo Zurbano to be captain.
CHAPTER XXXV
How the Bishop Don Jeronimo de Loaysa, regretting that these troubles should have arisen, spoke to the Viceroy of his desire to go to Cuzco, and what happened in consequence.
It was now well known to everyone at Lima that Gonzalo Pizarro was received at Cuzco as Procurator and Chief Justice. Don Jeronimo de Loaysa was Bishop in this city of Lima, which is the episcopal see. He was anxious that a civil war should not arise in the kingdom and that peace should be maintained. With the wish to serve God and his Majesty he wished to go personally to where Gonzalo Pizarro was. He, therefore, spoke to the Viceroy, representing the great movements that had taken place at Cuzco where it was reported that Gonzalo Pizarro had been appointed Procurator and Chief Justice, and was busy in getting arms ready, making powder, and providing everything necessary for war, and not convenient for supplications or protests. In order that the disgrace might not go further it would be desirable that some prudent and judicious man should undertake to move the discontented from such wild and wicked demands. As in like times the King expects such services from his vassals, the Bishop proposed to undertake the trouble, and to proceed towards Cuzco in order to persuade Gonzalo Pizarro into a more loyal course. They say that this passed between the Bishop and the Viceroy, and there were other discourses on the subject. The Viceroy showed himself well contented, saying the Bishop’s journey would be of great service to God and to his Majesty, and a mercy to himself. It was settled that the Bishop should start without delay, because there were to be certain notaries to go with the royal provisions, to require Gonzalo Pizarro and his followers not to move without consideration but to obey the laws of their King and natural lord, and to induce him not to come down to Lima with an armed force, and in the shameful way that had been announced. In order that the Bishop might make an honest agreement, the Viceroy gave him his word that he would agree to what the Bishop was able to arrange. He did not give him powers, for reasons which I will give at the time that the Bishop and Gonzalo Pizarro saw each other. For it is very troublesome to have to write the same thing many times. I shall give a detailed account of the Bishop’s journey, because it led to very delicate negotiations, and I knew persons who were then with Pizarro, and also some who came with the Bishop, and even the Bishop himself affirmed that things happened as I relate them.
Some treat of this journey of the Bishop as if he went more for the good of Pizarro and his advantage than for the King’s service. Well, I have no wish to go by vulgar rumours, because they cause confusion and make nothing certain. For we know that such rumours never contain the simple truth, although sometimes they may not be very far from it.
The journey of the Bishop having been decided upon, he set out from the city of Lima. He took with him a companion named Fray Isidro de San Vicente, and departed on the 20th day of June of the same year. There departed to accompany him on the journey Don Juan de Sandoval, Luis de Cespedes, Pero Ordoñez de Peñalosa and two clergymen named Alonso Marquez and Juan de Losa. They took the coast road and travelled until they arrived at the town of Yca. Here they met one Rodrigo de Pineda who was coming from Cuzco, and stated that Gonzalo Pizarro had already left that city, so that if the Bishop continued along the coast he would miss him. The Bishop, therefore, determined to ascend the mountains so as to come out at the town of Gualle, in the grant of Francisco de Cardenas, a citizen of Guamanga.