CHAPTER XXVIII

_How the Captain Lorenzo de Aldana wrote and told the Viceroy what the people at Cuzco were saying, and how it was rumoured in Lima that Gonzalo Pizarro was nominated Governor of Cuzco._

The Captain Lorenzo de Aldana[44] was in the province of Xauxa where he had a grant of Indians, and he heard what was being said, and how easily people had been moved to treat of affairs, from the citizens of Cuzco coming from Lima. He also had news how Gonzalo Pizarro had come from Charcas and marched to Cuzco, where he had claimed to be received as Procurator in opposition to the Viceroy. Aldana was anxious that there should be no disturbance nor war in his province, and that the Viceroy should act prudently. The business he took in hand was difficult and needed wise counsel. He wrote to the Viceroy giving him welcome on his arrival: and said that it should be known how Gaspar Rodriguez de Camporedondo, Bachicao, and the other citizens from Cuzco had related with what severity he had acted on entering the kingdom, and how little sympathy he had shown, rejoicing that he should have come to enforce the ordinances, taking their Indians away from those of San Miguel and Truxillo, and how great disturbances were the consequence. In order that it might go no further, and that those who were fostering the discontent might not be entirely believed, the orders of his Majesty should be carried out with much prudence. He said that he had been long in the land, and that he knew by experience the levity of those who settled there, and their willingness to see war break out, that they might profit by the disorders. Besides this, Lorenzo de Aldana wrote other things to the Viceroy, telling him that Gonzalo Pizarro was in Cuzco with the intention of being nominated Procurator. A few days after he had written this letter, Aldana left the province of Xauxa, and set out for Lima to join the Viceroy who rejoiced at his arrival. At this time the Captain Juan de Saavedra asked permission to go to Huanuco, which the Viceroy granted.

Many days had not passed in Lima before it was understood and known for certain that Gonzalo Pizarro had been received in Cuzco as Procurator to come and appeal against the ordinances. It is easy to understand this, for letters had always passed between Lima and Cuzco, the messengers going and coming. The news was now certain. They said joyfully among themselves, as it is reported, “Have you by chance not heard the good news?” “Well, Gonzalo Pizarro is nominated Procurator to come against this audacious man, the Viceroy!” Others, when they heard it, shrugged their shoulders and pressed their hands, unable to repress the laugh that came from their mouths. In short, great was the rejoicing among all the people.

The news came that Gonzalo Pizarro was at Cuzco assembling an armed force, and when the Viceroy heard it he was much disturbed in his mind. He could only say that Gonzalo Pizarro was a knight and a servant of the King, brother of the Marquis who discovered those provinces, and that he would not wish to merit the name of traitor. He desired that the Judges would arrive, that the court of justice might be established. Many times he came to the resolution of going at once to Cuzco accompanied only by his brother and his brother-in-law Diego Alvarez de Cueto, with a few citizens. There were so many inconveniences that the Cuzco expedition did not take place though, if he had been there, the disturbances would have ceased, and the war would not have commenced. But to speak of these things is to attempt divination: for God had determined to punish that kingdom, it even seems to me that the unusual lightning was a sign of it, and that it had to pass through more calamities and miseries. According to what Plutarch says in his life of Lucullus, referring to certain questions which the Cyreneans put to the divine Plato, there is nothing more arduous than to bring under special laws the men who possess great wealth, for they are like men intoxicated and beyond their ordinary senses, transported by the favours of prosperous fortune. The same Plutarch, on the other hand, says that there is nothing easier than to dominate the minds of similar men who are depressed by many reverses of fortune, because their reverses had crushed down all their pride and lofty thoughts. In truth it is a notable sentence. For at the time when the unfortunate Viceroy entered Peru, he found the minds of men, owing to their wealth, not only ready to protest against the laws, but to oppose them. Yet when the same tyrant’s proceedings had led them to disaster and misfortune, Gasca was able not only to enforce the laws but to enact others more heavy, and to carry out the will of the Emperor our lord who is now so powerful and so feared in these parts that his authority is not equalled in any other province in the world. I have said this, because it should be understood that his Majesty was able, as sovereign lord, to pardon when his commands had been obeyed, although there is, from Spain to Peru, more than four thousand leagues of land and sea.