News of the revolt had reached Spain, and the licentiate Pedro de la Gasca, an astute and very able ecclesiastic, was appointed to proceed to Peru, and mediate between the viceroy and the malcontents. He received very full powers, with large discretion, and was entitled president of the Audiencia. He was very ugly, with a dwarfish body and exceedingly long, ungainly legs. The president sailed from Spain on the 26th of May, 1546, and received the news of the viceroy’s death on his arrival at the isthmus. He brought out with him the announcement of the revocation of the “New Laws,” owing to the dangerous spirit of discontent they had caused throughout the Indies. They were withdrawn by a decree dated at Malines on the 20th of October, 1545.
PEDRO DE LA GASCA.
[From Herrera (1728), vol. iv. p. 215.—Ed.]
The president arrived at Panamá on the 11th of August, 1546, where he found the fleet of Gonzalo Pizarro, under the command of Pedro de Hinojosa. Soon afterward Lorenzo de Aldana arrived as an envoy from Pizarro, but was induced to submit to the president’s authority. Hinojosa followed the example, and thus Gasca gained possession of the fleet. When the offer of pardon reached Lima, Gonzalo was advised by his lieutenant Carbajal to accept the terms; but the auditor Cepeda, who had turned against the viceroy and administered the oaths of office to a rebel, felt that there could be no pardon for him. The mad ambition of Pizarro induced him to listen to Cepeda rather than to Carbajal, and he finally rejected the offer of pardon; but many of his old followers deserted him.
Lorenzo de Aldana was despatched from Panamá, with several vessels, in February, 1547, and arrived in Callao Bay; while Diego Centeno once more rose in the south, and began to collect troops. Gonzalo Pizarro resolved to abandon Lima and march to Arequipa with only five hundred men, so numerous had been the desertions from his ranks. Aldana then entered the capital, while Gasca himself sailed from Panamá on the 10th of April, 1547, landing at Tumbez on the 13th of June. He advanced to Xauxa, and great numbers flocked to his standard. Pedro de Valdivia, the governor of Chili, had landed at Callao, and overtook the president, on his march towards Cusco, at Andahuaylas.
Gonzalo Pizarro, despairing of being able to make head against the president Gasca with all the prestige of royal approval on his side, had determined to retreat into Chili. But he feared to leave Centeno hanging on his rear, and thought it necessary first to disperse his forces. Centeno occupied a position near Huarina, at the southeastern angle of Lake Titicaca, upwards of twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea. Pizarro’s troops advanced to the attack over an open plain. He had about four hundred and eighty men, the strength of his army being in his infantry armed with arquebuses, and disciplined under the direct supervision of Carbajal. Centeno had a larger force, and was accompanied by Solano, the bishop of Cusco. Carbajal waited for the attack of the enemy, and then poured a deadly volley into their ranks. Centeno’s footmen broke and fled; but his cavalry defeated Pizarro, and would have won the day, if they too had not been repelled and broken by the admirable steadiness of Carbajal’s arquebusiers. As it was, Pizarro’s victory was complete, and three hundred and fifty of Centeno’s followers were killed. All fugitives taken by Carbajal were put to death without mercy.
The doomed Pizarro now abandoned all idea of retreating into Chili. He marched in triumph to Cusco, while the president Gasca approached by leisurely marches, gathering reinforcements by the way. With him were the bishops of Lima and Cusco, the marshal Alonzo de Alvarado, the veteran Hinojosa, Pascual de Andagoya the first adventurer in search of Peru, Valdivia the governor of Chili, Centeno, escaped from Huarina, Cieza de Leon the future historian, and many others well known to fame. The president’s army crossed the river Apurimac, and advanced to the plain of Sacsahuana, near Cusco, whither Gonzalo Pizarro came out to meet him. On the morning of the 9th of April, 1548, the commanders of both armies made ready for battle. But soon there were symptoms of desertion on Pizarro’s side. An important cavalier, Garcilasso de la Vega, galloped across to the army of Gasca. He was followed by the treacherous auditor Cepeda. Soldiers began to follow in small parties. Old Carbajal was humming two lines of an old song,—
“Estos mis cabellicos madre,
Dos á dos me los lleva el ayre.”