o that his Holy Faith might be extolled, permitted the discovery and
chastisement of the evil plans which this proud tyrant had in mind as a
return for the many good works and kind treatment which he had always
received from the governor and from each one of the Spaniards of his
company; which recompense, according to his intention, was to have been
of the sort he was wont to give to the caciques and lords of the land,
ordering [his men] to kill without let or cause whatever. For it chanced
that our discharged soldiers [were] returning to Spain, he, seeing that
they were taking with them the gold that had been got from his land,
and mindful of the fact that but a short while ago he had been so great
a lord that he held all those provinces with their riches without
dispute or question, and without considering the just causes for which
they had despoiled him of them, had given orders that certain troops
who, by his command, had been assembled in the land of Quito, should
come, on a certain night at an hour agreed upon, to attack the Spaniards
who were at Caxamalca, assaulting them from five directions as they were
in their quarters, and setting fire wherever possible. Thirty or more
Spanish soldiers were marching outside of Caxamalca, having been to the
city of San Miguel in order to place the gold for H. M. on board ship,
and [the Inca] believed that as they were so few he would be able easily
to kill them before they could join forces with those in Caxamalca[7]
... of which there was much information from many caciques and from
their chiefs themselves, that all, without fear of torments or menaces,
voluntarily confessed this plot: [telling] how fifty thousand men of
Quito and many Caribes[8] came to the land, and that all the confines
contained armed men in great numbers; that, not finding supplies for
them all thus united, he had divided them into three or four divisions,
and that, though scattered in this fashion, there were still so many
that not finding enough to sustain themselves, they had cut down the
still green maize and dried it so that they might not lack for food. All
this having been learned, and being now a public matter to all, and as
it was clear that they were saying in his [the Inca's] army that they
were coming to kill all the Christians, and the governor seeing in how
much peril the government and all the Spaniards were, in order to
furnish a remedy, although it grieved him much, nevertheless, after
se