The dialogue, which is amusing
enough, and well told by the old Chronicler, may be found
translated in Appendix, No. 5. Another version of the affair is
given in the Relacion, often quoted by me, of one of the Peruvian
conquerors, in which Pedrarias is said to have gone out of the
partnership voluntarily, from his disgust at the unpromising
state of affairs. "Vueltos con la dicha gente a Panama,
destrozados y gastados que ya no tenian haciendas para tornar con
provisiones y gentes que todo lo habian gastado, el dicho
Pedrarias de Avila les dijo, que ya el no queria mas hacer
compania con ellos en los gastos de la armada, que si ellos
querian volver a su costa, que lo hiciesen; y ansi como gente que
habia perdido todo lo que tenia y tanto habia trabajado,
acordaron de tornar a proseguir su jornada y dar fin a las vidas
y haciendas que les quedaba, o descubrir aquella tierra, y
ciertamente ellos tubieron grande constancia y animo." Relacion
del Primer. Descub., Ms.]
Not long after this, in the following year, he was succeeded in
his government by Don Pedro de los Rios, a cavalier of Cordova.
It was the policy of the Castilian Crown to allow no one of the
great colonial officers to occupy the same station so long as to
render himself formidable by his authority. *3 It had, moreover,
many particular causes of disgust with Pedrarias. The
functionary they sent out to succeed him was fortified with ample
instructions for the good of the colony, and especially of the
natives, whose religious conversion was urged as a capital
object, and whose personal freedom was unequivocally asserted, as
loyal vassals of the Crown.
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