of the inhabitants disposed to join him in returning to their duty, and in concurrence with whom he deposed the magistracy appointed by Acosta, one of whom he sent away prisoner to Lima, and established a new set in the name of his majesty.  Finding that the number of his followers diminished from day to day, Acosta accelerated his march as much as possible, both for his own security and to serve the insurgent cause in which he was engaged.  Out of three hundred well armed and excellently equipped men, with whom he had set out from Lima, only one hundred remained with him on his arrival at Arequipa.  He found Gonzalo Pizarro at that place, with only about three hundred and fifty men, who a very short while before had a fine army of fifteen hundred, besides all those who were dispersed in different parts of Peru under various captains, all of whom were then under his orders.  Gonzalo was now exceedingly irresolute as to his future proceedings; being too weak to wait the attack of the royalists, who continually augmented in their numbers, and yet deeming it dishonourable to fly or to endeavour to conceal himself.

In the mean time Centeno remained in the Collao, waiting an answer from Captain Mendoza to the message he had sent by Gonzalo de Zarate as formerly mentioned.  While there he received dispatches from the president, which were forwarded by Aldana, and accounts of the events which had occurred at Lima, particularly the flight of Gonzalo Pizarro to Arequipa, and the junction of Acosta with the insurgents at that place.  On receiving this intelligence he sent a new message to Mendoza by means of Luis Garcias, giving him an account of all these events, and particularly informing him of the orders and instructions given to the president, the general amnesty, the revocation of the obnoxious regulations, and the determination of his majesty that Gonzalo Pizarro was not to continue in the government of Peru.  He apprized him likewise, that most of the gentlemen and persons of consideration, who had hitherto followed Gonzalo, had now abandoned him on account of his tyrannical conduct, in murdering and plundering all the principal colonists, and more especially because of his rebellion against the sovereign, and refusal to submit to his royal orders, and to the authority of him who had been appointed to regulate the affairs of the kingdom.  Wherefore, although all that had been done hitherto might in some measure be excused, he urged Mendoza to consider that in continuing to obey Gonzalo he could no longer avoid the reproach of acting as a rebel against the king.  It was now necessary and proper therefore, to forget all individual interests or past disputes, and to devote himself entirely to his majesty, to whom he was enabled by his present situation to render important service.