eposed viceroy concurred, ordering
him to surrender the command of the fleet, and to give up the children
of the late marquis, in return for which they would place the viceroy
under his charge, who would otherwise be in great peril of his life. On
getting aboard ship, Friar Gaspard presented his commission to Cueto and
gave him a full account of the state of affairs, in presence of the
licentiate Vaca de Castro, who still remained a prisoner in that vessel.
In consideration of the danger to which the viceroy was exposed, Cueto
sent the children of the marquis on shore together with Don Antonio de
Ribera and his wife who had the care of them. The judges still insisted
that Cueto should surrender the fleet to their command, threatening to
behead the viceroy if he refused; and though Vela Nunnez, brother to the
viceroy, went several times with messages to induce compliance, the
captains of the ships would not consent to that measure, so that the
judges were constrained to return to Lima with the viceroy still in
custody.

Two days afterwards, the commanders of the ships were informed that the
judges and their partizans had come to the resolution of sending a
strong force of musqueteers in boats to make themselves masters of the
ships by force. They might perhaps have easily persuaded Cueto to give
up the fleet, of which in reality Jerom de Zurbano had more the command
than he, as all the soldiers and sailors who were attached to the
deposed viceroy were at his disposal; but Zurbano, to whom the judges
made great offers, was quite inflexible. The captains of the fleet came
even to the resolution of quitting the port of Lima, to cruise upon the
coast of Peru, till such time as they might receive orders from his
majesty how to conduct themselves in the present crisis. They believed
that the viceroy had many friends and adherents in Lima and other parts
of Peru; as many persons who had not taken any share in the deposition
and imprisonment of the viceroy, and several of those who were best
disposed to the royal service continued almost daily to make their
escape on board the fleet. The ships were tolerably well armed and
appointed, having ten or twelve iron cannon, and three or four of brass,
besides forty quintals of powder. As to provisions, they had above four
hundred quintals of biscuit, five hundred bags of maize, and a large
store of salt meat; so that they were victualled sufficiently for a
considerable time, and they c