How the Licentiate Vaca de Castro arrived at the port of Buenaventura, and went from thence, with much difficulty, to the city of Cali, where the Adelantado Don Sebastián de Belalcázar, Governor for his Majesty, was staying; and of what he did there.

IT is necessary that we should now talk a little about the licentiate Vaca de Castro, for hitherto the narrative has not given him his proper place. Leaving for the time the story of events which took place in the cities of Lima and Cuzco we will observe that Vaca de Castro had found out where the port of Buenaventura lay, and ascertained that the road to the city of Cali, where the Adelantado Sebastián de Belalcázar then tarried was very difficult.[82][138] And having sent Merlo forward to announce his coming and the duty he was charged with in the Realm of Peru by his Majesty, he also requested that Pascual de Andagoya might be set at liberty. So Vaca de Castro arrived at that port of Buenaventura, where he only found four or five men, employed by the merchants who came from Tierra Firme. Everyone believed that Vaca de Castro brought powers with him which would be quite sufficient for any business that might present itself anywhere he might wish to pass, and so he himself said and announced.

Merlo, bearing the letter and authority of Vaca de Castro that we have mentioned, made the journey to Cali, where he gave the news to the Adelantado, who was on the point of starting for the new city of Cartago. He said the licentiate Vaca de Castro, President of the Royal Audience of Panamá, and Judge of Peru, had been driven by a storm into the port of Buenaventura; and that from thence he sent an order, in compliance with the petition of Don Juan de Andagoya, son of the Adelantado Don Pascual de Andagoya, that the latter was to be brought from Popayán, where he was kept under arrest, to Cali, where the Judge would soon arrive. He, Vaca de Castro, would hear the statements of both Governors, and deliver judgment. Merlo made known this order to the Adelantado Belalcázar who wrote to Francisco García de Tovar, his lieutena............