At this time the King heard of the differences in the government, arising from the officers having votes, and he ordered that Pedrarias should govern alone. As Vasco Nuñez had never paid much respect to the officials, nor sent them any of the Indians that he had captured, as the other captains did, they bore him no good will, and they said to the governor that he had rebelled. They persuaded the governor to go to Acla, that he might get news of Vasco Nuñez and send for him, and the officials accompanied the governor. At this time Vasco Nuñez, having built the ships, came to the gulf of San Miguel, and landed in a populous district called Pequeo, where he remained for two months, seizing Indians and sending them to Acla for more cordage or pitch, which were required for the ships. Here we received news that Lope de Sosa had been appointed in Castile to come out to this land as governor. So Vasco Nuñez assembled certain of his friends who were honourable men, and it was arranged that one Valderrabano should go with a small force in company with the Indians, and that he should secretly send a man to the neighbourhood of Acla, who should go at night to the house of Vasco Nuñez and find out the news about the new governor.[1] If it was true all the people were to return, that the new governor might not break up the expedition, and we were to have gone to settle at Chepabar, which is six leagues nearer Acla than
- ↑ The plan was that one Francisco Garavita should go back to Acla, and send in a man named Luis Botello to learn the news. If Lope de Sosa had arrived, Vasco Nuñez intended to have sailed away on his discovery, but if Pedrarias was still in power, then the emissaries were to have applied for further supplies of pitch and iron. This resolution was made by Vasco Nuñez in a conversation with Valderrabano, a notary, one evening in a hut. It so happened that it came on to rain, and a sentry, sheltering himself under the eaves, overheard just so much as to make him think that Vasco Nuñez intended to sail away on the discovery on his own account, and make himself independent of Pedrarias.
of the river; but when it was placed on the stocks, the tide came up so high as to carry away part of it, and bury the rest in the mud. The workmen had to save themselves by climbing up the trees.
