Diego Fernández, on the title-page of his _Primera y segunda parte de la historia del Perú_, identifies himself as “vecino de la ciudad de Palencia.” He took part in the campaign against Francisco Girón in 1554, and the subject of his narrative was Peru in the most stormy period of its early history, the period of the introduction of the New Laws, the rebellion of Gonzalo Pizarro, the mission of President Gasca, and the labours of the Viceroy Hurtado de Mendoza (1555-1561) to bring order out of the social chaos. This volume was published in Seville in 1571, but its sale was prohibited for a time because it contained certain ideas and statements which it was desired should not be circulated in America. On questions relating to the civil wars and the conflicts growing out of the introduction of the New Laws, the population of Peru was still divided in 1571, and any discussion of these events by a person who had had an active part in them would inevitably have provoked antagonism and kept alive the hostility of the two parties.[21] VI To the later part of the period of the Pizarros belongs the account given by Agustín de Zárate, who was sent to Peru to take charge of the accounts of the “kingdoms and provinces of Peru,” at the time that Blasco Núñez Vela was commissioned to become the first viceroy of the Spanish possessions in South America. Zárate had part in the conflicts occasioned by the arrival of Núñez Vela and the rebellion of Gonzalo Pizarro. He was one of the two commissioners sent by the oidores to order Pizarro to disband his army, which he held at Jauja, and enter Lima with only a small escort. Pizarro, however, sent out Captain Villegas, who met Zárate on the way, arrested him, took away his commission, confiscated his provisions, and imprisoned him at Huarochiri. Released after some days, he was persuaded to return to Lima, and it was suggested that in consideration of his release he should urge the audiencia to leave the government to Gonzalo Pizarro. Whatever may have been the influence of Zárate in this matter, Pizarro not long afterwards approached the capital and assumed the reins of government. [Sidenote: Zárate’s _Historia del Perú_] Having played his part in this turbulent period, a part regarding which writers venture a variety of opinions, Zárate returned to Spain, and, using notes made in America, wrote the _Historia del descubrimiento y conquista de la provincia del Perú_. His final plan for this work was to treat of the discovery and occupation of the country, and to narrate the principal events in the history of the colony until the pacification that followed the intervention of Pedro de la Gasca. The author is said to have intended that his work should remain in manuscript until after his death, but that under the persuasion, perhaps the orders, of Prince Philip, to whom he had presented it, he caused it to be printed in Antwerp in 1555.[22] [Sidenote: Pizarro pays Alvarado] [Sidenote: Almagro goes to Cuzco]