While proceeding on their journey they have news sent by the forty
Spanish horsemen of the state of the Indian army with which the
latter had fought victoriously.
On the next day, which was Saturday, All Saints' day, the friar who was
with this company said mass in the morning, according to the custom of
saying it on such a day, and later all set out and journeyed until they
arrived at a full river three leagues beyond, always descending from the
mountains by a rough and long slope. This river, likewise, had a
net-work bridge which, being broken, made it necessary to ford the
stream, and afterwards a very large mountain was ascended which, looked
at from below, seemed impossible of ascent by the very birds of the air,
and still more so by men on horseback toiling over the ground. But the
climb was made less arduous for them by the fact that the road went up
in spirals, and not straight. The greater part, however, was made of
large steps of stone which greatly fatigued the horses and wore down and
injured their hoofs, even though they were led by the bridle. In this
manner a long league was surmounted, and another was traversed by a more
easy road along a declivity, and in the afternoon the Governor with the
Spaniards arrived at a small village of which a part was burned, and in
the other part, which had remained whole, the Spaniards settled. And in
the evening two Indian couriers, sent by the captain who was ahead,
arrived. They brought news, in letters to the Governor, that the captain
had arrived with all speed at the land of Parcos[36] which he had left
behind him, having had news that the [Indian] captains were thereabout
with all the hostile forces; [but] he did not encounter them, and it was
held to be certain that they had withdrawn to Bilcas,[37] and through so
much of the road as he traversed until coming to [a place] within five
leagues of Bilcas, where he spent the night, he marched secretly in
order not to be forestalled by certain spies who were placed a league
from Bilcas. And having news that the enemy were in a town without
having warning of his coming, the captain was delighted, and, having
gone down the rather difficult slope where that place was, at dawn he
entered [the town where some warriors were lodged with few
precautions].[38] The Spanish cavalry began to attack them in the plazas
until so many had been killed or had fled that no one remained; because
there were a few Indian soldiers who had retired to a mountain on one
side of the road who, as soon as the day became bright and they saw the
Spaniards, assembled in squadrons, and came against them crying out
_Ingres_,[39] which name they hold to be very insulting, being that of a
contemned people who live in the hot lands of the sea-coast, and because
that province was cold and the Spaniards wore clothes over their flesh,
[the Indians] called them Ingres and threatened them with slavery as
they were few, not more than forty, and defying them by saying that they
would come down to where they were. The captain, although he knew that
that was a bad place for fighting on horseback, of which position the
Spaniards could little avail themselves there, nevertheless, in order
that the enemy should not think that he would not fight from lack of
spirit, took with him thirty horsemen, leaving the rest to guard the
town, and went down through a cleft[40] in the mountain by a very
painful slope. The enemy boldly awaited them and in the shock of battle
they killed one horse and wounded two others, but finally, all being
dispersed, some fled in one direction and others in another over the
mountain [by] a very rough road where the horses could neither follow
them nor injure them. At this juncture, an [Indian] captain who had fled
from the village, and who knew that they had killed one horse and
wounded two, said "Come, let us turn back and fight with these men
until not one is left alive, for there are but a few of them!" and at
once all returned with more spirit and greater impetuosity than before,
and in this way a sharper battle than the first was fought. At the end,
the Indians fled and the horsemen followed them in all directions as
long as they could. In these two encounters more than six hundred men
were left dead, and it is believed also that Maila, one of their
captains, died, and the Indians affirmed it also, and they, on their
part, when they killed a horse, cut off his head and put it on a lance
which they bore before them like a standard. [The Spanish captain]
likewise informed [his men] that he intended to rest there for three
days out of consideration for the wounded Christians and horses, and
that later they would set out to take, first of all, a bridge of
net-work which was near there, so that the fugitive enemies should not
cross it and go to join with Quizquiz[41] in Cuzco and with the garrison
of troops he had there, which was said to be waiting for the Spaniards
in a bad pass near Cuzco. But, although they found it to be more than
bad, they hoped in God who, in whatever place that battle might be
fought, even in a land all rough and stony, would not permit the Indians
to be able to defend themselves any where, no matter how difficult and
toilsome it might be, nor to attack the Spaniards in any bad pass. And,
having set out from here and having crossed the bridge three leagues
from Cuzco [the captain declared] that he would there await the Governor
as he had informed him by swift messenger Indians of what had occurred.