Spaniards became impatient, and believed, or pretended to believe, that
the Inca was planning some treachery, and wilfully delaying till he
could arrange a general rising of the Peruvians against the white men.
This charge the Inca indignantly denied, and to prove his good faith
offered to give a safe-conduct to a party of Spaniards, that they might
visit Cuzco for themselves and see that the work of collecting the
treasure was really going on. Pizarro gladly accepted this offer, and
three cavaliers started for the capital. Meanwhile, Hernando Pizarro
with a small troop had set out to make sure that the country round was
really quiet, and, finding that it was, he continued his march to the
town of Pachacamac, to secure the treasures of its famous temple before
they could be hidden by its priests. The city was a hundred leagues from
Caxamalca, and the way lay across the tableland of the Cordilleras; but
after weeks of severe labour the Spaniards reached it, and, breaking
into the temple, in spite of the remonstrances of the priests, they
dragged forth and destroyed the hideous idol it contained, and secured
the greater part of the treasure of gold and jewels, though the priests,
having had warning of his approach, had managed to conceal a good deal,
some of which the Spaniards afterwards discovered buried in the
surrounding land. The people, seeing that their god was unable to defend
himself against the wonderful strangers, now came and tendered their
homage, and Hernando Pizarro, hearing that one of the Inca's two great
generals, a chief named Challcuchima, was lying with a considerable
force in the town of Xanxa, resolved to march there and attack him in
his own quarters. The road across the mountains was even rougher and
more difficult than the one by which he had come, and, to add to his
troubles, the shoes of the horses were all worn out, and they suffered
severely on the rough and stony ground. Iron there was none, but silver
and gold abounded, so Pizarro ordered the Indian smiths to make
horseshoes of silver, with which the horses of the troop were shod. On
reaching Xanxa the Spaniards found it a large and populous place, and
the Indian general with five-and-thirty thousand men was encamped at a
distance of a few miles; but, nothing daunted, Hernando Pizarro sent
messages to him, and when he at last consented to an interview, informed
him that the Inca demanded his presence in Caxamalca. Having been
utterly bewilder