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Weeks and months rolled away, while the president still remained
at Panama, where, indeed, as his communications were jealously
cut off with Peru, he might be said to be detained as a sort of
prisoner of state. Meanwhile, both he and Hinojosa were looking
with anxiety for the arrival of some messenger from Pizarro, who
should indicate the manner in which the president's mission was
to be received by that chief. The governor of Panama was not
blind to the perilous position in which he was himself placed,
nor to the madness of provoking a contest with the Court of
Castile. But he had a reluctance - not too often shared by the
cavaliers of Peru - to abandon the fortunes of the commander who
had reposed in him so great confidence. Yet he trusted that this
commander would embrace the opportunity now offered, of placing
himself and the country in a state of permanent security.
Several of the cavaliers who had given in their adhesion to
Gasca, displeased by this obstinacy, as they termed it, of
Hinojosa, proposed to seize his person and then get possession of
the armada. But the president at once rejected this offer. His
mission, he said, was one of peace, and he would not stain it at
the outset by an act of violence. He even respected the scruples
of Hinojosa; and a cavalier of so honorable a nature, he
conceived, if once he could be gained by fair means, would be
much more likely to be true to his interests, than if overcome
either by force or fraud.
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