Before leaving Chincha on his way to the interview with Pizarro, Almagro left orders with his lieutenant-general, Rodrigo Orgognez, to keep vigilant guard againt the machinations of the enemy, in case the marquis should bring a greater escort than was agreed upon, that he might send him prompt assistance; and if any treason were practised against him, that Ferdinand Pizarro should be considered as an hostage for his safety. On their meeting, the marquis and Almagro embraced each other with much apparent cordiality; but after a short discourse, in which no part of their difference was alluded to, one of the horsemen who accompanied the marquis, whispered to Almagro that he was in danger, and advised him to retire without delay, as Gonzalo Pizarro had placed an ambush to intercept him. Almagro immediately called for his horse; and several of the attendants on Pizarro, seeing Almagro about to retire, endeavoured to persuade the marquis to have him arrested, which could easily have been done by means of the musqueteers under De Castro. To this the marquis would by no means consent, being resolved to keep his promise inviolate, and would not believe that Almagro meant to go away without coming to some conclusion on the subject of their meeting. Almagro however went away; and as he saw the ambush on his way back, he was convinced that treachery was intended against him, and made loud complaints of the conduct of the marquis after his return to Chincha. Yet, by the intercession of Diego de Alvarado, Almagro set Ferdinand Pizarro at liberty, on condition that the marquis should provide him with a ship and a free port, by which he might send dispatches to Spain and receive answers, and that they should continue in peace until they received the final determination of the sovereign respecting the boundaries of their governments. Rodrigo Orgognez was exceedingly averse from this measure of liberating Ferdinand Pizarro, who had been harshly treated while a prisoner, and who he believed would be eager for revenge if set free, and strongly urged Almagro to put him to death. But Almagro would not listen to his advice, and sent Ferdinand Pizarro to the marquis, accompanied by his own son the younger Almagro and several gentlemen. Ferdinand Pizarro was hardly set off on his return, when Almagro began to repent that he had set him at liberty; and it is believed he would have been remanded to prison if he had not made haste on his journey, during which he was met by several of his brothers principal officers.
Soon after the liberation of his brother Ferdinand, the marquis received provisional orders from his majesty, by the hands of Pedro Anzures; by which the two governors were commanded to retain the countries which each of them had discovered and conquered, and in which they had formed establishments at the time when this provisional order should be notified to them; neither of them making any attempt to disturb the other until his majesty should give definitive orders on the subject. Having now his brother at liberty, the marquis sent a notification to Almagro of this imperial order, requiring him to retire according to his majestys orders from the country which he, Pizarro, had discovered, and in which he had established colonies. Almagro answered, that he was ready to obey the orders of his majesty, in keeping possession of the country and establishments he occupied when the imperial order was notified, for which reason he required the marquis to leave him in the peaceable enjoyment of what he how possessed, declaring that on his part he would carefully and entirely perform whatever should be finally commanded by his majesty. The marquis replied, that the city of Cuzco and the adjoining territory had been first discovered, colonized, and occupied by him, of which he had been violently dispossessed by Almagro, that in conformity with the orders of his majesty, therefore, it behoved Almagro to evacuate that city and territory, or he would drive him from it by force, as all the compacts and conventions which had been entered into between them were abrogated by this new regulation of his majesty.
As Almagro refused to accede to these demands, the marquis marched against him with his whole force, on which Almagro retired towards Cuzco, and fortified himself on a high mountain named Guavtara, breaking up all the roads to render the approach to his camp as difficult as possible. Ferdinand Pizarro found means to ascend the mountain during the night by a secret path, and forced the passages with his musqueteers, so that Almagro was forced to abandon this position, seeking his safety in flight. Being sick at the time, he went with the advanced guard, leaving Orgognez to bring up and protect the rear. One night, Orgognez learnt by two of Pizarros horsemen who were taken prisoners, that the enemy were close up with his rear, on which he hastened the retreat as much as possible, although several of his officers were anxious for him to turn back upon the pursuers, knowing by experience that those who usually inhabited the plain were liable, on their first coming into the mountainous region, to sickness and vomiting, very much resembling sea-sickness. Orgognez refused to listen to this advice, because contrary to the orders of Almagro; yet it was believed he might have been successful, as the troops belonging to the marquis were in reality affected by that ordinary malady, and were besides so much distressed by the snow that Pizarro retired back with his army into the maritime plain of Peru. Almagro continued his march to Cuzco, where he employed himself for two months in raising recruits, procuring ammunition, preparing arms of silver and copper, founding cannon, and making every preparation to defend himself against Pizarro.
