But such was not
the decision of Pizarro.
The Spaniards had everywhere proclaimed their purpose, he said,
to visit the Inca in his camp. This purpose had been
communicated to the Inca himself. To take an opposite direction
now would only be to draw on them the imputation of cowardice,
and to incur Atahuallpa's contempt. No alternative remained but
to march straight across the sierra to his quarters. "Let every
one of you," said the bold cavalier, "take heart and go forward
like a good soldier, nothing daunted by the smallness of your
numbers. For in the greatest extremity God ever fights for his
own; and doubt not he will humble the pride of the heathen, and
bring him to the knowledge of the true faith, the great end and
object of the Conquest." *22
[Footnote 22: "Que todos se animasen y esforzasen a hacer como de
ellos esperaba y como buenos espanoles lo suelen hacer, e que no
les pusiese temor la multitud que se decia que habia de gente ni
el poco numero de los cristianos, que aunque menos fuesen e mayor
el egercito contrario, la ayuda de Dios es mucho mayor, y en las
mayores necesidades socorre y faborece a los suyos para
desbaratar y abajar la soberbia de los infieles e traerlos en
conocimiento de nuestra Sta fe catolica." Ovieda, Hist. de las
Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 4.]
Pizarro, like Cortes, possessed a good share of that frank and
manly eloquence which touches the heart of the soldier more than
the parade of rhetoric or the finest flow of elocution.
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