In this volume Cieza de León gives the best and most authentic account of the murder of the Marquis. Pizarro's heedlessness, in spite of numerous warnings, is indeed surprising. He went for walks outside Lima quite alone, especially when he wished to inspect the progress of a mill he was building. On these occasions he might easily have been assassinated, and perhaps his immunity led him to disbelieve in the danger. It was in June 1847, when I was at a ball in the President's Palace at Lima, that I first began to enquire into the exact locality of Pizarro's house. I was dancing with a lady named Elespuru who said it was not there, but on the opposite side of the _plaza_. Two aides de camp told the same story, that it was on the site of the present Callejón de Petateros. I still adhered to my own conviction--that the palace of the Viceroys, now that of the Presidents, is on the site of the residence of the Marquis. The question is at last set at rest by the publication of the _Libro primero de cabildos de Lima_, and of the geographical official reports. My conviction proved to be right, and I was dancing with the Señorita on or near the very spot where Pizarro fell. I have made a plan of part of Lima in those days, showing the residence of the Marquis, and those of citizens who had received _solares_ or building lots near his house; and another of the house itself, according to the descriptions recorded by Cieza de León and others. It is clear that Juan de Herrada and his gang of assassins were the scum of the old Almagro's army. All but one of his former captains held aloof, disapproving of the murder, and declining to serve under such a ruffian as Juan de Herrada. The younger Diego de Almagro was thus under every possible disadvantage. The captain Sotelo alone stood by him, and Sotelo was murdered by one of the same gang of assassins before he could be of any great use to the ill-fated youth. Several of his father's old captains, to whom Pizarro's murder was hateful, were serving against the son at the battle of Chupas. This lad was the first _mestizo_ who rose to a very prominent position, and I have, therefore, written a note on his career, at the end of the chapter (LXXXIV) containing an account of his execution. I believe that he was innocent of the murder. He thought that the object was to seize the Marquis, not to kill him. He said so in his letter to the _Audiencia_ of Panamá.