ssurances, the inhabitants of
Panama took no measures for defence. On coming into the port, two ships
which happened to be there, made sail to go away; one of which was taken
possession of by one of the brigantines belonging to Bachicao, and
brought back to the harbour, with the master and chief mate hanging from
the yard arms. This sad spectacle gave great uneasiness to the
inhabitants, who judged from this tragical event, that the purposes of
Bachicao were very different from his words and promises. But it was not
now time to think of defence, and they were constrained to submit,
though filled with terror and dismay, leaving their lives and properties
entirely at the discretion of Bachicao, who was no less cruel than the
lieutenant-general Carvajal, or even more so if possible; being at the
same time exceedingly addicted to cursing and blasphemy, and among all
his vices not a single spark of virtue could be found to relieve the
picture.

At this time Captain Juan de Gusman was in Panama raising soldiers for
the service of the viceroy; but he found it advisable to retire on the
arrival of Bachicao, with whom all these soldiers now inlisted. Bachicao
likewise got possession of the artillery which had belonged to the
vessel in which Vaca de Castro escaped from Lima. Seeing himself master
of Panama, Bachicao who was a brutal passionate fellow, exercised the
command there in a cruel and tyrannical manner, disposing at his will of
the goods and properties of every one, violating every rule of law and
justice, oppressing the liberties of the community, and holding every
individual under such slavish constraint, that no one dared to act
otherwise than as he pleased to dictate. Learning or suspecting that two
of his captains had formed the design of putting him to death, he
ordered them both to be beheaded without any form of trial; and in
similar acts of injustice, and in every transaction, he used no other
formality than ordering it to be intimated by the public crier, "That
Captain Ferdinand Bachicao had ordained such and such to be done." He
thus usurped supreme and absolute authority, paying not the smallest
regard to the laws, or even to the external forms of justice.

The licentiate Vaca de Castro, who was at Panama when Bachicao arrived,
fled immediately across the isthmus to Nombre de Dios on the Atlantic,
where he embarked accompanied by Diego Alvarez de Cueto and Jerom
Zurbano. Doctor Texada and Francisco Maldonado