ABSTRACT
After the Governor Don Francisco pizarro had despatched the messengers to Cuzco, as I have related in the previous chapters, that they might treat for peace with the Adelantado almagro, he promptly decided to return to the city of the kings, so that if the efforts of his messengers were not successful, he could increase his army, and make all necessary preparations for war. He, therefore, gave orders to his captains and their followers to march quickly, as it was urgent that they should return to Lima as soon as possible. They all answered that they would carry out his orders. Travelling by the deserts and valleys he fell in with and helped some men who had escaped from the defeat at the bridge of Abancay; and even some who came from the city of Cuzco . As these were hated by the men of Chile, who had treated them as enemies, they told stories of the ill-usage put upon the friends of Pizarro by Almagro and his captains, and said they could not have been treated worse if they had been infidels and foreigners. Although many things that they stated were false and untrue they were eagerly listened to by the Governor, 82though to conceal the enmity he already felt for Almagro, he did not let it be seen that he gave credit to all he was told. Some who heard these reports, and who had wished to serve under Almagro because of the fame of his generosity, now became cool as regards that wish, and placed themselves entirely at the service of the Governor; also because they saw that a larger force than that of Almagro would soon be collected. For in this land the dispositions of the people are so variable and changeable that what they promise to-day they disown to-morrow, only thinking of their own interests. So it is that no one can trust in the word of another, for on the first occasion it will be broken.
