eno, to his tent; and
Centeno gave strict charges to his troops to be on their guard and
always in good order to receive the enemy in case of an attack. For
above a month Centeno had been afflicted by an obstinate fever, for
which he had been six times blooded without any relief, and was not
expected to recover; so that he was quite incapable of acting on the
present emergency, being confined constantly to bed.

[Footnote 32: No consequences seem to have followed from this demand,
which does not appear to have been acceded or even listened to.--E.]

The illness of Centeno was known in the army of Gonzalo, and that his
tent was pitched at some distance from the rest, to avoid the noise and
bustle of the camp. Founding on this intelligence, Juan d'Acosta was
detached with twenty picked men, with orders to approach silently in the
night to the camp of the royalists, and to endeavour to carry off
Centeno. Acosta accordingly drew near with so much caution that he
surprised the centinels that were on guard over Centeno, and had very
near reached his tent when the alarm was given by some negro servants.
Being thus discovered, Acosta ordered his men to fire off their
musquets, and immediately retreated back to the camp of Gonzalo without
losing a man. In the confusion occasioned by this exploit, great numbers
of the royalists hastened towards the tent occupied by Centeno; but on
this occasion several of the soldiers belonging to Valdivia threw away
their arms and fled. Next morning the scouts of both armies approached
each other, followed by the respective armies, which at length came in
sight. The army of Centeno consisted of about a thousand men, two
hundred of whom were cavalry, an hundred and fifty armed with musquets,
and all the rest with pikes. Of this army, Luis de Ribera was
major-general, Pedro de Rios, Jerom Villegas, and Pedro de Ulloa,
captains of cavalry, and Diego Alvarez carried the grand-standard. The
captains of infantry were Juan de Vargas, Francisco Retamoso, Negral,
Pantoia, and Diego Lopez de Zuniga; Luis Garcias being sergeant-major,
or adjutant-general[33]. The army of Gonzalo consisted only of five
hundred men, of which three hundred were musqueteers, and eighty
cavalry, the remainder being armed with pikes. Of this army Carvajal was
lieutenant-general; the licentiate Cepeda and Juan Velez de Guevara were
captains of horse; and Juan d'Acosta, Ferdinand Bachicao, and Juan de la
Torre captains of foot.