A son of the cacique Guainacaba[68] visits them; they agree upon
friendship with him, and he tells them of the movements of the army
of hostile Indians with which they have some encounters before
entering Cuzco, where they establish as lord the son of
Guainacaba.[69]
Here the Spaniards rested that night, having set good guards, because
they were given to understand that Quizquiz was close by with all his
men. And on the following morning, came to visit the Governor a son of
Guainacaba and a brother of the dead cacique Atabalipa,[70] and the
greatest and most important lord who was then in that land; and he had
ever been a fugitive so that those of Quito might not kill him. This man
said to the Governor that he would aid him to the extent of his power in
order to drive from that land all those of Quito, who were his enemies
and who hated him and did not wish to be the subjects of a foreign
people. This man was the man to whom, by law, came all that province and
whom all the caciques of it wished for their lord. When he came to see
the Governor, he came through the mountains, avoiding the roads for fear
of those of Quito, and the Governor received him with great gladness and
replied to him: "Much does what you say please me, as does also finding
you with so good a desire to expel these men of Quito, and you must know
that I have come from Xauxa for no other purpose than to prevent them
from doing you harm and free you from slavery to them, and you can
believe that I have not come for my own benefit because I was in Xauxa,
sure of having war with them and I had an excuse for not making this
long and difficult journey. But knowing the injuries they were doing to
you, I wanted to come to rectify and undo them, as the Emperor my lord
commanded me to do. And so, you may be sure that I will do in your favor
all that seems suitable for me to do. And I will do the same to
liberate from this tyranny the people of Cuzco." The Governor made him
all these promises in order to please him so that he might continue to
give news of how affairs were going, and that cacique remained
marvellously satisfied, as did also those who had come with him. And he
[Manco] replied: "Henceforth I shall give you exact information
concerning all that they of Quito do in order that they may not
inconvenience you." And in this manner he took leave of the Governor,
saying: "I am going to fish because I know that tomorrow the Christians
do not eat flesh, and I shall encounter this messenger who tells me that
Quizquiz is going with his men to burn Cuzco and that he is now near at
hand, and I have wished to warn you of it in order that you may fix upon
a remedy." The Governor at once placed all the soldiers upon the alert,
and, although it was already noon, when he knew the needs of the
situation, he did not wish to delay even to eat, but journeyed with all
the Spaniards straight toward Cuzco, which was four leagues from that
place, with the intention of establishing his camp near the city so as
to enter it early the next day. And when he had travelled two leagues,
he saw rise up in the distance a great smoke, and when he asked some
Indians the cause of it, they told him that a squadron of the men of
Quizquiz had come down a mountain and set fire [word missing]. Two
captains went ahead with some forty horsemen to see if they could catch
up with this squadron, which speedily joined with the men of Quizquiz
and the other captains who were on a slope a league in front of Cuzco
waiting for the Christians in a pass close to the road. Seen by the
captains and Spaniards, they [the Indians] could not avoid an encounter
with them, although the Governor had them made to understand that they
[the Spaniards] would wait for the rest to join them, which they would
have done, were it not for the fact that the Indians incited each other
with much spirit to encounter them. And before they [the Spaniards]
could be attacked, they fell upon them on the skirt of a hill, and in a
short time they routed them, forcing them to flee to the mountain and
killing two hundred of them. Another squad of cavalry crossed over
another slope of the mountain where were two or three thousand Indians
who, not having the pluck to wait for them, threw down their lances in
order to be able to run the better, and fled headlong. And after those
first two squads broke and fled, they [the Spaniards] made them flee to
the heights; and [at the same time] two Spanish light horsemen saw
certain Indians return down the slope, and they set themselves to
skirmish with them. They perceived that they were in great danger, but
they were helped, and the horse of one of them was killed, from which
the Indians derived so much encouragement that they wounded four or five
horses and a Christian, and they made them retreat as far as the plain.
The Indians who, until then, had not seen the Christians retire, thought
that they were doing it in order to attract them to the plain and there
attack them as they had done at Bilcas, and they said so among
themselves and were cautious, not wishing to go down and follow them. By
this time the Governor had arrived with the [rest of] the Spaniards and,
as it was already late, they set up their camp on a plain, and the
Indians maintained themselves an arquebuse-shot away on a slope until
mid-night, yelling, and the Spaniards spent all that night with their
horses saddled and bridled. And the next day, at the first ray of dawn,
the Governor arranged the troops, horse and foot, and he took the road
to Cuzco, with good understanding and caution, believing that the enemy
would come to attack him on the road, but none of them appeared. In this
way the Governor and his troops entered that great city of Cuzco without
any other resistance or battle on Friday, at the hour of high mass, on
the fifteenth day of the month of November of the year of the birth of
our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ MDXXXIII. The Governor caused all
the Christians to lodge in the dwellings around the plaza of the city,
and he ordered that all should come forth with their horses to the plaza
and sleep in their tents, until it could be seen whether the enemy were
coming to attack them. This order was continued and observed for a
month. On another day, the Governor created as lord that son of
Guainacaba, for he was young, prudent and alive and the most important
of all those who were there at that time, and was the one to whom that
lordship came by law. And he did it so soon in order that the lords and
caciques should not go away to their own lands which were divers
provinces, and some very far away, and so that the natives should not
join those of Quito, but should have a separate lord of their own whom
they might reverence and obey and not organize themselves into bands. So
he commanded all the caciques to obey him [Manco] as their lord and to
do all that he should order them to do.[71]