A
number of these, including some principal men of the city,
secretly withdrew from the army, and, hastening to Lima, offered
their services to the viceroy. The troops were disheartened by
this desertion, and even Pizarro for a moment faltered in his
purpose, and thought of retiring with some fifty followers to
Charcas, and there making his composition with government. But a
little reflection, aided by the remonstrances of the courageous
Carbajal, who never turned his back on an enterprise which he had
once assumed, convinced him that he had gone too far to recede, -
that his only safety was to advance.
He was reassured by more decided manifestations, which he soon
after received, of the public opinion. An officer named Puelles,
who commanded at Guanuco, joined him, with a body of horse with
which he had been intrusted by the viceroy. This defection was
followed by that of others, and Gonzalo, as he descended the
sides of the table-land, found his numbers gradually swelled to
nearly double the amount with which he had left the Indian
capital.
As he traversed with a freer step the bloody field of Chupas,
Carbajal pointed out the various localities of the battle-ground,
and Pizarro might have found food for anxious reflection, as he
meditated on the fortunes of a rebel. At Guamanga he was
received with open arms by the inhabitants, many of whom eagerly
enlisted under his banner; for they trembled for their property,
as they heard from all quarters of the inflexible temper of the
viceroy.
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