i6o I'he DlSCOFERT and CON 9 UESE Book I. 
two Hours within dark, when Almagro^ finding his Troops 
over-powered, retired out of the Field with Manco Inca^ 
and three or four Spanifi) Officers, intending to have taken 
Refuge in the Mountains with the Inca and his Indians., 
till he ffiould meet with a favourable Opportunity of re- 
covering his Government ; but taking Cuzco in his Way, 
with a tlefign of carrying off his Treafure, and fuch of 
his Effebls as would have been moft ufeful to him in his 
Exile, the very Men in whofe Hands Almagro had put the 
Government of the City, hearing he had loft the Battle, ap- 
prehended him, and delivered him up to the victorious 
Governor, to make their own Peace with him •, and young 
Almagro, who was not much above twenty Years of age, 
was formally tried, condemned^ and executed in the fame 
Place, and much in the fame manner, as his Father had 
been, and was afterwards buried by fome Friars of the Con- 
vent of Merced, in the fame Grave with his Father, having 
obtained a much greater Fame for his Humanity, Parts, and 
Education, tho’ his ConduCl and Experience in War could 
not be fuppofed equal to his Father’s •, and indeed it was 
unfortunate he was fo young and unexperienced, andconfe- 
quently had fo little Influence and Command of his Troops, 
every Officer almoft imagining he merited the chief 
Command in the Army, and that Almagro was infinitely 
obliged to him for taking his Part, while others were con- 
triving to purchafe their own Peace by betraying their 
General. They had but very indifferent Succefs, however, 
from the PraClice of thefe bafe Meafures ; for the Go- 
vernor proved as inexorable as he profeffed himfelf, and 
as he gave no Quarter in the Field of Battle, fo he did 
not think the taking off Almagro* Head a fufficient A- 
tonement for his Rebellion and its Confequences •, but, on 
the contrary, caufed fuch as had been his principal Coun- 
fellors to be apprehended, tried, and put to Death with- 
out Mercy, by which Means he totally extinguiffied, not 
only the Rebellion, but the FaClion that had raifed it. 
Yet there was no Sufpicion that he mingled any 
thing of private Malice, or particular Refentment, with 
his Zeal for the public Service ; for he behaved very 
kindly to fuch as had in due time returned to their Obe- 
dience ; and though no Governor ever had a fairer Op- 
portunity of raifing his FoitunC by the vaft Confifcations 
made in his Time •, yet fuch was his Contempt for Mo- 
ney, that he took nothing j but contented himfelf with 
his own Appointments, and employed the Wealth he 
faved out of them, which was very great, for the Service 
of the Crown and the Good of the People. This had 
fuch an Effect, that though Multitudes deplored the Fate 
of thofe unhappy Men who died by his Sentences, yet 
they bore no Diflike to him ; but acknowledged, that 
what he did was the Effe<ft of an honeft Zeal, and not of 
any Cruelty in his Nature, and many of the Criminals 
profeffed this to be their own Sentiments in their very laft 
Moments ; The only People who ffiewed any Difeontent, 
were the Officers and Soldiers of Tizarro*% Party, who 
thought they were not enough confldered, and told him, 
as much *, but he told them in return. That he did not 
come there to fupport or reward any, but to extinguifli 
all Parties •, and that they ought to think themlelves 
happy, that in Confideration of their late good Behaviour, 
he forgot what was paft, fince they muft be fenfiblethat 
he puniffied in Almagro* % Partizans no other Crimes than 
thofe of which themfelves had been guilty. 
24. The Peace of the Province being reftored by this 
ftriflDiftributionof Juftice, the GoYtmor de Cafiro dif- 
banded the beft part of his Troops, laid afide all his 
Severity, and began to cultivate with the utmoft Diligence 
the Arts of Peace : He caufed the old Colonies to be 
better fettled, and was mindful to have new ones planted : 
He took care to have the old Mines improved, and fuch 
as were daily difeovered, to be wrought, for the Benefit 
of his Mafter and the lawful Proprietors : Fie was very 
attentive to the Adminiftration of Juftice : He eredled 
Colleges and Schools in all the Cities and great Towns. 
