Though much inferior in strength to his rival, he
determined to resist him.
Meanwhile, the Peruvians, who had witnessed the conference
between the soldiers of the opposite camps, suspected some secret
understanding between the parties, which would compromise the
safety of the Inca. They communicated their distrust to Manco,
and the latter, adopting the same sentiments, or perhaps, from
the first, meditating a surprise of the Spaniards, suddenly fell
upon the latter in the valley of Yucay with a body of fifteen
thousand men. But the veterans of Chili were too familiar with
Indian tactics to be taken by surprise. And though a sharp
engagement ensued, which lasted more than an hour, in which
Orgonez had a horse killed under him, the natives were finally
driven back with great slaughter, and the Inca was so far
crippled by the blow, that he was not likely for the present to
give further molestation. *8
[Footnote 8: Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 3, cap. 4. - Conq. i
Pob. del Piru, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 21.]
Almagro, now joining the division left at Urcos, saw no further
impediment to his operations on Cuzco. He sent, at once, an
embassy to the municipality of the place, requiring the
recognition of him as its lawful governor, and presenting at the
same time a copy of his credentials from the Crown. But the
question of jurisdiction was not one easy to be settled,
depending, as it did, on a knowledge of the true parallels of
latitude, not very likely to be possessed by the rude followers
of Pizarro.
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