1561. Carta de Pablo Collado para Gutiérrez de la Peña.

Letter from Pablo Collado to Gutiérrez de la Peña.

The author informs Gutiérrez de la Peña of his departure to Tocuyo and of his bad state of health.

On the occasion of Lope de Aguirre´s defeat in Tocuyo (also known as the tyrant Lope de Aguirre), the captain Gutiérrez de la Peña claimed for himself all the flags as a reward. However, Diego García de Paredes, as "maestre de campo" (chief of staff), asked for the flags to be equally shared. Gutiérrez de la Peña assured that García de Paredes could not benefit from it because he was not present at the battlefield against Lope de Aguirre. Gutiérrez also used the same argument when a third aspirant appeared: it was Pablo Collado, the governor of Venezuela at the time. The governor was not in the battle neither because he was ill and Gutiérrez presented two letter in which Pablo Collado informed of his illness. The prosecutor of the Council determined that none of the parts should keep the flags, since they belonged to the Crown. The argument was based on the grounds that the action against Lope de Aguirre was not a war action, but the Crown´s response against a rebel and, therefore it should be the Crown deciding what to do with the flags and the booty.