he vicinity of Bilcas where the
captain who was going ahead had made halt in order to travel by night
and so enter Bilcas without being found out, as he did enter it, and
here was received another letter from him in which he said that he had
left Bilcas two days before, and had come to a river four leagues ahead
which he had forded because the bridge had been burned, and here he had
understood that the captain Narabaliba was fleeing with some twenty
Indians and that he had met two thousand Indians whom the captain of
Cuzco had sent to him as aid who, as soon as they knew of the rout at
Bilcas, turned around and fled with him, endeavouring to join with the
scattered remnants of those who were fleeing, in order to await them
[the Spaniards] in a village called Andabailla,[44] and [the Spanish
captain said] that he was resolved not to stay his course until he
should encounter them. These announcements being understood by the
Governor, he first thought of sending aid to the captain, but later he
did not do so because he considered that if there were to be a battle at
all it would have occurred already and the aid would not arrive in
time, and he determined furthermore not to linger a single day until he
should catch up with him, and in this way he set out for Bilcas which he
entered very early the following day, and on that day he did not wish to
go further. This city of Bilcas[45] is placed on a high mountain and is
a large town and the head of a province. It has a beautiful and fine
fortress; there are many well built houses of stone, and it is half-way
by road from Xauxa to Cuzco. And on the next day the Governor encamped
on the other side of the river, four leagues from Bilcas, and although
the day's march was short, it was nevertheless toilsome because it was
entirely a descent almost all composed of stone steps, and the troops
waded the river with much fatigue because it was very full, and he set
up his camp on the other bank among some groves. Scarcely had the
Governor arrived here, when he received a letter from the captain who
was reconnoitring in which the latter informed him that the enemy had
gone on five leagues and were in waiting on the slope of a mountain in
a land called Curamba,[46] and that there were many warriors there, and
that they had made many preparations and had arranged great quantities
of stones so that the Spaniards would not be able to go up. The
Governor, when he understood this, although the c