Many of these Viceroys were notably honourable men, who refrained from taking a greater share than was necessary in the financial arrangements of the New World. At the same time, the opportunities for self-enrichment during the five years' tenure of office were quite unusually numerous. Not a few of the occupants of this post took advantage of these, and the extravagant manner of their subsequent life in Spain upheld to the full the popular tales which were current concerning the fabulous wealth of the Americas. To go back to the early days of Peru, the inception of this colony, as has been said, was attended by even more violent disturbances than those common to its neighbours. We have already seen how, each the victim of strenuous jealousies, Almagro was executed at the instance of Pizarro, and how Pizarro himself a few years later was assassinated by the adherents of the dead Almagro's party, who now succeeded in raising to power his son, the younger Almagro. This, however, by no means ended the era of catastrophe and chaos into which the great but youthful colony of Peru was now plunged. Very shortly after the death of Pizarro, Cristobal Vaca de Castro arrived in Peru on a mission from the Court of Spain to investigate the causes of the disturbances and warlike rumours which had reached the Mother Country. De Castro found himself in opposition to the younger Almagro, and a battle was fought. Almagro's forces were defeated, and he himself, although he escaped for a while to Cuzco, was captured and executed. In 1543 Blasco Nunez Vela, the first Viceroy appointed by Spain, arrived in Peru, where he found de Castro in charge of the Government. Nunez Vela's methods proved themselves arbitrary in the extreme. Scarcely had he landed when he sent an abrupt command to de Castro to resign his post, and to place himself forthwith in attendance on the new Viceroy. This action roused the anger of the Pizarro faction. Its adherents revolted and established themselves at Cuzco. It was precisely at this moment that a totally new factor in the way of officialdom presented itself in Peru. With the advent of the Royal Audience, a court of judges, newly founded and sent out from Spain, the situation grew still more wildly complicated. The Royal Audience, its dignity and unanimity shattered by the turmoil in the midst of which it found itself, divided its forces equally on either side. A battle was fought between the Viceroy and the forces of Gonzales Pizarro, in the course of which the latter obtained a decided victory, and Blasco Nunez de Vela was slain. Having witnessed an almost continuous process of downfall of the various authorities, it is only natural that the sense of loyalty to Spain should have become somewhat obscured in the minds of the Peruvians. As a result, many of the colonists now urged independence of government, and begged Gonzales Pizarro to accept the throne of Peru.