paniards,
and they themselves wished to govern it.

The Governor, before setting out from that place, sent a captain with
troops to take a snowy pass three leagues ahead and then to pass the
night in some fields near Pombo,[27] all of which the captain did, and
he passed the pass with much snow, but without encountering any
obstacle. And the Governor crossed it likewise, without any opposition
save for the inconvenience caused by the snow falling upon them. They
all spent the night in that waste without a single hut, and they lacked
for wood and victuals. Having arrived in the land of Pombo, the Governor
provided and commanded that the soldiers should be lodged with the best
order and caution possible, because he had news that the enemy were
increasing every moment, and it was held to be certain that he would
come here to assail the Spaniards, and because of this, the Governor
caused the patrols and sentinels to be increased, always spying upon the
progress of the enemy. After he had waited there another day for certain
envoys whom the cacique Atabalipa had sent to learn what was going on in
Xauxa, one came who told how the warriors were five leagues from Xauxa
on the road from Cuzco and were coming to burn the town so that the
Christians should not find shelter, and that they intended afterward to
return to Cuzco to combine under a captain named Quizquiz who was there
with many troops who had come from Quito by command of Atabalipa for
the security of the land. When this was learned by the Governor, he
caused to be made ready seventy-five light horse, and with twenty peones
who guarded Chilichuchima, and without the impediment of baggage, he set
out for Xauxa, leaving behind the treasurer with the other troops who
were guarding the camp baggage and the gold of H. M., and of the
company. The day on which he set out from Pombo, he travelled some seven
leagues, and he halted in a village called Cacamarca,[28] and here they
found seventy thousand pesos of gold in large pieces, to guard which the
Governor left two Christians from the cavalry in order that when the
rear-guard should arrive, it might be conducted well guarded. Then, in
the morning, he set forth with his men in good array, for he had word
that three leagues from there were four thousand men. And on the march
three or four light horsemen went ahead so that, if they should meet a
spy of the enemy's, they might take him prisoner to prevent his giving
warning of t