as the others, besides sharing in the final
profits of the conquest.

It was an audacious yet a wise step. Four foot-soldiers and five
cavalrymen said they believed they would go back to San Miguel; and
back they went, while the loyal one hundred and sixty-eight pressed on,
pledged anew to follow their intrepid leader to the end.

De Soto, who had been out on a scout for eight days, now returned,
accompanied by a messenger from the Inca war-captain, Atahualpa. The
Indian brought gifts, and invited them to visit Atahualpa, who was now
encamped with his braves at Caxamarca.[27] Felipillo, the young Indian
from Tumbez, who had gone back to Spain with Pizarro and had learned
Spanish, now made a very useful interpreter; and through him the
Spaniards were able to converse with the Inca Indians. Pizarro treated
the messenger with his usual courtesy, and sent him home with gifts, and
marched on up the hills in the direction of Caxamarca. One of the
Indians declared that Atahualpa was simply decoying the Spaniards into
his stronghold to destroy them without the trouble of going after them,
which was quite true; and another Indian declared that the Inca
war-captain had with him a force of at least fifty thousand men. But
without faltering, Pizarro sent an Indian ahead to reconnoitre, and
pushed on through the fearful mountain passes of the Cordillera,
cheering his men with one of his characteristic speeches:--

"Let all take heart and courage to do as I expect of you,
and as good Spaniards are wont to do. And do not be alarmed
by the multitude the enemy is said to have, nor by the small
number of us Christians. For even if we were fewer and the
opposing army greater, the help of God is much greater yet;
and in the utmost need He aids and favors His own to
disconcert and humble the pride of the infidels, and bring
them to the knowledge of our holy faith."

To this knightly speech, the men shouted that they would follow wherever
he led. Pizarro went ahead with forty horsemen and sixty infantry,
leaving his brother Hernando to halt with the remaining men until
further orders. It was no child's play, climbing those awful paths. The
horsemen had to dismount, and even then could hardly lead their horses
up the heights. The narrow trails wound under hanging cliffs and along
the brinks of gloomy _quebradas_,[28]--narrow clefts, thousands of feet
deep, where the rocky shelf was barely wide enoug