s lieutenant-general towards Cuzco in
pursuit of the royalists who had fled in that direction, and ordered his
sergeant-major to go to La Plaz, Chucuito, Potosi, and La Plata, to
collect men arms and horses for the farther prosecution of the war. At
length Giron marched into the province of Andahuaylas, which he laid
waste without mercy, whence he went towards Cuzco on receiving
intelligence that the army of the judges had passed the rivers Abancay
and Apurimac on their way to attack him. He immediately marched by the
valley of Yucay to within a league of Cuzco, not being sufficiently
strong to resist the royalists; but turned off from that city at the
persuasion of certain astrologers and prognosticators, who declared that
his entrance there would prove his ruin, as had already happened to many
other captains, both Spaniards and Indians.

The army of the judges marched on from Guamanga to Cuzco unopposed by
the rebels, their chief difficulty being in the passages of the great
rivers, and the transport of eleven pieces of artillery, which were
carried on the shoulders of Indians, of whom ten thousand were required
for that service only. Each piece of ordinance was fastened on a beam of
wood forty feet long, under which twenty cross bars were fixed, each
about three feet long, and to every bar were two Indians, one on each
side, who carried this load on their shoulders, on pads or cushions, and
were relieved by a fresh set every two hundred paces. After halting five
days in the neighbourhood of Cuzco, to refresh the army from the
fatigues of the march, and to procure provisions and other necessaries,
the royal army set out in pursuit of the rebels to Pucara[48], where the
rebels had intrenched themselves in a very strong situation, environed
on every side with such steep and rugged mountains as could not be
passed without extreme difficulty, more like a wall than natural rocks.
The only entrance was exceedingly narrow and intricate, so that it could
easily be defended by a handful of men against an army; but the interior
of this post was wide and convenient, and sufficient for accommodating
the rebel army with all the cattle provisions and attendants with the
utmost ease. The rebels had abundance of provisions and ammunition,
having the whole country at their command since the victory of
Chuquinca; besides which their negro soldiers brought in provisions
daily from the surrounding country. The royal army encamped at no gr