Two Months After The Return Of
Ferdinand To Cuzco, Manco Capac Solicited Permission From Ferdinand To Go
Into The District
Of _Jucaya_[5] on purpose to celebrate a solemn festival,
promising on his return to present him with a statue
Of the late Huana
Capac of solid gold as large as life. Ferdinand allowed him to attend this
festival, which turned out merely the unravelment of the plot which had
been formed at the time when Almagro began his march for Chili. Manco
Capac gave immediate orders to put to death some Spaniards who
superintended the working of the mines, and others who were travelling
through the country on various affairs. He sent likewise one of his
captains with a considerable body of troops against Cuzco, who by a sudden
and unexpected attack got possession of the castle of that city. The
Spaniards indeed retook it after six or seven days, yet not without hard
fighting, in which they lost Juan Pizarro; who was killed by a stone which
struck him on the head, at a time when he was unable to wear his helmet in
consequence of a former wound. His death was much regretted by the
Spaniards, being a brave man and much experienced in the manner of
carrying on war with the Indians, and besides because his manners had made
him beloved by every one.
Notwithstanding the recapture of the castle of Cuzco by the Spaniards, the
Inca brought a large army against the city, which he besieged for more
than eight months, making frequent assaults on various parts of the works,
chiefly during moon-light nights when the moon was full. Ferdinand Pizarro
and his brothers, assisted by Gabriel de Roias, Hernand Ponce de Leon, Don
Alfonso Enriquez, the treasurer Requelme, and other brave officers, made a
resolute defence, and were almost perpetually under arms day and night, as
the number of the garrison was exceedingly inadequate to the extent of the
place and the multitude of assailants. As the Spaniards in Cuzco were
aware that the insurrection was general over all Peru, they hardly doubted
but the governor and all their other countrymen were cut off, so that they
defended themselves as men who had no earthly hope of succour, depending
only on the mercy of God and their own courage. Their small number was
daily diminished, as hardly a day passed in which the Indians did not kill
or wound some of their people. One time during the siege, Gonzalo Pizarro
made a sally with twenty horsemen, and proceeded to the lake or marsh of
Chinchero which is five leagues from Cuzco, where he was surrounded by so
vast a force of Indians that he must inevitably have been made prisoner,
had not Ferdinand Pizarro and Alfonso de Toro come up to his rescue with a
body of horse. Gonzalo was much blamed on this occasion for having
advanced so far among the enemy with so few men.
We have already mentioned that Almagro had resolved to return into Peru
and to make himself master of Cuzco, from the time that Juan de Herrada
had brought him the commission by which he was appointed to a government
beyond that assigned to Don Francisco Pizarro.
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