n a very short space of time. [It was] so good and well built
that another like it is not to be found in that land, for it is three
hundred and seventy-odd feet long, and broad enough to allow two horses
to cross at once without any risk. Then, having crossed that bridge and
having arrived at Bilcas, the Spaniards found quarters in the city, from
which they sent to the Governor a report on how affairs were
progressing. Here the camp stopped for some days, resting, in order
that they might have news of the place in which the enemy were, of which
they learned no more than that they had set out for Xauxa, and that they
were thinking of attacking the Spaniards who had remained there as
garrison. When he learned this, the captain at once set out with the
Spaniards to aid [the garrison], taking with him a brother of the
cacique and four thousand warriors. The cacique returned to Cuzco, and
the captain sent the governor a letter which his lieutenant wrote from
Xauxa in great haste, and which was of the following tenor: "When your
excellency drove the enemy from Cuzco, they rallied and came to Xauxa,
and before they arrived, it was learned by our men that they were coming
in great force, because, from all the places of the region, they were
drawing as many men as they could, as much for warriors as to carry the
supplies and baggage; when this was learned by the treasurer Alfonso [in
Xauxa], he sent four light horsemen to a bridge which is twelve leagues
from the city of Xauxa where the enemy were on the other side, in a very
important province. When they had returned, the treasurer used his best
efforts, as much in guarding the city and in treating well the caciques
who were there with him as in informing himself stealthily of all the
doings of the enemy. And the greatest suspicions which he had were of
the Indians who were in the town and in the region and who were very
numerous, because almost all were in agreement with the enemy to come
and attack the Spaniards on four sides. With this agreement, the Indians
of Quito crossed [the bridge before mentioned] with the intention that a
captain with five hundred of their men should come from the direction of
a [certain] mountain and cross a river which is a quarter of a league
from the city and place himself on the highest part of the mountain
[near Xauxa] in order to assault the city on the day agreed upon between
them. The captain Quizquiz and Incurabaliba,[79] who were their chief