On the conclusion of this convention, which was confirmed by mutual oaths and the interchange of hostages, Hinojosa took up his residence in Panama with a guard of fifty picked men, and hired a house in which he kept open table for every one who pleased to visit him, all of whom he allowed to divert themselves in play or otherwise as they pleased.  By this procedure, he gained over most of the soldiers of Yllanez in a few days, and many other idle fellows joined themselves secretly to his party.  It was even said that all these men had previously engaged by letter to have gone over to him if he and the governor had come to a battle on the former occasion.  Indeed the governor and other principal persons of Panama had been chiefly induced to agree to the present accommodation by distrust of their soldiers, who were all eager for an opportunity of getting to Peru.  By the above-mentioned means, Hinojosa soon saw himself at the head of a considerable body of troops, while the captains Yllanez and Guzman were almost deserted by all their men.  As they saw likewise that the convention was in other respects ill observed, they secretly withdrew with fifteen men who yet remained, and endeavoured to get to Carthagena.  Yllanez was taken soon afterwards by one of Hinojosas officers; on which he entered into the service of Gonzalo Pizarro, and was afterwards engaged on that side in the engagement at Nombre de Dios against Verdugo, to be afterwards related.  Hinojosa continued to reside in Panama, where no one dared to oppose him.  He increased the number of his troops from day to day, and kept them under excellent discipline, without allowing them to do injury to any of the inhabitants; neither did he intermeddle in any thing whatever except what concerned his troops.  At this time Don Pedro de Cabrera and his son-in-law Hernan Mexia de Guzman, who had been banished from Peru by the viceroy, resided in Panama; and these two gentlemen were sent by Hinojosa, with a party of soldiers, to keep possession of the port of Nombre de Dios, which was of great importance to his security, and whence he might receive early intelligence from Spain and other places.

Melchior Verdugo, an inhabitant of the city of Truxillo, was one of the richest men in Peru, being proprietor of the entire province of Caxamarca.  On the arrival of the viceroy Blasco Nunnez Vela, Verdugo, who was originally from the same city in Spain, engaged heartily in his service, and continued in his suite at Lima, till the time when the viceroy proposed to dismantle that city and retire to Truxillo.  At that period he commanded Verdugo to go before, that he might secure possession of Truxillo, with orders to levy soldiers and provide arms; and Verdugo accordingly embarked all his baggage and effects, intending to have set sail on the very day when the viceroy was imprisoned.  As all the vessels at the port of Lima were then detained, Verdugo was unable to proceed; and, as Verdugo was particularly obnoxious to Gonzalo and his partizans,