CHAPTER LII _What happened to the General Vela Nuñez and the danger he was in; and how Gonzalo Diaz and others passed over to Pizarro._ The reader will remember that the Viceroy sent Vela Nuñez and the captain Gonzalo Diaz de Pineda to the bridge of Xauxa, to intercept and capture or kill Pedro de Puelles and Jeronimo de Villegas, with the others who set out from Huanuco to join Gonzalo Pizarro. Vela Nuñez travelled with the object of reaching the bridge of Xauxa in time, for by holding that position they could not escape. But that was not Pineda’s wish. He wanted the party of Puelles to pass on before he arrived, and then to join Pizarro himself. His was a vile and treasonable act. The Viceroy’s trust in him, his nomination as captain, and the noble character of Vela Nuñez who was his companion, should have made him refrain. But he was not himself destined to succeed in his plot, and soon we shall relate his miserable end, and how he paid for his treachery with his life. On their journey they came to a church in Huarochiri where, after prayers, Gonzalo Diaz intended to murder Vela Nuñez. The conspirator was in concert with Juan de la Torre, Cristoval de Torres, Piedrahita, Alonso de Avila, Jorge Griego. The murder was not consummated because Alonso de Barrionuevo, a native of Soria, a determined man who loyally served the King, would not part from Vela Nuñez. The same loyalty was shown by Sebastian de Coca, Hernan Vela and the others who intended to return to Lima, and not to join Pizarro. Gonzalo Diaz and the other disaffected officers continually discussed among themselves how they should kill Vela Nuñez, but as they could not find an opportunity in Huarochiri, it was not done. They proceeded on their journey until they reached the snows of Pariacaca where they continued their schemes, seeking to murder the innocent and to desert to the tyrant.