" Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 7, lib.
9, cap. 25.]
Another cavalier, who held the chief command under the viceroy,
was executed, after a more formal investigation of his case, at
the first place where the army halted. At this distance of time,
it is impossible to determine how far the suspicions of Blasco
Nunez were founded on truth. The judgments of contemporaries are
at variance. *13 In times of political ferment, the opinion of
the writer is generally determined by the complexion of his
party. To judge from the character of Blasco Nunez, jealous and
irritable, we might suppose him to have acted without sufficient
cause. But this consideration is counterbalanced by that of the
facility with which his followers swerved from their allegiance
to their commander, who seems to have had so light a hold on
their affections, that they were shaken off by the least reverse
of fortune. Whether his suspicions were well or ill founded, the
effect was the same on the mind of the viceroy. With an enemy in
his rear whom he dared not fight, and followers whom he dared not
trust, the cup of his calamities was nearly full.
[Footnote 13: Fernandez, who held a loyal pen, and one
sufficiently friendly to the viceroy, after stating that the
officers, whom the latter put to death, had served him to that
time with their lives and fortunes, dismisses the affair with the
temperate reflection, that men formed different judgments on it.
"Sobre estas muertes uuo en el Peru varios y contrarios juyzios y
opiniones, de culpa y de su descargo.
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