ABSTRACT
THE reader will remember that, farther back, we told how Vaca de Castro arrived in the province of Guaraz, and how he was acknowledged as Governor and Captain-general in the name of the King: and other things. A few days later an assembly of captains and principal cavaliers was summoned, to consider what ought to be done for the pacification of the Realm. It was agreed that the captains should be posted to the command of the several companies, and that they and the sergeants and other officers were to understand that the war was undertaken by the Governor Vaca de Castro’s orders. He appointed the captains to their former companies, and issued commissions to them without making any change except in the case of Pero Alvarez Holguin, who still looked to be General. But Vaca de Castro wanted that office and dignity for himself, which Pero Alvarez begrudged him. These things having been arranged by the Governor, he asked the captains and principal cavaliers to rejoice and make merry, seeing that the mercy of God our Lord in uniting their forces together had been very great. On hearing this, they arranged tournaments with canes and rings; 1 and the Governor entertained them at his tent. After their festivities he named the licentiate León as chief magistrate of the camp; and because Pero Alvarez learnt that his authority as Camp Master was not to extend beyond military affairs, and not to touch the administration of justice, he began 233to complain, and to say that that was how his services were being requited. Vaca de Castro desired to establish complete concord among his people; so without withdrawing the duty given to the licentiate León, he sent to tell Pero Alvarez that, since he was a gentleman, he should give his attention to serving God and the King, and that, in the exercise of the office he held, he might take over certain pikemen over whom to be captain; for the Governor desired that, except himself, no person there should rank before Pero Alvarez. With this order all questions ended between the Governor and his officers and all were content, unless it were the captain Gómez de Tordoya, who entertained enmity towards Pero Alvarez. Although he was given a company of mounted men, he would not take charge of them, but wanted to be merely a private soldier entering into the battle. He was a very close friend and kinsman of the captain Garcilaso de la Vega, and tried to persuade him by means of words to take the same course as himself. Garcilaso wishing to see the realm at peace and to do just what might be his Majesty’s pleasure, would not, in all loyalty, do anything but what the Governor ordered him.
