on this occasion was the most numerous and best appointed that had hitherto been seen in Peru, consisting of 250 horse, 200 musqueteers, and 250 pikemen, many of these being armed with halberts, and all remarkably well provided with defensive armour, especially all his cavalry, who, besides coats of mail, had back and breast-pieces of iron.  Besides these, he had a great train of artillery, and was accompanied by Paul, the brother of the Inca who had been raised to the Peruvian throne by the elder Almagro.  The assistance of this chief was of great importance to Don Diego on the present occasion, as his Indians always went a considerable way before the army, and obliged the natives of all the districts through which they passed to supply provisions for the troops, and to furnish people for carrying the baggage and other necessary services.  In this manner Don Diego proceeded for about fifty leagues to the province of Vilcas, where he learnt that the royal army was only thirty leagues distant from him.

While Vaca de Castro was in Lima, he procured a number of musquets to be made by the workmen of that city, and made every other preparation in his power to strengthen his army.  Among other things, as Don Diego had carried off the whole royal treasure, he borrowed a large sum from the inhabitants of Lima, for the pay of his troops and other expences of the war; and all things being regulated, he set out to join the army with as many men as he could collect, leaving Francisco de Barrionuevo as his lieutenant in Lima, and Juan Perez de Guevara as commandant of his marine.  He directed his march for Jauja, leaving orders with the inhabitants of Lima to retire on board the ships, in case Don Diego, as he threatened, should make an attack upon the city.  On his arrival at Jauja, where Holguin and the army waited for him, he found that the general had provided good store of arms both offensive and defensive, and particularly a large supply of gunpowder which had been made at that place.  The governor incorporated the horsemen whom he brought along with him from Lima among the troops or companies of cavalry already in the army, which were commanded by the Captains Pedro Alvarez Holguin, Pedro Anzurez, and Garcilasso de la Vega, and formed an additional troop of horse of which he gave the command to Gomez de Alvarado.  Those foot soldiers which he brought with him were distributed into the companies of Pedro de Vergara and Nunno de Castro, and he formed a new company of musqueteers, of which he appointed the bachelor Juan Velez de Guevara captain.  Although a man of letters and educated in the study of the law, Guevara was an excellent soldier, and particularly attentive to discipline, and had even greatly assisted in the construction of the musquets with which his company was armed.  Being likewise very learned in the law, he executed a judicial charge at the same time with his military command, both on the present occasion under Vaca de Castro, and during the subsequent troubles produced by Gonzalo Pizarro, as will be afterwards related.  Every day till noon, he held his judicial sittings and dispatched such affairs of that kind as occurred, in the ordinary sober dress of a lawyer.  After that, he dressed in richly embroidered uniforms, with a buff jerkin, a feather in his hat, and his musquet on his shoulder, exercising his company with much attention, and practised himself in firing.