and advantageous situation, and at the same time endeavoured to convince him that he would run no risk either in his person or property by following the present advice.  On his return to Gonzalo with this letter, Vaso was met by the lieutenant-general Carvajal, who made minute inquiry respecting every thing he had seen and learnt, and gave him strict injunctions not to let it be known to the followers of Gonzalo that the force of Centeno exceeded seven hundred men.  On being informed that Centeno refused to join him, Gonzalo disdained to read his letter, and ordered it immediately to be burnt in presence of several of his officers.

Immediately after this, Gonzalo determined to march into the province of Las Charcas, and accordingly took the direct road towards the pass occupied by Centeno and Mendoza.  In this march the van-guard was commanded by the lieutenant-general, who took and hanged more than twenty persons whom he fell in with during the march.  Among these was a priest named Pantaleon, who carried some letters for Centeno, and whom Carvajal ordered to be hung up, with his breviary and ink-horn suspended from his neck.  Continuing this march, the scouts of the two armies fell in with each other on Thursday the 19th of October 1547.  Gonzalo immediately sent one of his chaplains with a message to Centeno, demanding leave to continue his march through the pass, without being obliged to give battle[32].  The chaplain was conducted by the bishop of Cuzco, who happened to be in the army of Centeno, to his tent; and Centeno gave strict charges to his troops to be on their guard and always in good order to receive the enemy in case of an attack.  For above a month Centeno had been afflicted by an obstinate fever, for which he had been six times blooded without any relief, and was not expected to recover; so that he was quite incapable of acting on the present emergency, being confined constantly to bed.

[Footnote 32:  No consequences seem to have followed from this demand, which does not appear to have been acceded or even listened to.—­E.]

The illness of Centeno was known in the army of Gonzalo, and that his tent was pitched at some distance from the rest, to avoid the noise and bustle of the camp.  Founding on this intelligence, Juan d’Acosta was detached with twenty picked men, with orders to approach silently in the night to the camp of the royalists, and to endeavour to carry off Centeno.  Acosta accordingly drew near with so much caution that he surprised the centinels that were on guard over Centeno, and had very near reached his tent when the alarm was given by some negro servants.  Being thus discovered, Acosta ordered his men to fire off their musquets, and immediately retreated back to the camp of Gonzalo without losing a man.  In the confusion occasioned by this exploit, great numbers of the royalists hastened towards the tent occupied by Centeno; but on this occasion several of the soldiers belonging to Valdivia threw away their arms and fled.