at Quito, continually feasting and rejoicing; he and his adherents
abandoning themselves to every degree of licence and debauchery,
particularly in regard to the sex. It is even asserted that Gonzalo
caused a citizen of Quito to be assassinated, whose wife he publickly
lived with, and that he hired a Hungarian soldier, named Vincente Pablo
to execute this infamous deed. This man was afterwards hanged at
Valladolid, in the year 1551, by a sentence of the royal council of the
Indies.

As Pizarro found himself in the command of a strong body of excellent
troops, which appeared entirely attached to his service, some of their
own accord and others by constraint, he persuaded himself that no one
could oppose him, or prevent him from enjoying his present elevation in
peace and tranquillity. He was even convinced that the emperor would be
obliged to treat him with cautious respect, and must find himself under
the necessity of entering into a compromise. It was at this time, when
Gonzalo considered himself as unresisted master of all Peru, that
Centeno revolted from his tyrannical usurpation in the province of Las
Charcas, and that he dispatched Carvajal for the reduction of that loyal
officer, as has been already mentioned.

Having continued a long time at Quito without receiving any intelligence
of the measures which were taken by the viceroy, Gonzalo became anxious
to learn what was become of him. Some alleged that he would return to
Spain by way of Carthagena, while others gave it as their opinion that
he would retire to Tierra Firma, to keep possession of the isthmus, to
assemble troops, arms, ammunition, and provisions, and to wait for
orders from his majesty; and a third opinion was that he would wait for
these orders in Popayan, where he now was. No one suspected that he
would be able to collect a sufficient number of troops in that place to