Mendoza one of his captains, first to Porco and thence to Arequipa to
collect as many men as possible, and to endeavour to arrest Pedro do
Puentes the lieutenant of Gonzalo at Arequipa. But Puentes fled
immediately from Arequipa on receiving intelligence of the events which
had occurred at Las Charcas. Mendoza therefore took possession of
Arequipa without resistance; whence he reinforced himself with all the
men, arms, and horses, he could procure, and carried off all the money
he could find, with which and his reinforcement he returned to Centeno
at La Plata.

On the return of Mendoza, Centeno found himself at the head of two
hundred and fifty men well equipped for war, to whom he explained his
sentiments and views, and gave an account of the criminal usurpation of
Gonzalo Pizarro, in the following terms. "You know that Gonzalo, on
leaving Cuzco, pretended merely to present the humble remonstrances of
the colonists respecting the obnoxious regulations; and you have been
informed that, even at the outset, he put to death Gaspard de Roias,
Philip Gutierrez, and Arias Maldonado. You have learnt how he conspired
with the judges of the royal audience and other inhabitants of Lima, to
arrest and depose the viceroy, both of which were done accordingly.
After this, while at the very gates of Lima, and before his public entry
into that city, he sent in his lieutenant-general, who arrested many of
the most considerable and richest inhabitants of the country, under the
eyes of the judges, merely because these men had joined the viceroy, and
even hanged three of them without any form of trial, Pedro de Barco,
Martin de Florencia, and Juan Saavedra. He in the next place has broken
up the royal court of audience, sending off its judges to different
places, having in the first place obliged them to appoint him to the
government. He has since, as you well know, caused many others to be put
to death, merely on suspicion that they were favourable to the viceroy,