Yet things happened otherwise, since with the first light, without which
we did not dare to move over unknown ground, we perceived that during
the darkness the Inca armies had moved round and through the town and
were gathered by the ten thousand in dense battalions upon the farther
side of the plain.
Now we took council together and in the end decided not to attack as we
had proposed, but to await their onslaught on the rocky ridge up which
they must climb. So we commanded that our army, which was marshalled
in three divisions abreast and two wings with the Yuncas as a reserve
behind, should eat and make ready. In the centre of our main division,
which numbered some fifteen thousand of the Chanca troops, and a little
in front of it, was a low long hill upon the highest point of which
I took my place, standing upon a rock with a group of captains and
messengers behind me and a guard of about a thousand picked men massed
upon the slopes and around the hill. From this high point I could see
everything, and in my glittering armour was visible to all, friends and
foes together.
Pages:
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341