In a moment the flames burst forth
from the most opposite quarters of the city. They quickly
communicated to the wood-work in the interior of the buildings,
and broad sheets of flame mingled with smoke rose up towards the
heavens, throwing a fearful glare over every object. The
rarefied atmosphere heightened the previous impetuosity of the
wind, which, fanning the rising flames, they rapidly spread from
dwelling to dwelling, till the whole fiery mass, swayed to and
for by the tempest, surged and roared with the fury of a volcano.
The heat became intense, and clouds of smoke, gathering like a
dark pall over the city, produced a sense of suffocation and
almost blindness in those quarters where it was driven by the
winds. *10
[Footnote 8: "Pues de noche heran tantos ros fuegos que no
parecia sino vn cielo muy sereno lleno de estrellas." Pedro
Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]
[Footnote 9: Ibid. Ms.]
[Footnote 10: "I era tanto el humo que casi los oviera de aogar i
pasaron grand travajo por esta causa i sino fuera porque de la
una parte de la plaza no havia casas i estava desconorado no
pudieran escapar porque is por todas partes les diera el humo i
el calor siendo tan grande pasaron travajo, pero la divina
providencia lo estorvo." Conq. i. Pob. ded Piru, Ms.]
The Spaniards were encamped in the great square, partly under
awnings, and partly in the hall of the Inca Viracocha, on the
ground since covered by the cathedral. Three times in the course
of that dreadful day, the roof of the building was on fire; but,
although no efforts were made to extinguish it, the flames went
out without doing much injury.
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