On purpose to expedite the march of this detachment as much as possible, the viceroy caused thirty-six mules to be purchased, which cost 12,000 ducats, the money being taken from the royal treasury.  Being thus excellently equipped, they set out from Lima, and marched to Guadachili[1], about twenty leagues from Lima on their way to the valley of Jauja.  At this place a plot was formed by the soldiers for killing Vela Nunnez and deserting to the army of Gonzalo, which was revealed by the following incident.  Certain scouts who preceded the detachment about four leagues beyond Guadachili in the district of Pariacaca, met the friar Thomas de San Martino, provincial of the Dominicans, who had been sent by the viceroy to Cuzco to try if it were possible to come to some agreement with Gonzalo; on this occasion one of the soldiers secretly informed the provincial of the particulars of the conspiracy, begging him to take immediate means of prevention, as it was to be executed on the following night.  The provincial accordingly hastened his journey to Guadachili, taking all the scouts he could meet with along with him, as he told them their present expedition was entirely useless, as Puelles and his troops had passed through Jauja two days before, and it was now impossible to intercept them.  On his arrival in Guadachili, the provincial immediately informed Vela Nunnez of the danger to which he was exposed, who accordingly consulted with some of his friends and relations on the means of escape.  In the evening, they ordered out their horses, as if for the purpose of sending them to water, and mounting them immediately, they saved themselves by flight under the cloud of night, being guided on their way by the provincial.

[Footnote 1:  The place mentioned in the text is probably what is now named Guarochiri, which is in the direction of the march, and nearly at the distance indicated.—­E.]

When the flight of Vela Nunnez and his friends was known, Juan de la Torre, Pedro Hita, Jorge Griego, and the other soldiers who had formed the conspiracy, went immediately to the main guard, where they compelled all the other soldiers, under threats of instant death, to promise going off along with them to join Gonzalo.  Almost the whole of the detachment promised compliance, and even the captain Gonzalo Diaz was of the number; but he was apparently more harshly treated by the conspirators than the others.  They tied his hands as if fearing he might use measures against them; yet he was not only believed to have been a participator in the plot, but was even supposed to be its secret leader.  Most of the inhabitants of Lima expected Diaz to act in the way he did, as he was son-in-law to Puelles against whom he was sent, and it was not to be supposed he would give his aid to arrest his father-in-law.  The whole party therefore, immediately set out in search of Gonzalo, mounted on the mules which had cost so high a price, and joined him near the city