One piece of cruelty recorded by him is little to the credit of
his commander, Hernando Pizarro, who , he says, after a desperate
rencontre, caused the right hands of his prisoners to be struck
off, and sent them in this mutilated condition back to their
countrymen! (Descub. Conq., Ms.) Such atrocities are not often
noticed by the chroniclers; and we may hope they were exceptions
to the general policy of the Conquerors in this invasion.]
But Hernando Pizarro was not content to act wholly on the
defensive; and he meditated a bold stroke, by which at once to
put an end to the war. This was the capture of the Inca Manco,
whom he hoped to surprise in his quarters at Tambo.
For this service he selected about eighty of his best-mounted
cavalry, with a small body of foot, and, making a large detour
through the less frequented mountain defiles, he arrived before
Tambo without alarm to the enemy. He found the place more
strongly fortified than he had imagined. The palace, or rather
fortress, of the Incas stood on a lofty eminence, the steep sides
of which, on the quarter where the Spaniards approached, were cut
into terraces, defended by strong walls of stone and sunburnt
brick. *31 The place was impregnable on this side. On the
opposite, it looked towards the Yucay, and the ground descended
by a gradual declivity towards the plain through which rolled its
deep but narrow current. *32 This was the quarter on which to
make the assault.
[Footnote 31: "Tambo tan fortalescido que hera cosa de grima,
porquel assiento donde Tambo esta es muy fuerte, de andenes muy
altos y de muy gran canterias fortalescidos" Pedro Pizarro,
Descub.
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