He obliged the Clergy to labour diligently in converting 
the Indians, relieved moft of their Grievances, and in the 
Space of little more than a Year, made fuch Alterations 
as could fcarce have been expeded in fifty. He would 
have done ftiil more, but that the Spanijh Minifters, 
whom he neither courted nor bribed; prevailed iipori the 
King to eredl: a kind of Royal Audience in Peru, and to 
give very great Powers to Commiffioners who compofed 
the Audience, who made it their Bufmefs to crofs the Go- 
vernor in every thing ; which begat new Difturbances, 
both among the Spaniards and the Indians, and freffi Com- 
plaints to the Court of Spain, with which perhaps the 
Minifters were not difpleafed, becaufe whenever they 
came the Money came along with them. Whereas in the' 
Governor de CaJiro*s> Time, though the Emperor received 
large Sums from Peru, yet the Minifters got nothing ; 
and when Things went once wrong they quickly grew 
worfe and worfe, and Matters were in Danger of falling 
once more into Confufion. 
The Emperor being informed of the Revolts in Peru„ 
and the ill Ufage of the Indians, he difplaced his Com- 
miffioners there, and chofe others, giving them an Oath 
to deal juftly, and to order Things uprightly. He made 
forty Laws, and figned them at Barcelona, the 20 th of 
November, 1 542 ; but thofe Laws were ill taken in Peru. 
They were certainly well intended, and very agreeable to 
the Rules of natural Juftice and Equity ; but in the Situa- 
tion Things were in, by no Means expedient to be pub- 
liffied in Peru, where Things grew daily more perplexed : 
Befides Blafco Nunez Vela, who was appointed Viceroy 
in 1 544, and who had Direftions to fee thefe Orders put 
in execution, was a Man no way qualified for his Em-* 
ployment. On his Arrival he caufed his Predeceffor, 
who was a much wifer Man than himfelf, to be imprifoned, 
and behaved in every Refpeft fo feverelythat he gained no 
Friends, though he provoked many to become his Ene- 
mies. Three of the Judges who fhould* have fupported 
him, confpired againft him, and ca,ufed him to be impri- 
foned, while in the mean time Gonzalo Pizarro drew to- 
gether Troops, and difpofed all Things for a Rebellion. 
The Difputes between the Judges and the Viceroy faci- 
litated his Defign ; for tho’ the latter quickly recovered his 
Liberty, and drew one of the Judges to his Party, yet 
the reft of the Judges continued to aft by their own 
Authority, and behaved fo cruelly, and fo tyrannically, 
that at length, perceiving they had no other Remedy, they 
were glad to admit Gonzalo Pizarro Governor of PerUy 
to fend him a Commiffion in the King’s Name, and 
to receive him with all Demonftrations of Refpeft into 
the City of Lima. The Viceroy returned into the Pro- 
vince of V^uito, where he difeovered, in his Adverfity, 
much greater Abilities, and many more Virtues, than in 
his Profperity ; and though his Forces were confiderably 
inferior to thofe of the Rebels, yet his own Intrepidity, 
joined to that loyal Difpofition, which is natural to the 
Spaniards, enabled him to make a long Difpute. At 
length, however, a decifive Battle was fought between 
him and Gonzalo Pizarro, on the 19th of January, 1546 ; 
in which the Viceroy, being wounded and taken Prifoner, 
had his Head ftruck off; for whofe Death, though done by 
his own Command, Pizarro hypocritically wore Morning. 
Henceforwards this Man behaved himfelf rather as a 
fovereign Prince than a Governor, bufying himfelf in 
amaffmg Wealth, and in taking all the Precautions he 
could think of for fecuring himfelf and his Affociates 
from the Effefts of the royal Refentment, which without 
queftion they had reafonto dread. In the mean time, the 
Emperor, juftly alarmed at the Confequences of thole 
Seditions, which threatened the Lofs of fo confiderable a 
Territory as that of Peru, came at length to a Refolution 
of trufting rather to theWifdom of one Man, than to 
the Force of many. 
This Man was thtUictncizitPeterdelaGafca, who had 
the Title of Prefident of the Royal Court of Peru, and 
a Commiffion fo ample, that,- had it not been fome way 
limited by his Inftruftions, he would, in effeft, have 
had royal Authority : But to balance this he had neither 
Men nor Money, the Court trufting altogether, though 
furely not very prudently, to his great Capacity. He 
was, in few Words, a Man of unffiaken Courage, deep 
Prudence, mild Behaviour, unblemiflied Probity, and 
abfolutely difinterefted he was not afraid to go in a 
Manner naked, againft infolent and viftorious Rebels j 
and all the Reward he demanded for the Services he 
fhould 
