ead toward the
slope of the hill for which they [the Indians] were making so that they
could not retreat thither and fortify themselves. The other two captains
kept right up with them, overtaking them in a field of maize near the
river. There they put them in disorder and routed them, capturing as
many as possible, so that of six hundred [Indians] not more than twenty
or thirty, who took to the mountains before the other captain with his
fifteen men could arrive, saved themselves. Most of the Indians made for
the water, thinking to save themselves in it, but the light horsemen
crossed the river almost by swimming after them, and they did not leave
one alive save some few who had hidden themselves in their flight after
their army was broken in pieces. Then the Spaniards ran through the
country as far as a league below without finding a single Indian. Then,
having returned, they rested themselves and their horses, which were in
great need of it; both because of the long journey of the day before and
on account of their having run those two leagues, they were rather
crippled. When the truth was learned as to what troops those were [with
whom the Spaniards had fought], it was found that the four captains and
the main body were encamped six leagues down the river from Xauxa, and
that, on that very day, they had sent those six hundred men to complete
the burning of the city of Xauxa, having already burned the other half
of it seven or eight days before, and that they had then burned a great
edifice which was in the plaza, as well as many other things before the
eyes of the people of that city, together with many clothes and much
maize, so that the Spaniards should not avail themselves of them. The
citizens were left so hostile to those other Indians that if one of the
latter hid, they showed him to the Christians so that they would kill
him, and they themselves aided in killing them, and they would even have
done so with their own hands if the Christians had permitted it. The
Spanish captains, having studied the place where these enemies were
found as well as the road, along a part of which they journeyed, they
determined not to shut themselves up in Xauxa, but to pass onward and
attack the main body of the army which was four leagues off before it
should receive news of their coming. With this intention, they
commanded the soldiers to make ready, but their proposal did not come to
pass because they found the horses so weary th