long'd to his Catholic Majesty by right
of Conquest"! Excuses were not wanting. The Incas must be exterminated.

The expedition was divided into two parts. One company was sent by way
of Limatambo to Curahuasi, to head off the Inca in case he should cross
the Apurimac and try to escape by one of the routes which had formerly
been used by his father, Manco, in his marauding expeditions. The other
company, under General Martin Hurtado and Captain Garcia, marched from
Cuzco by way of Yucay and Ollantaytambo. They were more fortunate
than Captain Villadiego whose force, thirty-five years before, had
been met and destroyed at the pass of Panticalla. That was in the
days of the active Inca Manco. Now there was no force defending this
important pass. They descended the Lucumayo to its junction with the
Urubamba and came to the bridge of Chuquichaca.

The narrow suspension bridge, built of native fibers, sagged deeply
in the middle and swayed so threateningly over the gorge of the
Urubamba that only one man could pass it at a time. The rapid river
was too deep to be forded. There were no canoes. It would have been
a difficult matter to have constructed rafts, for most of the trees
that grow here are of hard wood and do not float. On the other side
of the Urubamba was young Tupac Amaru, surrounded by his councilors,
chiefs, and soldiers. The first hostile forces which in Pizarro's
time had endeavored to fight their way into Uilcapampa had never
been allowed by Manco to get as far as this. His youngest son,
Tupac Amaru, had had no experience in these matters. The chiefs and
nobles had failed to defend the pass; and they now failed to destroy
the Chuquichaca bridge, apparently relying on their ability to take
care of one Spanish soldier at a time and prevent the Spaniards from
crossing the narrow, swaying structure. General Hurtado was not taking
any such chances. He had brought with him one or two light mountain
field pieces, with which the raw troops of the Inca were little
acquainted. The sides of the valley at this point rise steeply from
the river and the reverberations caused by gun fire would be fairly
terrifying to those who had never heard anything like it before. A
few volleys from the guns and the arquebuses, and the Indians fled
pellmell in every direction, leaving the bridge undefended.

Captain Garcia, who had married the daughter of Sayri Tupac, was
sent in pursuit of the Inca. His men found the road "narrow in th