When the tidings reached Spain that the viceroy had been killed on the battlefield and that Gonzalo Pizarro reigned supreme in the colony, it caused the greatest consternation. A policy of conciliation was at once adopted, the law abolishing _encomiendas_ was revoked, and a priest, Pedro Gasca, was appointed, not as viceroy, but as president of the Audiencia, with full power to represent the interests of the Crown in this difficult situation. Though an ecclesiastic, he was a brave soldier, added to which, he possessed a wonderful knowledge of human nature. By his tact he won many of Pizarro’s followers as soon as he landed at Tumbes, where he appeared clothed in the simple garb of a priest, with a breviary in his hand and the king’s pardon for all who would help him to establish peace in the country. His ranks were rapidly filled with deserters from Pizarro’s army as he marched across the mountains to meet the enemy, whom he encountered at Sacsahuaman, near Cuzco, and defeated. Pizarro was taken prisoner and executed. Gasca and his army then marched on to Lima, where the victor was received with even greater welcome and rejoicing than had greeted the victorious Pizarro. But it was not until some years later that the civil wars of the Conquerors finally came to an end. When Gasca returned to Spain, the second viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza, who had previously held the same high office in Mexico, was appointed to take charge of affairs in Peru. He died the following year and the government passed into the hands of the Real Audiencia, until, in 1555, the third viceroy was named, Don Andres Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis de Cañete, under whose judicious and energetic rule the country was pacified and the authority of the Crown of Spain securely established. During the administration of this able statesman the son of the Inca Manco, whose following was great in the sierra and around Cuzco, made a formal abdication in favor of the King of Spain, receiving in return an annuity of twenty thousand ducats and other grants. It is related that when the Inca went to Lima to take the oath of allegiance he was carried from Cuzco to the capital in a litter, borne on the shoulders of his faithful subjects, and that he received the homage of his people wherever he stopped along the route; but the poverty of his own state and the empty-handed greeting of his unhappy compatriots made his progress a _via dolorosa_ of poignant significance. He survived the ordeal only three years, which he passed in melancholy seclusion. The successor of the Marquis de Cañete, the Count de Nieva, occupied the viceregal office for only a short time; he was assassinated by order of a jealous husband. His post was taken by an ecclesiastic, Lope Garcia de Castro, who, as President of the Real Audiencia, continued the work of organizing the various political institutions of the colony. Peru was divided into provinces governed by _corregidores_;