Some months passed away whilst Gasca and the governor of _Panamá_ still awaited the decisive reply from _Peru_. Indeed Pizarro’s situation was such as to make him hesitate. He was still comparatively a young man, being forty-two years of age, and he found himself in the most dazzling position which any Spaniard not born in the purple could hold, and to which, moreover, he fancied he had a right as being the successor of his brother. Were he to resign this he would not only lay down that position, but he would put himself in the absolute power of another, before whom he would doubtless be charged with crimes that might be held to cancel the offers of pardon for past offences conveyed to him by the Emperor and the President. He had learned with no small apprehension the coming of the latter; but he was so simple as to be misled by the unostentatious manner in which the President had made his appearance. He ignored alike his personal qualities and the moral force which he represented. Having before him two plain roads, either of which might have led him into safety, if not into the ultimate realization of his ambition--that is to say, being free to choose either to make his submission to the President, or to appeal to arms against the crown,--he took the half-way course of keeping the President at a distance whilst he should meanwhile send an embassy to Spain to vindicate his past proceedings and solicit a confirmation of his authority, a course which could not but lead to his ruin. Gasca was meanwhile put off by a letter, signed by seventy of the principal citizens of _Lima_, expressing their regret that he had arrived too late, and their opinion that, should he now continue his journey, his presence would only be the signal for the renewal of disturbance. But the result of Pizarro’s embassy to Spain was widely different from that which he had anticipated. No sooner had his ambassador, Aldana, been admitted into the presence of the President at _Panamá_ than the embassy was at an end. The envoy now for the first time learned the full powers of the President, and likewise the full nature of the concessions made by the crown to the colonists. The ambassador, though sincerely devoted to Pizarro, instantly showed the example of submitting to the crown, whilst he wrote to his chief at _Lima_ earnestly counselling him to do likewise. This example was followed by Hinojosa, the governor of _Panamá_, by whose submission Pizarro’s fleet was placed at the disposal of Gasca. On November 19th, 1546, Hinojosa and his officers, having delivered up their commissions, received them back from Gasca on taking the oath of allegiance.