The Governor sets out with the cacique for Xauxa, and they receive
news of the army of Quito, and of certain ships which some Spaniards
who went to the city of San Miguel saw on those coasts.
When these things were done, the Governor set out for Xauxa, taking the
cacique with him, and the citizens remained guarding the city
[according] to orders which the Governor left them so that they might
govern themselves until he should command something else. Journeying by
forced marches, on the day of Easter, he found himself on the Bilcas
river, where he learned from letters and notices from Xauxa, that the
warriors of Quito, after they were routed and driven from their last
positions by the captain from Cuzco, had withdrawn and fortified
themselves forty leagues from Xauxa on the Caxamalcha road in a bad
pass in the immediate vicinity of the road, and had built their walls to
prevent the [possibility of] the horses [crossing] the pass. [These
walls had] some very narrow gates in them, and a street by which to
mount a high boulder where the captain and the warriors lived and which
had no other entrance than this one by way of this fort that they had
built with these very narrow doors; [and the Governor learned] that they
were planning to await aid here, because it was known that the son of
Atabalipa was coming with many warriors. This news the Governor
communicated to the cacique who at once sent off couriers to the city of
Cuzco in order to cause warriors to come who should not exceed two
thousand in number, but who were to be the best there were in all that
province, because the Governor told him that it would be better were
they few and good than if they were many and unserviceable, because the
many would destroy the food in the land through which they were to pass
without necessity or profit. At the same time the Governor wrote to the
lieutenant and corregidor of Cuzco that he should aid the captains of
the cacique and see to it that the warriors came soon. On the second day
after Easter, the Governor set out from this place, and, by forced
marches, arrived in Xauxa, where he learned the whole of what had passed
there in his absence, and especially what those of Quito had done, and,
in particular, they told him that after the enemy was put to flight from
the environs of Xauxa, they had retired twenty or thirty leagues from
there into the mountains, and that, according to the captain who went
out against them with the brother of the cacique and four thousand men,
they arrived within sight of them [the Indians], and that, after a rest
of a few days, they went to attack them and routed them and drove them
from that place with much trouble and great danger. When they [the
Spanish force] had returned to Xauxa, the Marshal Don Diego de Almagro
who, when the captain and Spaniards came from Cuzco, had come with them
by order of the Governor to inspect the Indians round about in order to
see and know the state of things in that city and among its citizens,
went out to visit the caciques and lords of the region of Chincha[85]
and Pachacama, and the others who had their lands and lived on the
sea-coast.
In this state the Governor found affairs when arrived at Xauxa, and,
having rested from the long journey without arranging anything in the
first few days, he waited for the Indians[86] [for whom he had sent] in
order to go and drive the enemy from the fort which they had made and
finish with them, when there came to him one of two Spanish messengers
who had gone to the city of San Miguel to see how things were going
there, and who spoke to him in this way: "My lord, when I had set out
from here by order of the Marshal, I set myself to journey with all
speed along the plains and the shore of the sea, not without trouble,
because many of the caciques who are along that road were in revolt.
But some who were friendly provided us with whatever we needed, and they
informed us that some ships had been seen along the sea-coast, which I
myself saw one day, and, considering that I was sent to the city of San
Miguel to find out whether the ships of the Adelantado Alvarado or of
other people had arrived, I went [rapidly] along the coast for nine days
and nights, sometimes in sight of them, believing that they would take
port and that I would thus learn who they were. But even with all this
speed and trouble I could not do what I wished, on which account I made
up my mind to continue my journey to the city of San Miguel, and, having
crossed to the other side of the large river, I was informed by the
Indians of the country that Christians were coming along that road, and
I, thinking that without doubt it would prove to be the troops of the
Adelantado Alvarado, my companion and I went on our guard in order not
to encounter them _impromptu_.[87] And when they arrived at Motupe, I
learned that they were near that place [where I was], and I waited for
the night. At dawn I sent my companion to speak with them, and to see
what people they were, and I gave him certain tokens by which he could
inform me, and finally, I learned that they were soldiers who were
coming to the conquest of these kingdoms. Because of this, I went to
them and spoke at length, telling them the errand I was on, and they, in
return, informed me that they had come to the city of San Miguel in
certain ships from Panama and were two hundred and fifty in number. When
they had arrived at San Miguel, the captain who was in that city with
two hundred men, seventy of them cavalry, had gone away to the provinces
of Quito in order to conquer them, and they, some thirty persons with
their horses, knowing the conquests which were being made in Cuzco, and
the lack of men there was there, did not wish to go with the captain to
those provinces of Quito and so were coming to Xauxa. And we gave them
news of all that had happened here and of the war which we had had with
the Indians of Quito. And in order to bring more quickly the news of
what had happened there I returned from that place without going to the
city of San Miguel, knowing for certain that the captain would have
departed with his men and would already be near Cossibamba.[88] Turning
back on my road, I met, on Easter, the Marshal D. Diego de Almagro near
Cena[89] which is where the road to Caxamalca branches off, and to him I
related how things were going and how some suspected that the captain
who was going to Quito was not going with good intentions. As soon as
the Marshal heard this, he set off in order to catch up with the captain
who was taking these soldiers on the march to Quito, in order to detain
him until together they could arrange the necessary provisions for this
war. This, then, sir, is what has happened to me on this journey, during
which I tried to get information about those ships, but could not learn
anything else about them. Of Alvarado nothing more is known than that he
has already embarked on these shores or has passed further on, as
letters inform me."