he
two messengers now on their way to the army. According to his
instructions, Villegas allowed Ribera to continue his journey to the
camp; but made Augustino de Zarate a prisoner, and deprived him of his
dispatches. Zarate was carried back by Villegas to the province of
Pariacaca[8], where he was detained a prisoner for ten days, and every
means were employed to intimidate him that he might not execute the
commission with which he was entrusted.

[Footnote 7: The author of the History of the Discovery and Conquest of
Peru, which forms the subject of the present article; who accordingly,
might justly say of these events, _quorum pars magna fui_. His associate
on this occasion was the person who had charge of the family of the late
marquis Don Francisco Pizarro, and had married the widow of Francisco
Martin de Alcantara, as we learn from Garcilasso.--E.]

[Footnote 8: No such province is now to be found in the best maps of
Peru; but seventy or eighty miles to the north of Jauja, there is a
district called the valley of Pari, with a town of the same name on the
_Chinchay Cocha_, or lake of Chinchay, which may then have been called
Pari-cocha, or Pari on the lake. From this circumstance, it appears the
messengers had been obliged to make a great circuit towards the north,
on purpose to get a passage across the main western ridge of the
Andes.--E.]

At the end of that period Gonzalo Pizarro arrived with his army at
Pariacaca, and called Zarate into his presence to give an account of the
subject of his mission: Zarate had been already made to understand that
his life would be in danger if he attempted to execute the orders he had
received literally: For which reason, after having explained the whole
distinctly to Gonzalo in private, on being taken into the tent where all
the insurgent captains were assembled, he proceeded, as instructed by
Gonzalo, to discharge his commission with prudent reserve. Gonzalo
desired him to repeat all that he had already communicated to him, but
Zarate, understanding distinctly what was expected of him by Gonzalo, in
addressing the assembled officers in the name of the judges of the royal
audience, used considerable address, and availed himself of the full
powers contained in his credentials. He was silent therefore regarding
the dismissal of the troops, which was the point of delicacy, and
confined himself to such other matters as seemed proper for the service
of his majesty and the good of