To this
application, couched in respectful terms, Almagro received no
answer.
Frustrated in his hopes of a peaceful accommodation, the young
captain now saw that nothing was left but the arbitrament of
arms. Assembling his troops, preparatory to his departure from
the capital, he made them a brief address. He protested that the
step which he and his brave companions were about to take was not
an act of rebellion against the Crown. It was forced on them by
the conduct of the governor himself. The commission of that
officer gave him no authority over the territory of New Toledo,
settled on Almagro's father, and by his father bequeathed to him.
If Vaca de Castro, by exceeding the limits of his authority,
drove him to hostilities, the blood spilt in the quarrel would
lie on the head of that commander, not on his. "In the
assassination of Pizarro," he continued, "we took that justice
into our own hands which elsewhere was denied us. It is the same
now, in our contest with the royal governor. We are as
true-hearted and loyal subjects of the Crown as he is." And he
concluded by invoking his soldiers to stand by him heart and hand
in the approaching contest, in which they were all equally
interested with himself.
The appeal was not made to an insensible audience. There were
few among them who did not feel that their fortunes were
indissolubly connected with those of their commander; and while
they had little to expect from the austere character of the
governor, they were warmly attached to the person of their young
chief, who, with all the popular qualities of his father, excited
additional sympathy from the circumstances of his age and his
forlorn condition.
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