On the next day, which was Saturday, All Saints' day, the friar who was with this company said mass in the morning, according to the custom of saying it on such a day, and later all set out and journeyed until they arrived at a full river three leagues beyond, always descending from the mountains by a rough and long slope. This river, likewise, had a net-work bridge which, being broken, made it necessary to ford the stream, and afterwards a very large mountain was ascended which, looked at from below, seemed impossible of ascent by the very birds of the air, and still more so by men on horseback toiling over the ground. But the climb was made less arduous for them by the fact that the road went up in spirals, and not straight. The greater part, however, was made of large steps of stone which greatly fatigued the horses and wore down and injured their hoofs, even though they were led by the bridle. In this manner a long league was surmounted, and another was traversed by a more easy road along a declivity, and in the afternoon the Governor with the Spaniards arrived at a small village of which a part was burned, and in the other part, which had remained whole, the Spaniards settled. And in the evening two Indian couriers, sent by the captain who was ahead, arrived. They brought news, in letters to the Governor, that the captain had arrived with all speed at the land of Parcos[36] which he had left behind him, having had news that the [Indian] captains were thereabout with all the hostile forces; [but] he did not encounter them, and it was held to be certain that they had withdrawn to Bilcas,[37] and through so much of the road as he traversed until coming to [a place] within five leagues of Bilcas, where he spent the night, he marched secretly in order not to be forestalled by certain spies who were placed a league from Bilcas. And having news that the enemy were in a town without having warning of his coming, the captain was delighted, and, having gone down the rather difficult slope where that place was, at dawn he entered [the town where some warriors were lodged with few precautions].[38] The Spanish cavalry began to attack them in the plazas until so many had been killed or had fled that no one remained; because there were a few Indian soldiers who had retired to a mountain on one side of the road who, as soon as the day became bright and they saw the Spaniards, assembled in squadrons, and came against them crying out Ingres,[39] which name they hold to be very insulting, being that of a contemned people who live in the hot lands of the sea-coast, and because that province was cold and the Spaniards wore clothes over their flesh, [the Indians] called them Ingres and threatened them with slavery as they were few, not more than forty, and defying them by saying that they would come down to where they were. The captain, although he knew that that was a bad place for fighting on horseback, of which position the Spaniards could little avail themselves there, nevertheless, in order that the enemy should not think that he would not fight from lack of spirit, took with him thirty horsemen, leaving the rest to guard the town, and went down through a cleft[40] in the mountain by a very painful slope. The enemy boldly awaited them and in the shock of battle they killed one horse and wounded two others, but finally, all being dispersed, some fled in one direction and others in another over the mountain [by] a very rough road where the horses could neither follow them nor injure them. At this juncture, an [Indian] captain who had fled from the village, and who knew that they had killed one horse and wounded two, said "Come, let us turn back and fight with these men until not one is left alive, for there are but a few of them!" and at once all returned with more spirit and greater impetuosity than before, and in this way a sharper battle than the first was fought. At the end, the Indians fled and the horsemen followed them in all directions as long as they could. In these two encounters more than six hundred men were left dead, and it is believed also that Maila, one of their captains, died, and the Indians affirmed it also, and they, on their part, when they killed a horse, cut off his head and put it on a lance which they bore before them like a standard. [The Spanish captain] likewise informed [his men] that he intended to rest there for three days out of consideration for the wounded Christians and horses, and that later they would set out to take, first of all, a bridge of net-work which was near there, so that the fugitive enemies should not cross it and go to join with Quizquiz[41] in Cuzco and with the garrison of troops he had there, which was said to be waiting for the Spaniards in a bad pass near Cuzco. But, although they found it to be more than bad, they hoped in God who, in whatever place that battle might be fought, even in a land all rough and stony, would not permit the Indians to be able to defend themselves any where, no matter how difficult and toilsome it might be, nor to attack the Spaniards in any bad pass. And, having set out from here and having crossed the bridge three leagues from Cuzco [the captain declared] that he would there await the Governor as he had informed him by swift messenger Indians of what had occurred.