How Don Diego de Almagro wrote to Captain Alonso de Alvarado, without knowing that he had raised the banner, and how he sent him an appointment as Lieutenant; and of the death of Orihuela.

WE have already related that Don Diego, by the advice of Juan de Herrada and Cristóbal de Sotelo, determined to write to the captain Alonso de Alvarado at the city of La Frontera,[78] where he was lieutenant for the Marquis. He wrote a very polite letter, apprising him of the death of the Marquis and of how the municipality of the city of Lima had acknowledged him, Don Diego, as Governor, and that all the other cities and towns in the Realm had done the same. He appealed to Don Alonso, as a knight who would understand the motive for avenging the death of his father, not to side against him. He asked him to show friendship and to retain from him the[124] appointment he had held from the Marquis, which he now sent, desiring to increase his honour and estate. With this letter he sent him a commission as captain and Governor\'s lieutenant in that city. And to make sure that Don Alonso should accept the commission without wavering they compelled the secretary Antonio Picado, who was their prisoner, and whom they knew to be a fast friend of Alvarado\'s, to write him a letter in his own style explaining that Don Diego had acquiesced in the murder of the Marquis because of the ingratitude he had shown towards Almagro his father, and the cruelty with which he had treated his partisans; adding that, since all the lieutenants and captains of the Marquis had obeyed and complied with the demands of Don Diego, Alvarado should do the same. By refusing he would be doing great disservice to God and to his Majesty, and injury to the natives. With these letters Juan de Herrada wrote another saying almost the same thing. These letters were sent to the city of La Frontera, but when Alonso de Alvarado saw them he became very angry, and replied in terms relating to the crime they had committed, and not to the soft words they had written.

In Lima there began to be troubles among the men of Chile themselves. They took the Doctor Juan Blázquez, who had withdrawn to the convent of Santo Domingo, and kept him a prisoner in the house of Antonio Picado, where he was for several days. The Bishop Friar Vicente de Valverde came from Cuzco very depressed on hearing of the death of the Marquis and finding that his brother the doctor was a prisoner, for he feared that those of Chile would kill him. There was a little vessel lying in the port, and, pretending he was going out hunting, he got on board with his brother Dr. Blázquez, and some other persons, and put to sea with the intention of going to seek for the President Vaca de Castro. B............