CHAPTER LXX

    How Don Diego de Almagro, after the death of García de Alvarado, determined to prepare for departure from Cuzco; how he sent one Juan de Aguirre with ten other mounted men to reconnoitre, and how they were taken and killed.

AFTER the captain García de Alvarado had been killed in Cuzco, as we have written in earlier chapters, some who had been his friends expressed discontent on account of his death; and it pleased God that there should be so much disagreement amongst them that the civil war they were engaged in should come to an end; and that the youth Don Diego, constrained by necessity, would either put himself separately into the hands of Vaca de Castro, or retire, with the few who would follow him, into the regions lying beyond [the] Maule. Pondering over the discontent which was showing itself among some of his party, Don Diego secretly called for Martín Carrillo and Baltasar de Castilla, and the other leaders, and said to them that inasmuch as he, and not García de Alvarado, was the person who must provide rewards and distribute the various tracts of the Realm amongst them, he asked them all to be faithful friends and such loyal companions, that they would all count on his constancy. They well knew, he said, the important reason there was for killing García de Alvarado, and the little cause that captain had, after Sotelo's death, to mix in conspiracies against himself and his friends. These and[239] other things said Don Diego to those who came, and they were content to follow him, and all of one mind to pursue the course they had entered on. Though the Indians reported that Vaca de Castro had arrived at Lima, there was no certainty of his actual position, so it was agreed to send a Biscayan named Aguirre, with ten other mounted scouts, in the direction of Guamanga, to see if he could capture anyone from whom to gain information of what was afoot thereabouts, as it was very important for them to be posted in what was happening in the lower provinces.

Presently Aguirre and his ten followers started to carry out the order of Don Diego. By this time all the provinces had information that Vaca de Castro was at Jauja with a force larger than that of Don Diego. It therefore seemed to the inhabitants wholesome advice to be on the winning side, and not to help Don Diego. The party who left Cuzco with the object I have stated proceeded on their way. In a valley called Uripa the Indians killed Aguirre, who had gone on ahead from another village where his companions had tarried. The Indians then attacked the others and so harassed them that they could not get back to Cuzco. They withdrew towards Guamanga, where Diego de Rojas was, but the Indians warned him and they were all captured and judicially executed. Don Diego heard of this disaster through the Indians, and grieved at the fate of his scouts, though without letting others know it. He reflected very seriously and felt that his followers must hasten their preparations, and look well to their lances, for the whole power of Peru was uniting against him. He had suspicions of Martín Carrillo and of a citizen of Cuzco, so he had them arrested, and wrote letters to Arequipa, to one Idiáquez, in whom he trusted as a friend, asking for his advice as to what he had better do with these prisoners, whether to leave them at Cuzco or take them with him. Idiáquez answered that his advice was neither[240] to take them nor to leave them. Although Don Diego understood the letter perfectly, he did not care to resort to such cruelty, and, after a short detention, he released them. He left Juan Rodríguez Barragán as his lieutenant at Cuzco. The artillery was in good order, the cannons clean, with the necessary powder. Carts were brought up for its transport, and Pedro de Candía was the captain in charge of it.

As it seemed to them now that it was time to leave Cuzco, Don Diego ordered the captains to lead out their companies, the General in command being Juan Balsa, a a man of little resource. Having quitted the city they proceeded to pitch their camp in the valley of Xaquixaguana. Don Diego followed shortly; but Juan Balsa remained in the city to see that any soldiers loitering there were hustled away. After he was outside Cuzco, Don Diego was apprised that there were some in the camp who wanted to make off and go over to the enemy. These were Pedro Picón. Alonso Díaz, and Juan Monta?és, all brave and capable soldiers.[116] For it seemed to them a bad business that they were engaged in; they wanted to desert their captain and pass over to him who came in the name of the king and with power, forsooth, to pardon them. But although they intended to leave the camp very secretly, Don Diego got wind of it, and they were promptly arrested, sentenced to death, and executed by strangulation with a cord, as a warning to others.

The Inca Manco, hating the Pizarros as he did, on hearing what was afoot, and that Vaca de Castro was in Jauja, with some of his men at Guamanga, and that Don Diego had quitted Cuzco, sent his messengers to Don Diego to tell him that he had retired to Víticos, owing to his evil[241] treatment by Pizarro and the quantity of gold he demanded of him. For these reasons he made war on the Christians until Don Diego's father returned from Chile. Owing to the friendship he felt for his father, if Don Diego would go to Guamanga he would there meet him in peace. He further informed Don Diego that Vaca de Castro was in Jauja with a powerful army, and that he had some men at Guamanga. When Don Diego heard this, he gave orders for Juan Balsa to come away from Cuzco with the remnant of the soldiers who were there, with all possible speed; and at the same time he sent word to his lieutenant, Juan Rodriguez Barragán to hold the city with every precaution and care. Juan Balsa came accordingly with the rear-guard and such portion of the baggage as had been left there. In Xaquixaguana the order of the march was given out, which was that all were to travel on horseback, none on foot. No soldiers were to leave the camp to forage for provisions, for they travelled with an ample number of menials specially provided for that duty. A captain was to accompany the baggage day by day in turns. The people who were thus gathered together, if they had not lost Herrada or Sotelo, might certainly have accomplished some great deed, though it would have been very difficult.