re tedious to repeat, he disposed his auditors to concur in his
loyal sentiments, and willingly to obey his orders. After this, Centeno
sent one of his captains with a detachment to Chicuito, a place
belonging particularly to the king, between Orcaza and Las Charcas, with
orders to guard the passes with the utmost vigilance, till he and the
royalists were in full readiness to execute their principal enterprize,
as will be related in the sequel.

Notwithstanding every precaution employed by Centeno to conceal his
operations and intentions, it was impossible to prevent intelligence
from spreading in various directions, more especially after the
expedition of Mendoza to Arequipa. Every thing he had already done, even
the number of his troops, and of the musquets and horses he had
collected, was fully known, by means of Indians and Spaniards who had
escaped from La Plata, in spite of the guards which had been set, to
watch the passes of the mountains. Alfonso de Toro, who acted as
lieutenant governor of Cuzco under Gonzalo Pizarro, happened at this
time to be a hundred leagues to the northward of that city, keeping
guard in one of the passes of the mountains, as by letters from Gonzalo
the viceroy was reported to have gone into the mountainous country, and
was supposed to have directed his march by that road toward the south of
Peru. On receiving notice of the late revolution at La Plata, De Toro
returned in all diligence to Cuzco, where he levied forces to oppose
Centeno; and, having assembled the magistrates and principal inhabitants
of Cuzco, he informed them of what had occurred at Las Charcas, and as
there was a sufficient force in Cuzco to suppress the royalists, he
thought it incumbent on him to march to La Plata for that purpose. To
gain them over to his purpose, he represented that Centeno had revolted
without any just cause, and had usurped authority in Las Charcas for his
own private ends, under pretence of serving the king; whereas Gonzalo
Pizarro, being actual governor of the kingdom of Peru, ought to be
obeyed as such till his majesty sent orders to the contrary. That the
revolt of Centeno, being both criminal in itself and contrary to the
law, every one was bound to resist him, and to punish his temerity. He
recalled to their remembrance, that Gonzalo Pizarro was engaged in
serving the general interest of the colonists, to procure the revocation
of the obnoxious ordinances, in which common cause he had exposed