y of the army defending the mountain pass.

I must now more particularly describe the scene as I beheld it from my
lofty post. I could tolerably well tell what was going on inside, from
the sounds which reached my ears. There was a gate in the east wall
about the centre of the house, to force which the Indians in the first
place directed their efforts, undaunted by the fire of the Spaniards,
they brought up a sort of battering-ram, composed of the roughly-shaped
trunk of a newly-felled tree, slung by ropes to men's shoulders. They
were led by a chief in the full war costume of the time of the Incas.
Notwithstanding the showers of bullets flying round him, he remained
unharmed, encouraging his followers by word and action to the assault.
If one fell, his place was instantly supplied by another, till the
battering-ram reached the gate. Several thundering blows were heard
above the rattle of musketry, the shouts of the assailants, and the
cries of the wounded, as the engine was set to work. The gate yielded
to the blows, for it was old and decayed; and the Indians rushed in.
Several fell pierced by the pikes of the Spaniards who guarded it, but
many others pressed on, and the soldiers were driven back. The
court-yard was soon filled, and at length the Peruvians met the
hereditary enemies of their race, face to face, in a struggle for life
and death. The Spaniards who had been left to guard the walls of the
garden rallied, and attempted in a compact body to enter the house by
one of the side doors; but the Indians threw themselves in their way,
and attacked them with a courage I scarcely expected to see exercised.
They rushed in upon them, some seizing the muzzles of their muskets,
while others cut at them with their axes, or pierced them with their
spears. The Spaniards endeavoured to preserve their discipline; but
they were at length broken and separated into parties of twos and
threes, surrounded by Indians, who filled the entire court-yard, so that
the combatants were now engaged in hand-to-hand fights, when it was
evident that numbers would gain the day. I had a strange longing, as I
witnessed the dreadful scene, to rush down and join the fight. My
sympathies were, I own, with the Indians; but still I felt if I had
thrown myself among them, I might have sided with the weaker party. I
did not, however, attempt to move. The very action would have called me
to my senses, and reminded me of the folly of interfer