But Vaca de Castro had also left Cuzco for
the latter city, on the earliest intimation of the viceroy's
approach, and, with some difficulty, he prevailed on the
inhabitants not to swerve from their loyalty, but to receive
their new ruler with suitable honors, and trust to his calmer
judgment for postponing the execution of the law till the case
could be laid before the throne.
But the great body of the Spaniards, after what they had heard,
had slender confidence in the relief to be obtained from this
quarter. They now turned with more eagerness than ever towards
Gonzalo Pizarro; and letters and addresses poured in upon him
from all parts of the country, inviting him to take on himself
the office of their protector. These applications found a more
favorable response than on the former occasion.
There were, indeed, many motives at work to call Gonzalo into
action. It was to his family, mainly, that Spain was indebted for
this extension of her colonial empire; and he had felt deeply
aggrieved that the government of the colony should be trusted to
other hands than his. He had felt this on the arrival of Vaca de
Castro, and much more so when the appointment of a viceroy proved
it to be the settled policy of the Crown to exclude his family
from the management of affairs. His brother Hernando still
languished in prison, and he himself was now to be sacrificed as
the principal victim of the fatal ordinances. For who had taken
so prominent a part in the civil war with the elder Almagro? And
the viceroy was currently reported - it may have been scandal -
to have intimated that Pizarro would be dealt with accordingly.
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