the great number of men that had deserted from him; which
Acosta had not before learnt, though several of his soldiers had
received the intelligence by letters brought to them by the Indians who
frequented the camp, but which they dared not to communicate to each
other. On the present occasion, the messengers from Gonzalo recommended
to Acosta to keep this matter as secret as possible till such time as he
should join Gonzalo. Acosta therefore, gave out that he had received
favourable intelligence from the monk, and that Gonzalo had been
successful on several occasions, being daily joined by many additional
soldiers; and, as he had found it convenient and necessary to send off
many confidential persons in various directions, these persons pretended
to have deserted from Gonzalo by way of stratagem, on purpose, to gain
possession of the ships commanded by Aldana. All this however was
insufficient to disguise the truth from many of the followers of Aldana,
particularly Paez de Sotomayor, his major-general, and Martin d'Olmos
one of his captains; who, coming to a knowledge of the real state of
affairs, entered into a resolution of putting D'Acosta to death. They
formed this resolution unknown to each other, as no one at this time
dared to avow his sentiments to any other person, for fear of being put
to death; yet, from certain indications, they began to suspect each
other of entertaining similar sentiments, and at length opened
themselves reciprocally, and communicated their purposes to several
soldiers in whom they confided. Just when they were about to have put
their enterprize into execution, Sotomayor got notice that D'Acosta was
holding a secret conference in his tent with two of his captains, and
that he had doubled his ordinary guard. From these circumstances,
Sotomayor concluded that their conspiracy, having been revealed to
several persons, had been betrayed to Acosta. He took therefore prompt
measures to inform all his confederates, and both he and they took horse
without delay, and left the camp in sight of all the army, to the number
of thirty-five in all; among whom, besides Sotomayor and D'Olmos, the
principal persons were Martin d'Alarzon who carried the grand standard,
Hernando de Alvarado, Alfonzo Regel, Antonio de Avila, Garcias Gutierrez
d'Escovedo, and Martin Monje; who, with all who went off on this
occasion, were men of consideration and of much experience in the
affairs of Peru. These men took immediat