CHAPTER LXXIV

    How Vaca de Castro, notwithstanding that he had entered into these negotiations, sent Alonso ?amarilla as a spy to the camp of Don Diego, with letters to many who were there, and how he was captured by Juan Diente when scouts were sent out from Vilcas, and on confessing what he went for, was put to death.

HAVING issued the despatches to the messengers who were to carry them, the Governor Vaca de Castro resorted to a precaution, by which he sought, privily and without the messengers who were engaged in the negotiations knowing it, to send a spy. This spy was a certain Alonso García ?amarilla, a great walker whom we mentioned in an earlier book, when he was sent by Hernando Pizarro, during the siege of Cuzco, to Yucay with Manco Inca. They then wanted to kill him, but he escaped from thence by his swiftness of foot, because his place of sepulture was destined to be at Vilcas. In all the land there was not a man ready and fitted to act the spy, unless it were this one, and Juan Diente who captured him, as we shall relate. Having removed his beard and casting off his Spanish clothes, he put on the garb of an Indian, rubbed his lips and back teeth with that precious herb which grows on the skirts of the Andes, and leaving the sword of which he was unworthy, he took a staff in his hand, and in a pouch or small wallet he put the letters which Vaca de Castro gave him for the camp of Don Diego. Having acquainted himself with the features of that camp and the method that was observed in it he was to return with all diligence and make his report. In such wise was Alonso García despatched, that anyone who saw him set forth from the camp would, of a certainty, have believed he was some Indian. Lope de Idiáquez and the factor Mercado also took their leave of the Governor.

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At this time the Chile faction, after they had despatched those who were to treat for peace, were very watchful in their camp. They sent scouts out in all directions, that their enemies might not take them unprepared; and one day it fell to the lot of Juan Diente, an excellent soldier and great walker, to go out scouting. He struck away to the right of the position of Vilcas, near some snowy mountains, and went up to the crest of a ridge to see if by chance any Spaniard might be coming in the direction of Guamanga. Alonso García was then coming along, and had a mind to pass that way; he was seen, however, by Juan Diente who thought he was an Indian, as the man's dress led him to assume. Nevertheless Diente went briskly down towards the place where he had seen him. Alonso García, who travelled by no means unwarily, raised his eyes to the high crests and snowy tracts above and noticed the Spaniard coming down. Seeing that he was one of the enemy he turned back into another path which led to some great rocks and deep caves. Diente, who excelled him in agility, got down with no little difficulty; and following the other's trail, his great experience told him that the man in front was not an Indian. He went forward and presently he overtook him already hiding in one of the caves. Though Alonso García was a tremendous walker and a unique spy, he came at last to be captured by Juan Diente, who was a better, though no other man in the country was his equal. Having secured him, Diente took him, as a prisoner, to the camp at Vilcas; where, in obedience to military exigency, and notwithstanding that he had been a soldier of the old Adelantado's, they tortured him until he confessed that he came as a spy, and with letters from Vaca de Castro, and other things. In payment for his activities, and the mischief those activities would have brought upon the men of Chile if Juan Diente had not outwitted and captured him, Don Diego[261] ordered that ?amarilla should be hanged. When they were about to fix the rope round his neck he said these words: "By the pass in which I am, I tell you that there are a thousand and one hundred fighting men against you, very well equipped, and thoroughly bent on your destruction. This I say because, although you are taking my life, it irks me that you should be undone." Then the rope was tightened, and he yielded up his soul.

The words that Juan Diente[120] spoke to those indomitable captains and soldiers with such earnestness caused no fear in the minds of those who were no more than five hundred and fifty, while their enemies numbered one thousand one hundred. With great uproar, grasping their beards in their hands, they declared that they would not be a party to any terms for peace, but rather would they give battle undaunted by any power that might come against them. I know not what cause may have inspired the few to feel so little fear against the many, for they had all been born in that country which is comparable to a bullock's hide.[121] And in truth, it was ordained that many or all of them for their sins were never again to see the land of their birth. Cruel fortune was about to make an end of the warriors from Maule, and overthrow the Chilean faction at a single blow. Fired with enthusiasm they one and all vehemently sought for battle, though I cannot tell whether they sought it through the stimulus of valour or overmastering anger. Some there are whom fear of expected disaster drives to risk every danger; and these waited very anxiously to see what result the negotiation, that Lope de Idiáquez had gone to conduct, might have. One Francisco Gallego went over to the enemy whilst out scouting, and before that, Juan García, Pero López de Ayala, Diego López Becerra, and others who had been friends of García de[262] Alvarado had done the same. But although these had escaped, and it was clearly known that some others had the same desire, this was not enough to daunt the Almagrists, or put fear into their adamantine hearts, for they already held the latter cause fixed in their breasts.