After the return of the marquis into the plain, various consultations were held as to the best plan of procedure, and it was at last determined that Ferdinand Pizarro, now lieutenant-general under the marquis, with his brother Gonzalo Pizarro as major-general, should march with the army against Cuzco196. On this occasion, a manifesto was circulated as the reason of this measure, that several of the inhabitants of Cuzco had made complaints to the marquis against the tyranny of Almagro, who had violently seized their goods and houses, and dispossessed them of their Indians and every thing that belonged to them. The marquis returned to Lima, and his brother Ferdinand marched at the head of the army towards Cuzco. Having arrived on the mountainous ridge near Cuzco in the evening, all his officers urged Ferdinand Pizarro to descend immediately into the plain that the army might encamp there for the night; but Ferdinand positively rejected this advice, and ordered the army to encamp on the mountain. Early next morning, the whole army of Almagro was seen drawn up in order of battle on the plain, under the supreme command of Orgognez; Francisco de Chaves, Juan Tello, and Vasco de Guevara, having the command of the cavalry under his orders. On the side of the mountain there was a great body of Indians in charge of a small number of Spaniards, intended to be employed as circumstances might admit in the expected battle. In the meantime, all the friends and partizans of the marquis who were in Cuzco were committed prisoners to the citadel, which was so extremely crowded on this occasion, and the places appropriated for their confinement so small, that several of them were stifled.
On the following day, after the solemnization of the mass, Ferdinand Pizarro marched his army into the plain of Cuzco in order of battle, and advanced towards the city, intending to gain possession of some high ground which overlooked the citadel. Ferdinand and his troops flattered themselves, from their great superiority in numbers, that Almagro would not risk a battle, and were even anxious to spare the effusion of Christian blood on the present occasion, in which the natives of the same country and subjects of the same sovereign were preparing to destroy each other, instead of uniting in a common cause for the general good of all. Orgognez was actuated by a different principle, and had occupied the only passage by which the troops of Pizarro could approach towards Cuzco, in which he had drawn up his troops and artillery with much judgment, under cover of a marsh, across which it was necessary for the troops of Pizarro to pass before they could attack his position. Immediately on reconnoitring the order of the enemy, Ferdinand Pizarro ordered captain Mercadillo to advance with his cavalry to a proper place for keeping the Indians in check in case they should attempt to attack his army while engaged in battle with Orgognez, and whence likewise he might be able to give succour where necessary during the approaching engagement. Before the Spaniards began to engage, the Indians on both sides skirmished with each other. The cavalry of Pizarro endeavoured to pass the morass, and being opposed by a squadron of Almagro's horse, the musketeers belonging to Pizarro advanced in front of their own horse and soon compelled the adverse cavalry to give ground. On seeing this successful commencement of the battle, Pedro de Valdivia, a maestre de campo of the marquis, assured his friends that the victory was their own. While the troops of Pizarro were passing the marsh, the Almagrians plied their artillery, and by one discharge five men belonging to Pizarro were brought down. But Pizarro pressed on under cover of a close fire from his musketeers, and passed both the marsh and a rivulet beyond, and drew up in good order on the firm ground, every one of the captains having been previously instructed how to proceed with their divisions before the engagement commenced. As Pizarro noticed that the pikemen in the army of Orgognez carried their pikes high, he gave orders to his musketeers to fire a little high, by which means in two vollies they broke above fifty of the enemies pikes197. At this time Orgognez ordered his army to advance to the charge, and observing that several of his divisions hesitated, being held in check by the fire of the musqueteers, he moved on himself at the head of his main body, directing his attack to that part of the enemy where Ferdinand Pizarro was seen at the head of his squadrons. Orgognez apparently despairing of the battle, called out while advancing, "Follow me who will! I go in the name of God to do my duty, and to seek an honourable death!" While Orgognez was advancing, Gonzalo Pizarro and Alonso Alvarado observed that his flank was uncovered, and accordingly made an immediate charge, by which above fifty of the Almagrians were overthrown. Orgognez was wounded by a musket-ball in the head, which broke through his beaver; notwithstanding which he killed two men with his lance, and wounded one of Pizarros servants in the mouth whom he mistook for the general, as he was finely dressed. For some time the engagement was extremely severe and the combatants were mingled together; but at length the troops of Pizarro forced the Almagrians to take to flight after they had a considerable number killed and wounded.
196
According to Robertson, II. 334, after an unsuccessful attempt to cross the mountains by the direct road from Lima to Cuzco, Ferdinand marched southwards in the maritime plain to Nasca, whence he penetrated by the defiles of the mountains in that quarter. –E.
197
Garcilasso informs us that the musketeers of Pizarro used a kind of chain shot on this occasion; their leaden bullets being cast in two hemispheres connected together by several links of a small iron chain. –E.