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. On his arrival at Lima,
he immediately delivered his dispatches to the viceroy and the audience,
and received without delay the safe conduct which his employers required.
The news of this affair was soon spread over Lima, in which many of the
inhabitants and others secretly wished well to the party of Gonzalo, as
conformable to their own interest; and they were therefore a good deal
mortified at the defection among the insurgents, which they supposed would
soon occasion the army of Gonzalo to disperse; after which, the viceroy
would assuredly carry the regulations into execution with the utmost
rigour, when there was no one to oppose him.
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