At this time he [the Governor] had just finished distributing the gold and silver which were in that house among the Spaniards of his company, and Atabalipa gave the gold belonging to the royal fifths to the treasurer of H. M. who took charge of it in order to carry it to the city of Xauxa where he [the Governor] intended to found a colony of Spaniards on account of the reports he had of the good surrounding provinces and of the many cities which there were about it. To this end, he had the Spaniards arranged in order and provided with arms and other things for the journey, and when the time for departure came, he gave them Indians to carry their gold and burdens. Before setting out, having heard how few soldiers there were in San Miguel[19] for the purpose of holding it, he took, from among those Spaniards whom he was to take with him, ten cavalrymen and a captain, a person of great cautiousness, whom he ordered to go to that city where he was to maintain himself until ships should arrive with troops who might guard it, after which he was to go to Xauxa where he himself was about to found a village of Spaniards and melt the gold which he bore, promising that he would give them all the gold that was due them with as much punctuality as if they were actually present, because his [the captain's] return [to San Miguel] was very necessary, that being the first city to be settled and colonized for the Caesarian Majesty as well as the chief one because in it they would have to wait there to receive the ships which should come from Spain, to that land.[20]

In this manner they set out with the instructions which the Governor gave them as to what they were to do in the pacification of the people of that region. The Governor set out one Monday morning, and on that day travelled three leagues, sleeping by the shore of a river where the news reached him that a brother of Atabalipa called Guaritico had been killed by some captains of Atabalipa at his command. This Guaritico was a very important person and a friend of the Spaniards, and he had been sent by the Governor from Caxamalca to repair the bridges and bad spots in the road. The cacique pretended to feel great heaviness because of his death, and the Governor himself regretted it because he liked him, and because he was very useful to the Christians. The next day the Governor set out from that place, and, by his marches, arrived in the land of Guamachucho, eighteen leagues from Caxamalca. Having rested there two days, he set out for Caxamalca[21] nine leagues ahead, and arrived there in three days, and rested four in order that his troops might have repose and opportunity to collect supplies for the march to Guaiglia, twenty leagues from there. Having left this village, he came in three days to the Puerto de Nevado, and a morning's march brought him within a day's journey of Guaiglia; and the governor commanded a captain of his, who was the Marshal D. Diego de Almagro, to go with troops and take a bridge two leagues from Guaiglia, which bridge was built in a manner that will soon be related. This captain captured the bridge, which is near a strong mountain that dominated that land. The Governor did not delay in arriving at the bridge with the rest of his men, and having crossed it, he went on, in another morning, which was Sunday, to Guaiglia. Arrived there, they soon heard mass and afterwards entered certain good rooms; having rested there eight days, he set forth with the soldiers, and the next day crossed another bridge of osiers,[22] which was above the said river which here passes through a very delectable valley. They journeyed thirty leagues to the point where captain Hernando Pizarro came when he went to Pachacamac,[23] as will be seen in the long account which was sent to H. M. of all that was done on that journey to Pachacamac, from there to the city of Xauxa and back to Caxamalca, on the occasion on which he took with him the captain Chilichuchima and other matters which do not concern us here. The Governor changed his route, and, by forced marches, arrived at the land of Caxatambo.[24] From there he went on without doing more than to ask for some Indians who should carry the gold of H. M. and of the soldiers, and always using great vigilance in learning of the affairs which took place in the land, and always having both a vanguard and a rear-guard as had been done up to that time for fear that the captain Chilichuchima whom he had with him, would hatch some treasonable plot, all the more so on account of the suspicion he felt owing to the fact that neither in Caxatambo nor in the eighteen leagues after it had he met with any warriors, nor were his fears lessened during a halt in a village five leagues beyond because all the people had fled without leaving a living soul. When he had arrived there, a Spaniard's Indian servant, who was from that land of Pambo[25] distant from here some ten leagues, and twenty from Xauxa, came to him saying that he had heard that troops had been assembled in Xauxa to kill the Christians who were coming, and that they had as captains Incorabaliba, Iguaparro, Mortay[26] and another captain, all four being important men who had many troops with them, and the servant added that they had placed a part of this force in a village called Tarma five leagues from Xauxa in order to guard a bad pass that there was in a mountain and to cut and break it up in such a way that the Spaniards could not pass by. Informed of this, the governor gave orders that Chilichuchima should be made a prisoner, because it was held to be certain that that force had been made ready by his advice and command, he thinking to flee the Christians and to go to join it. Of these matters the cacique Atabalipa was unaware, and on this account, these [Spanish] troops did not permit any Indian to pass by in the direction of the cacique who might give notice of these affairs. The reason why these Indians had rebelled and were seeking war with the Christians was that they saw the land being conquered by the Spaniards, 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 their coming. At the hour of noon, they arrived at that bad pass of Tarma where warriors were said to be waiting to defend it. The pass seemed to be so full of difficulties that it would be impossible to go up it, because there was a bad road of stone down into the gully where all the riders had to dismount, after which it was necessary to go up the heights by a slope about a league long, the greater part of which was steep and difficult forest, all of which was crossed without any Indians who were said to be armed making an appearance. And in the afternoon, after the hour of vespers, the Governor and his men arrived at that village of Tarma where, because it was a bad site and because he had news that Indians were coming to it to surprise the Christians, he did not wish to linger longer than was necessary for feeding the horses and allaying their own hunger and fatigue so as to enable them to go forth prepared from that place which had no other level spot than the plaza as it was on a small slope surrounded by mountains for the space of a league. As it was already night, he made his camp here, being always on the alert and having the horses saddled. And the men were without [proper] food and even without any comfort because there was neither fire-wood nor water, nor had they brought their tents with them to shelter them, because of which they all nearly died of cold on account of the fact that it rained much early in the night and then snowed so that the arms and clothes were drenched. But each one sought the best remedy he could, and so that evil and troublous night passed to the dawn when he commanded that all mount their horses so as to arrive early at Xauxa which was four leagues from there. When two had been crossed over, the Governor divided the seventy-five soldiers between three captains, giving fifteen to each, and taking with him the remaining twenty and the twenty peones who were guarding Chilichuchima. In this order they journeyed to Porsi a league from Xauxa, having given each captain orders as to what he was to do, and they all halted in a small village which they encountered. Then they all marched on in complete accord, and gave a look at the city. They all halted again on a slope within a quarter of a league of it.