*13
[Footnote 13: Carta de Espinall, Tesorero de N. Toledo, 15 de
Junio, 1539. - Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms. - Pedro Pizarro,
Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3,
lib. 8, cap. 21.]
Almagro was now master of Cuzco. He ordered the Pizarros, with
fifteen or twenty of the principal cavaliers, to be secured and
placed in confinement. Except so far as required for securing
his authority, he does not seem to have been guilty of acts of
violence to the inhabitants, *14 and he installed one of
Pizarro's most able officers, Gabriel de Rojas, in the government
of the city. The municipality, whose eyes were now open to the
validity of Almagro's pretensions, made no further scruple to
recognize his title to Cuzco.
[Footnote 14: So it would appear from the general testimony; yet
Pedro Pizarro, one of the opposite faction, and among those
imprisoned by Almagro, complains that that chief plundered them
of their horses and other property. Descub. y Conq., Ms.]
The marshal's first step was to send a message to Alonso de
Alvarado's camp, advising that officer of his occupation of the
city, and requiring his obedience to him, as its legitimate
master. Alvarado was lying, with a body of five hundred men,
horse and foot, at Xauxa, about thirteen leagues from the
capital. He had been detached several months previously for the
relief of Cuzco; but had, most unaccountably, and, as it proved,
most unfortunately for the Peruvian capital, remained at Xauxa
with the alleged motive of protecting that settlement and the
surrounding country against the insurgents.
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