The mind of Pedrarias being thus a prey to fear and suspicion, he wrote an amicable letter to his _Adelantado_, requesting him to repair to _Acla_, to consult with him respecting the expedition; he at the same time ordered Pizarro to muster all the troops he could collect and to arrest Vasco Nuñez. The summons to proceed to _Acla_ was instantly obeyed; and, unattended by any armed force, Nuñez, unconscious of having committed any crime, set out to meet his doom. On the road across the Isthmus, his frank and genial manners so gained on the messengers of Pedrarias, that the latter at length felt bound to warn him of his danger. They could not see this gallant cavalier fall into the snare set for him without speaking a warning word by which he might profit to effect his escape. But Nuñez was so unconscious of evil thought towards Pedrarias, that he declined to take advantage of the opportunity offered to him. He was soon afterwards met and arrested by Pizarro.
Nuñez once in his power, the spiteful governor lost no time in urging the _alcalde mayor_, Espinosa, to proceed against the _Adelantado_ with the utmost rigour of the law. The charge against Nuñez was that of being engaged in a treasonable conspiracy to throw off the king’s authority and to assume an independent sway on the borders of the Pacific. The witnesses against him were Garabito and the sentinel who had overheard and misconstrued a portion of the conversation held between Nuñez and his officers at _Isla Rica_ on the rainy night when it was resolved to despatch Garabito to _Acla_. Of the charge of treason against the crown Nuñez was entirely innocent. All that could be said against him was that, in case they should learn that Pedrarias had been superseded, he had agreed with his officers that they should sail on the expedition which Pedrarias had sanctioned without waiting for fresh orders from the new governor.
But it was in vain for Nuñez to be innocent; it was in vain that he indignantly repudiated the charge brought against him, pointing out that had he for a moment entertained the views attributed to him he would never have allowed himself to be entrapped into his present position. The mind of Pedrarias was hopelessly prejudiced against him, and the vindictive old man urged on the unwilling judge from day to day, heaping charge upon charge, until at length a sentence of death was pronounced against the accused. The judge recommended him to mercy on account of his services, or begged that at least he might be allowed to appeal. But these recommendations were lost on Pedrarias, and Nuñez was condemned to die. In the same sentence were included several of his officers as well as Arguello, who had written a letter to put him upon his guard. The informer Garabito was pardoned. In the public square of _Acla_, at the hands of the common headsman, the discoverer of the Southern Sea, at the early age of forty-two, expiated the crime of having aroused the jealousy of a narrow-minded official superior. The blow which then fell affected not Nuñez alone, but the whole Peruvian nation; for had he been permitted to carry out his proposed expedition, he would certainly have anticipated the discoveries of Pizarro, and, in view of the character of the two men respectively, who can doubt that the conquest of Peru would have had a widely different result?