The following day, the Camp Master being on shore, he proposed to the soldiers to clear a place which was close to a large stream, and to found a settlement. The soldiers were not pleased with the place, which appeared to be unhealthy, and for this reason some of the married men went on board to inform the Adelantado of the determination of the Camp Master, and to ask leave to go on shore and settle in one of the native villages, where the houses were ready built and the place already used. Others represented that there was no better place than the one selected, and that if the natives had not settled there, it was a token of their bad disposition. If not, they could do what seemed best.

The Adelantado agreed to this, and went on shore. As the unmarried men were of the same opinion as the Camp Master, they at once got out axes, wood knives, and spades, and began to cut down trees with smooth trunks, lofty and tufted, but with very diverse leaves. The Adelantado was not at all pleased at the decision, for it was his intention to form the settlement on a bare point near the entrance of the bay, where he went with the Camp Master and the soldiers. All came with the opinion that the land was like Andalusia, that the natives had many farms, and for a settlement that the place was as good as it was agreeable.

The soldiers cut down the trees with good will, brought poles with which they built huts, and branches of palms to roof them. Their former work and troubles, and the gift they had left behind, were forgotten, as well as the small store they then had. They did not remember their country, nor that they had left the province of Peru, so rich and extensive, where there is no man who is poor in hopes. They would overcome all the difficulties of which they were told, and which were before their eyes, for their God and their King. The spirit and valour of Spaniards could do all, for neither labour nor ill fortune could daunt them, nor could dangers, however terrible and fearful they might be. So they built their houses and set up their tents, each one doing the best he could, as a beginning of what they would have to perform in parts where they would live and end with honour and fame. The Devil was able to work so well with some of them, that they kept in mind the delights of Lima; and this sufficed to rob the rest of their lofty thoughts, and thus to abate that constancy which it is necessary to preserve and maintain in such affairs.

The Adelantado did not disembark, but gave his orders for the good government of his people from the ship. But the soldiers, to whom a limit to what they are permitted to do seldom or ever seems good, began to complain of an order which the Adelantado had given. It had reference to the good treatment of the natives, their houses and property. Those were not wanting who said that they did not want to have a division but a moderate profit, that it was sufficient that they had been brought to that coast, and that all belonged to them. In other ways they noted and reminded themselves of what they had spent and left behind, and of what they had suffered, and of their hopes. Hence complaints arose, and too surely they began to lose their love and loyalty point by point.