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An Account of the Conquest of Peru. Pedro Sancho
Читать онлайн.Название An Account of the Conquest of Peru
Год выпуска 0
isbn 4057664566645
Автор произведения Pedro Sancho
Жанр Документальная литература
Издательство Bookwire
CHAPTER III
While leading a new colony of Spaniards to settle in Xauxa, they receive news of the death of Guaritico,[13] brother of Atahualpa. Afterwards they passed through the land of Guamachucho,[14] Adalmach,[15] Guaiglia,[16] Puerto Nevado, and Capo Tombo,[17] and they hear that in Tarma many Indian warriors are waiting to attack them, on account of which they take Calichuchima prisoner, and then proceed intrepidly on their journey to Cachamarca,[18] where they find much gold.
At this time he [the Governor] had just finished distributing the gold and silver which were in that house among the Spaniards of his company, and Atabalipa gave the gold belonging to the royal fifths to the treasurer of H. M. who took charge of it in order to carry it to the city of Xauxa where he [the Governor] intended to found a colony of Spaniards on account of the reports he had of the good surrounding provinces and of the many cities which there were about it. To this end, he had the Spaniards arranged in order and provided with arms and other things for the journey, and when the time for departure came, he gave them Indians to carry their gold and burdens. Before setting out, having heard how few soldiers there were in San Miguel[19] for the purpose of holding it, he took, from among those Spaniards whom he was to take with him, ten cavalrymen and a captain, a person of great cautiousness, whom he ordered to go to that city where he was to maintain himself until ships should arrive with troops who might guard it, after which he was to go to Xauxa where he himself was about to found a village of Spaniards and melt the gold which he bore, promising that he would give them all the gold that was due them with as much punctuality as if they were actually present, because his [the captain's] return [to San Miguel] was very necessary, that being the first city to be settled and colonized for the Caesarian Majesty as well as the chief one because in it they would have to wait there to receive the ships which should come from Spain, to that land.[20]
In this manner they set out with the instructions which the Governor gave them as to what they were to do in the pacification of the people of that region. The Governor set out one Monday morning, and on that day travelled three leagues, sleeping by the shore of a river where the news reached him that a brother of Atabalipa called Guaritico had been killed by some captains of Atabalipa at his command. This Guaritico was a very important person and a friend of the Spaniards, and he had been sent by the Governor from Caxamalca to repair the bridges and bad spots in the road. The cacique pretended to feel great heaviness because of his death, and the Governor himself regretted it because he liked him, and because he was very useful to the Christians. The next day the Governor set out from that place, and, by his marches, arrived in the land of Guamachucho, eighteen leagues from Caxamalca. Having rested there two days, he set out for Caxamalca[21] nine leagues ahead, and arrived there in three days, and rested four in order that his troops might have repose and opportunity to collect supplies for the march to Guaiglia, twenty leagues from there. Having left this village, he came in three days to the Puerto de Nevado, and a morning's march brought him within a day's journey of Guaiglia; and the governor commanded a captain of his, who was the Marshal D. Diego de Almagro, to go with troops and take a bridge two leagues from Guaiglia, which bridge was built in a manner that will soon be related. This captain captured the bridge, which is near a strong mountain that dominated that land. The Governor did not delay in arriving at the bridge with the rest of his men, and having crossed it, he went on, in another morning, which was Sunday, to Guaiglia. Arrived there, they soon heard mass and afterwards entered certain good rooms; having rested there eight days, he set forth with the soldiers, and the next day crossed another bridge of osiers,[22] which was above the said river which here passes through a very delectable valley. They journeyed thirty leagues to the point where captain Hernando Pizarro came when he went to Pachacamac,[23] as will be seen in the long account which was sent to H. M. of all that was done on that journey to Pachacamac, from there to the city of Xauxa and back to Caxamalca, on the occasion on which he took with him the captain Chilichuchima and other matters which do not concern us here. The Governor changed his route, and, by forced marches, arrived at the land of Caxatambo.[24] From there he went on without doing more than to ask for some Indians who should carry the gold of H. M. and of the soldiers, and always using great vigilance in learning of the affairs which took place in the land, and always having both a vanguard and a rear-guard as had been done up to that time for fear that the captain Chilichuchima whom he had with him, would hatch some treasonable plot, all the more so on account of the suspicion he felt owing to the fact that neither in Caxatambo nor in the eighteen leagues after it had he met with any warriors, nor were his fears lessened during a halt in a village five leagues beyond because all the people had fled without leaving a living soul. When he had arrived there, a Spaniard's Indian servant, who was from that land of Pambo[25] distant from here some ten leagues, and twenty from Xauxa, came to him saying that he had heard that troops had been assembled in Xauxa to kill the Christians who were coming, and that they had as