Cuzco in pursuit of the royalists who had fled in that direction, and ordered his sergeant-major to go to La Plaz, Chucuito, Potosi, and La Plata, to collect men arms and horses for the farther prosecution of the war.  At length Giron marched into the province of Andahuaylas, which he laid waste without mercy, whence he went towards Cuzco on receiving intelligence that the army of the judges had passed the rivers Abancay and Apurimac on their way to attack him.  He immediately marched by the valley of Yucay to within a league of Cuzco, not being sufficiently strong to resist the royalists; but turned off from that city at the persuasion of certain astrologers and prognosticators, who declared that his entrance there would prove his ruin, as had already happened to many other captains, both Spaniards and Indians.

The army of the judges marched on from Guamanga to Cuzco unopposed by the rebels, their chief difficulty being in the passages of the great rivers, and the transport of eleven pieces of artillery, which were carried on the shoulders of Indians, of whom ten thousand were required for that service only.  Each piece of ordinance was fastened on a beam of wood forty feet long, under which twenty cross bars were fixed, each about three feet long, and to every bar were two Indians, one on each side, who carried this load on their shoulders, on pads or cushions, and were relieved by a fresh set every two hundred paces.  After halting five days in the neighbourhood of Cuzco, to refresh the army from the fatigues of the march, and to procure provisions and other necessaries, the royal army set out in pursuit of the rebels to Pucara[48], where the rebels had intrenched themselves in a very strong situation, environed on every side with such steep and rugged mountains as could not be passed without extreme difficulty, more like a wall than natural rocks.  The only entrance was exceedingly narrow and intricate, so that it could easily be defended by a handful of men against an army; but the interior of this post was wide and convenient, and sufficient for accommodating the rebel army with all the cattle provisions and attendants with the utmost ease.  The rebels had abundance of provisions and ammunition, having the whole country at their command since the victory of Chuquinca; besides which their negro soldiers brought in provisions daily from the surrounding country.  The royal army encamped at no great distance in an open plain, fortifying the camp with an intrenchment breast-high all round, which was soon executed by means of the great numbers of Indians who attended to carry the baggage and artillery.  Giron established a battery of cannon on the top of a rising ground so near the royal camp that the balls were able to reach considerably beyond the intrenchment:  “Yet by the mysterious direction of Providence, the rebel cannon, having been cast from the consecrated metal of bells dedicated to the service of God, did no harm to man or beast.”