dians that the Spaniards had discovered them, they were in great fear,
and got up from that site and went towards the city, and in the night
they came and took up a position a quarter of a league from the city
beside a small river which entered the large one. When this was known by
the Spaniards, they spent that night with the greatest caution, and on
the following day, after hearing mass, the treasurer took twenty light
horse and twenty peons with two thousand friendly Indians, leaving as
many more Spanish cavalry and some foot soldiers in the city with the
understanding that they were to give a signal whenever the enemy should
attack them so that the other [Spaniards] might come to aid them. Having
gone out from the city with the lieutenant, the Spaniards saw that the
Indians of Quito had crossed the little river with their squadrons in
which there might be some six thousand of them, and, seeing the
Spaniards, they turned and crossed to the other bank. Then, the
treasurer and the Spaniards perceiving that if they did not attack the
Indians that day, the following night the latter would come to sack and
set fire to the city, so that there would be greater trouble if night
was awaited, he [the treasurer] determined to cross the river and fight
with the enemy. A sharp skirmish was held [on the other side], as much
with cross-bows and arrows as with stones, and the treasurer, who was
going in advance of the rest down the stream, received a stone on the
crown of his head which threw him from his horse into the midst of the
river, and, stunned, he was borne along quite a distance, so that he
would have been drowned had not some Spanish cross-bowmen who were
there helped him and pulled him from the water with much trouble. [The
Indians] also gave his horse [a blow] in the leg which broke it, and he
died soon. From this the Spaniards drew great animosity, and they
hastened to cross the river. Seeing their determination the Indians
withdrew, fleeing to a mountain where some hundred of them died. The
horsemen followed them through the mountains more than a league and a
half, and [finally], because they withdrew to the strongest position of
the mountain, where the horses could not go up, [the Spaniards] went
back to the city. And, soon perceiving that the Indians did not venture
forth from that fortress [the Spaniards] determined to return once more
against them, and twenty Spaniards with more than three thousand Indian
friends at