leaders, were to come by the plains with a greater force of warriors.
This was speedily learned from an Indian to whom torture was given. The
captain who was to cross the river and attack the city from the mountain
travelled rapidly and arrived a day before the rest of the warriors. And
one morning at dawn news came to the city of how many enemies had
crossed the bridge, from which was born a great disaffection among the
natives of Xauxa who [formerly] served the Christians loyally, from
which it was supposed that the whole land had risen in arms, as has been
said. First of all, the treasurer arranged that all the gold of H. M.
and of the men which was in the city should be placed in a large house,
and he set a guard of the feeblest and sickest Spaniards, ordering that
the rest should be prepared to fight; and he ordered ten light horsemen
to go out to see how large a number of the enemy had crossed the river
in order to take the mountain, and he himself, with the rest of the
soldiers, waited on the plaza in case the greater number of the enemy
should come by way of the plain. The Spanish scouts attacked the Indians
who had crossed the bridge; they retired, and the Spaniards had to cross
the bridge after them some peon cross-bowmen whom the treasurer had sent
them, so that the Indians turned and fled with great loss. The great
blow of the others, who came by the plain, did not take place at the
time agreed upon with the others for assaulting the city, and in waiting
for it, they lost time. That night and the [following] day the city was
vigilant, and the soldiers were always armed and their horses saddled,
all being together in the plaza, thinking that on the following night
the Indians would come to attack the city and burn it, as it was said
that they intended to do. When [the first] two quarters of the night
were passed, seeing that the enemy did not appear, the treasurer took
with him a light-armed horseman and went to see in what place the enemy
had camped and how many of them had approached the city, [for the
Indians who gave news of all this did not know where they were, and
likewise because the enemy took roads of which no one could give
information], with the result that at daybreak the treasurer found
himself four leagues from the city, and, having seen the place where the
Indians were and the nature of the site, he returned to the city at
which he arrived a little after noon. When it was seen by the hostile
In