submit to the orders of his majesty; but all his officers were satisfied that he meant to assert an independent dominion, and publickly avowed these absurd and criminal pretensions.  On returning from Parto, he remained a long while at Quito, continually feasting and rejoicing; he and his adherents abandoning themselves to every degree of licence and debauchery, particularly in regard to the sex.  It is even asserted that Gonzalo caused a citizen of Quito to be assassinated, whose wife he publickly lived with, and that he hired a Hungarian soldier, named Vincente Pablo to execute this infamous deed.  This man was afterwards hanged at Valladolid, in the year 1551, by a sentence of the royal council of the Indies.

As Pizarro found himself in the command of a strong body of excellent troops, which appeared entirely attached to his service, some of their own accord and others by constraint, he persuaded himself that no one could oppose him, or prevent him from enjoying his present elevation in peace and tranquillity.  He was even convinced that the emperor would be obliged to treat him with cautious respect, and must find himself under the necessity of entering into a compromise.  It was at this time, when Gonzalo considered himself as unresisted master of all Peru, that Centeno revolted from his tyrannical usurpation in the province of Las Charcas, and that he dispatched Carvajal for the reduction of that loyal officer, as has been already mentioned.

Having continued a long time at Quito without receiving any intelligence of the measures which were taken by the viceroy, Gonzalo became anxious to learn what was become of him.  Some alleged that he would return to Spain by way of Carthagena, while others gave it as their opinion that he would retire to Tierra Firma, to keep possession of the isthmus, to assemble troops, arms, ammunition, and provisions, and to wait for orders from his majesty; and a third opinion was that he would wait for these orders in Popayan, where he now was.  No one suspected that he would be able to collect a sufficient number of troops in that place to enable him to undertake any enterprise for recovering his authority in Peru; yet it seemed advisable to Gonzalo and his officers to take possession of the Tierra Firma, on purpose to occupy the only direct passage between Spain and Peru.  For this purpose, Gonzalo Pizarro appointed Pedro Alfonzo De Hinojosa to command the fleet which Bachicao had collected, giving him a detachment of two hundred and fifty men to enable him to occupy the isthmus, and directed him while on his voyage to Panama to coast along the province of Buenaventura and the mouth of the river of San Juan.