They arrive at the city of Xauxa; they leave some soldiers there to
guard that place, and others go against the army of the enemy with
which they fight. They win a victory, and return to Xauxa.
The natives all came out along the road in order to look at the
Christians, celebrating much their coming because they thought that,
through it, they would issue forth from the slavery in which that
foreign army [the Incas] held them. [The Spaniards] wished to await a
later hour in the day at this place, but, seeing that no warriors
appeared, they began their journey so as to enter the city. On going
down that little slope, they saw running toward them at great speed an
Indian with a lance erect, and when he came up to them it was found that
he was a servant of the Christians who said that his master had sent
him to inform them that they must hold themselves in readiness because
their enemies were in the city, and that two Christians from the cavalry
had been sent ahead of the rest, and that they had entered the city to
see the buildings there, and while they were inspecting it, they saw
some twenty Indians who came out of certain houses with their lances and
other arms, calling to others to come forth and join with them. The two
Christians, seeing them thus assemble, without heeding their cries and
clamour, attacked them, killed several, and put the others to flight;
the latter soon joined with others who came to their aid, and they
formed a mass of some two hundred which the Spaniards again attacked, in
a narrow street, and broke, forcing them to retreat to the bank of a
great river which passes by that city, and then one of these Spaniards
sent the Indian as I have said, with raised lance as a sign that there
were armed enemies in the city. This having been heard, the Spaniards
set spur to their horses, and, without delay, arrived at the city and
entered it; and when they joined their companions, the latter told them
what had occurred with those Indians. The captains, running in the
direction in which the enemy had retreated, arrived at length at the
bank of the river, which was then very full, and on the other shore, at
a distance of a quarter of a league, they descried the squadrons of
their enemies. Then, having passed the river with no little toil and
danger, they gave chase to them. The Governor remained guarding the city
because it was said that there were enemies hidden within it, as well.
The Indians perceiving that the Christians had crossed the river, they
began to retreat, drawn up in two squadrons. One of the Spanish
captains, with his fifteen light horsemen, spurred ahead toward the
slope of the hill for which they [the Indians] were making so that they
could not retreat thither and fortify themselves. The other two captains
kept right up with them, overtaking them in a field of maize near the
river. There they put them in disorder and routed them, capturing as
many as possible, so that of six hundred [Indians] not more than twenty
or thirty, who took to the mountains before the other captain with his
fifteen men could arrive, saved themselves. Most of the Indians made for
the water, thinking to save themselves in it, but the light horsemen
crossed the river almost by swimming after them, and they did not leave
one alive save some few who had hidden themselves in their flight after
their army was broken in pieces. Then the Spaniards ran through the
country as far as a league below without finding a single Indian. Then,
having returned, they rested themselves and their horses, which were in
great need of it; both because of the long journey of the day before and
on account of their having run those two leagues, they were rather
crippled. When the truth was learned as to what troops those were [with
whom the Spaniards had fought], it was found that the four captains and
the main body were encamped six leagues down the river from Xauxa, and
that, on that very day, they had sent those six hundred men to complete
the burning of the city of Xauxa, having already burned the other half
of it seven or eight days before, and that they had then burned a great
edifice which was in the plaza, as well as many other things before the
eyes of the people of that city, together with many clothes and much
maize, so that the Spaniards should not avail themselves of them. The
citizens were left so hostile to those other Indians that if one of the
latter hid, they showed him to the Christians so that they would kill
him, and they themselves aided in killing them, and they would even have
done so with their own hands if the Christians had permitted it. The
Spanish captains, having studied the place where these enemies were
found as well as the road, along a part of which they journeyed, they
determined not to shut themselves up in Xauxa, but to pass onward and
attack the main body of the army which was four leagues off before it
should receive news of their coming. With this intention, they
commanded the soldiers to make ready, but their proposal did not come to
pass because they found the horses so weary that they held it to be
better council to retire, which they did. Arrived in Xauxa, they
recounted to the Governor all that had happened, with which he was well
pleased, and he received them cheerfully, thanking them all for having
borne themselves so valorously. And he told them that by all means he
intended to attack the camp of the enemy because, although they were
advised of the victory, it was certain that they would be waiting. At
once he ordered his master of the camp to lodge the men and let them
rest during what remained of the day and through the night until
moon-rise, and that then they should make ready to go and attack their
enemies. At that hour fifty light horsemen were in readiness, and at the
sound of the trumpet they presented themselves, armed and with their
horses, at the lodging of the Governor who despatched them very soon
upon their road. Fifteen horsemen remained with him in the city
together with the twenty peones who made the guard all of each night
with the horses saddled, until the captain of that sally returned, which
was in five days. He related to the governor all that had happened from
the time of his departure, telling how, on the night he left Xauxa, he
journeyed some four leagues before dawn, with much eagerness to attack
the enemy's camp before they were warned of his coming; and being now
near [the enemy] at dawn, they saw a great mass of smoke in the place of
their encampment, which seemed to be two leagues further on. And so he
spurred on with his men at a great pace, thinking that the enemy, warned
of his approach, had fled and that the buildings that there were in a
village were burning. And so it was, because they had fled, after having
set fire to that wretched hamlet. Arrived at that place, the Spaniards
followed the footsteps of the warriors through a very broad valley. And
as they overtook them they collided with the enemy who were going more
slowly with many women and children in their rear-guard, and the
Spaniards, leaving these behind them in order to catch up with the men,
ran more than four leagues, and caught up with some of their squadrons.
As some of them [the Indians] saw the Castilians from some distance,
they had time to take shelter on a mountain and save themselves; others,
who were few, were killed, leaving in the power of the Spaniards (who,
because their horses were tired, did not wish to go up the mountain)
many spoils and women and children. And as it was already night, they
returned to sleep in a village which they had left behind. And the
following day these Spaniards determined to follow them as they fled
back to Cuzco so as to take from them certain bridges of net-work and to
prevent their crossing. But, because of lack of pasturage for their
horses, they found themselves obliged to fall back, to the
dissatisfaction of the Governor because they had not at least followed
and taken those bridges so as to prevent the Indians from returning to
Cuzco; it was feared that, being strange people, they would do great
harm to the citizens of those places.