But the period immediately following the Conquest gave little promise of peace and prosperity for the colony of Peru. Revolution and anarchy prevailed even after the ignoble strife between the Pizarros and the Almagros was ended by the tragic death of the Conqueror and the execution of the younger Almagro. The firm authority of Governor Vaca de Castro sufficed to maintain order and tranquillity as long as he remained in the country, but with the arrival of his successor, the first viceroy, a storm of revolt broke over the colony with such tumultuous force that it threatened to overthrow permanently the authority of the Spanish king in his richest and most valued possession. Blasco Nuñez de Vela, the first viceroy of Peru, who was appointed to succeed Vaca de Castro in 1544, is described as a brave, honorable, and devout man, but arrogant and imperious, utterly incapable of understanding and dealing with the turbulent spirit of the adventurers, in whom ambition, avarice, and jealousy were the ruling passions, fostered by the peculiar circumstances which had governed Peru ever since the capture of Atahuallpa. It was especially unfortunate that a man of the temperament and prejudices of the new viceroy should have been chosen to effect a change in existing conditions, requiring the most judicious and delicate management. The harsh treatment to which the Indians were subjected under the Conquerors was brought to the attention of the King of Spain by a Dominican friar, Las Casas,—whose benevolent labors gained for him the title of “Protector of the Indians,”—in a remarkable document, containing such an appalling record of the wickedness practised against these helpless wards of the Crown that the king, deeply impressed, called a council to devise means of ameliorating their condition. As a result, the Viceroy Blasco Nuñez de Vela was the bearer of strict orders from Spain to abolish the system of _encomiendas_, by which the Indians had been made ostensibly the protégés but really the slaves of the Conquerors, not only their lands but their persons being appropriated as the legitimate spoils of victory. It is true that, under the Incas, the people had possessed no freedom, but they had been given no tasks too heavy for their strength and they had been kindly treated and well provided with food and clothing; under their new masters they were both abused and neglected. The granaries which formerly were well filled after every harvest were allowed to become empty, because tillage was abandoned for the more profitable labor in the mines; and the llamas, whose wool furnished the Indian with clothing, were slaughtered so recklessly that, within four years, more of these animals perished than in four centuries under the Incas.