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BooK
II.
Royal Commentaries.
C .H A P. . XXXVllo
Of the
hloud;
Batte!
of
the
S
lina ..
R
odrigo Oi'gonnos
,
to perform the part of a good
So~ldier
, put his Forces the
next Morning, very early, into order of Batcel,
nIS
lnfantr~
he reduced
~o
one Battalion fupported on each Wing by his Harquebufiers, which were few m
number and :nuch lefs. than thofe on the contrary fide, which was the caufe chat
he loft :he day. The Captains of the Foot were
Chriftopher
dc · Sot:t~, Hc~n11ndo d~
Alvarado, {ohn de Mofcofo,
and
Diego
de
SalinM.
The Horfe were divided mto two
Squadrons, the one Commanded by
[ohn Tello,
and
_Pafco de G
uev1tra~
and . the
?·
cher
by·Francu
de
Chavei,
and
Ruy
DiM.
Orgom1os
bemg Commander
m
Chi~f,
did
not oblige himfelf to any particular rank, being to
be.
prefent, and afiifhng
at
every
attion of the Field, and defigned
with
his companion
Pedro
de
Lerma
to feek
for
Hernando
de
Pifarro,
and fight with him. His Artillery he planted on one fide,
of the Squadrons, where
i.t
might moil: annoy the Enemy : before them was a
fiream of Water, which ran through
all
thofe Plains, and
a
Moorifu fort ofplailiy
ground, which made the Accefs of the Enemy to them
to
be
fomeching difficult.
On
the other fide
Pedro
de Valdivia,
who was Major-General, and
Antonio
de
Cam-
po
Sergeant-Major, difpo[ed their Forces
in
the fame order,
as
might anfwer that
of
Rodrigo Orgom101.
Their Battalion of Foot was Aanked on each Wing with
good numbers of Harquebufters, who were thofe that did the work, and gained
the Victory of that day : Their Horfe were drawn up into two Squadrons, of a
hundred in each, againfi thofe of
OrgonrlOf.
Hernando
Pi£arro,
with his Compa..
nion
Francifco
de
Barahona.,
were
in die Front of one of the Squadrons of Horfe,
and
Alon(o
de
Alvarado
at
the Head of
the
other ; and
Gon:uilo Piptrro
as General
of the Infantry refolved to fight on Foot.
In
which order marching againfi: the
Almagriam,
they refolutely palled both the fiream ofWater and the Moor; with–
out any oppofirion of the Enemy ; for they had given them firfi fuch a
V
oily of
f
mall
ilior, as
had very much difordered them, and
put
them into that confufion,
that they might eafily be routed ; for both Horfe and Foot recreated from their
ground
to
avoid che fhot of the Harquebufiers ; which when
Orgonno1
obferved,
he
doubted much of the Vietory,
and
gave order
for
the Artillery to play
UROD
them; which fucceeded
fo
wel4
that one fhot carried off a whole rank
of
five
Men at once; which
Co
difmayed the Enemy, that had four or five in the
like
manner followed, they might have defeated that whole Squadron. But
Gonuilo
Pifarl'o,
and his Major-General
Yaldivia
appearing in the Front, forced the Souldi.-
~
ers forwards, and commanded them to charge the Enemy's Pikes with their Cop–
per fhot ;
for
a.s the Souldiers of
Almagro
were more numerous in their Pikes,
fo
thofe of
Pi£art'o
availed themfelves mofl: of their Harquebufiers,
and
aimed much
to
defeat their Pikes, that
their
Horfe might aftenvards charge them with lefs
danger.
And
Co
accordingly it focceeded ,
for
as
Carate
arid
Gomara
relate,
fifty
of their Pikes were broken with two Vallies of iliot.
·
·
The Copper Bullets ('for information of thofe who have never feen them)
are
ca~
in
a
common Mould like others : They take
a
third or
a
fourth pawof Iron–
wrre, and at each end of this Wire they make a
little
hook
for a link,
and put
the
end
of the two Hooks
into
the middle of the Mould: Then to divide the
Mould
into
two parts, they feparate it with leaf of Copper or
Iron
as thin
as
Pa–
per; then they
pour in the
melted Lead, ,,·hich incorporates it felf with
the links
of
Iron,
and
divides
the
Bullet
in
tvYO
parts, fall:ned with the Iron·
links.
Then
wheo
they
ram
them
into
the Gun, they joyn
them
like one Bullet;
and
when
they
ate
fhot out, they fpread themfelves
~o t~e
length of the Chain, and cut. all
before
che~.
By
thefe
means~ _a~
che H1ftonans fay, they did great execuaon
u~on
.the Pikes,
for
without
thtS
in
ventionthey coald never
ha\
e done half chis
rn1fchief. Howfoever, they did not
aim.atthe Pikemen themfelves but
at their
Pikes, that
they might
iliew
what th
ey were
ab e
to
do and
what
a~vantage
they
had
over
them in their Arms.
'
This
•