In this exasperated state of feeling, several of the soldiers wrote back to their friends, informing them of their deplorable condition, and complaining of the cold-blooded manner in which they were to be sacrificed to the obstinate cupidity of their leaders. But the latter were wary enough to anticipate this movement, and Almagro defeated it by seizing all the letters in the vessels, and thus cutting off at once the means of communication with their friends at home. Yet this act of unscrupulous violence, like most other similar acts, fell short of its purpose; for a soldier named Sarabia had the ingenuity to evade it by introducing a letter into a ball of cotton, which was to be taken to Panama as a specimen of the products of the country, and presented to the governor's lady. *28 [Footnote 28: "Metieron en un ovillo de algodon una carta firmada de muchos en que sumariamente daban cuenta de las hambres, muertes y desnudez que padecian, y que era cosa de risa todo, pues las riquezas se habian convertido en flechas, y no havia otra cosa." Montesinos, Annales, Ms., ano 1527.] The letter, which was signed by several of the disaffected soldiery besides the writer, painted in gloomy colors the miseries of their condition, accused the two commanders of being the authors of this, and called on the authorities of Panama to interfere by sending a vessel to take them from the desolate spot, while some of them might still be found surviving the horrors of their confinement. The epistle concluded with a stanza, in which the two leaders were stigmatized as partners in a slaughter-house; one being employed to drive in the cattle for the other to butcher. The verses, which had a currency in their day among the colonists to which they were certainly not entitled by their poetical merits, may be thus rendered into corresponding doggerel: "Look out, Senor Governor, For the drover while he's near; Since he goes home to get the sheep For the butcher, who stays here." *29 [Footnote 29: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 181. - Naharro, Relacion Sumaria, Ms. - Balboa, Hist. du Perou, chap. 15. "Al fin de la peticion que hacian en la carta al Governador puso Juan de Sarabia, natural de Trujillo, esta cuarteta: - Pues Senor Gobernador, Mirelo bien por entero que alla va el recogedor, y aca queda el carnicero" Montesinos, Annales Ms., ane 1527.] Chapter IV Indignation Of The Governor. - Stern Resolution Of Pizarro. - Prosecution Of The Voyage. - Brilliant Aspect Of Tumbez. - Discoveries Along The Coast. - Return To Panama. - Pizarro Embarks For Spain. 1527-1528.