Having assembled a body of troops, Centeno used every effort to provide them with arms and all other necessary equipments.  He placed guards at all the passes, to prevent any intelligence from being conveyed to the enemy till his affairs were in proper order.  He sent likewise Lopez de Mendoza one of his captains, first to Porco and thence to Arequipa to collect as many men as possible, and to endeavour to arrest Pedro do Puentes the lieutenant of Gonzalo at Arequipa.  But Puentes fled immediately from Arequipa on receiving intelligence of the events which had occurred at Las Charcas.  Mendoza therefore took possession of Arequipa without resistance; whence he reinforced himself with all the men, arms, and horses, he could procure, and carried off all the money he could find, with which and his reinforcement he returned to Centeno at La Plata.

On the return of Mendoza, Centeno found himself at the head of two hundred and fifty men well equipped for war, to whom he explained his sentiments and views, and gave an account of the criminal usurpation of Gonzalo Pizarro, in the following terms.  “You know that Gonzalo, on leaving Cuzco, pretended merely to present the humble remonstrances of the colonists respecting the obnoxious regulations; and you have been informed that, even at the outset, he put to death Gaspard de Roias, Philip Gutierrez, and Arias Maldonado.  You have learnt how he conspired with the judges of the royal audience and other inhabitants of Lima, to arrest and depose the viceroy, both of which were done accordingly.  After this, while at the very gates of Lima, and before his public entry into that city, he sent in his lieutenant-general, who arrested many of the most considerable and richest inhabitants of the country, under the eyes of the judges, merely because these men had joined the viceroy, and even hanged three of them without any form of trial, Pedro de Barco, Martin de Florencia, and Juan Saavedra.  He in the next place has broken up the royal court of audience, sending off its judges to different places, having in the first place obliged them to appoint him to the government.  He has since, as you well know, caused many others to be put to death, merely on suspicion that they were favourable to the viceroy, and intended to join his party.  Not satisfied with all this, he has seized all the treasure belonging to his majesty in the different receipts of the colony, and has imposed excessive contributions on the inhabitants, from whom he has exacted above 150,000 ducats by means of taxes imposed at his own pleasure.  Adding crime to crime, he has again levied forces against the authority of his majesty, with which he has marched against the viceroy, and has carried insubordination and confusion into every part of the country; permitting and encouraging many to hold public discourse contrary to the respect and obedience which is due to his majesty.  They were likewise aware, that Gonzalo had token away the repartimientos,