VOYAGES
222
A N D DISCOVERIES OF
of their plot and capture of their caciques, were awaiting the return of the latter in a state of negligent security. Pizarro led the van, and set upon the enemy at daybreak with the old Spanish war-cry of Santiago !
It was a slaughter
rather than a battle, for the Indians were unprepared for resistance.
Before sunrise seven hundred lay dead upon the field.
Beturning from the massacre, the commanders doomed the caciques who were in chains to be torn in pieces by the bloodhounds ; nor was even Chirucà spared from this sanguinary sentence.
Not-
withstanding this bloody revenge, the vindictive spirit of the commanders was still unappeased, and they set off to surprise the village of a cacique named Birù, who dwelt on the eastern side of the Gulf of St. Michael.
He was famed for valor and for
cruelty : his dwelling was surrounded by the weapons and other trophies of those whom he had vanquished ; and he was said never to give quarter. The Spaniards assailed his village before daybreak with fire and sword, and made dreadful havoc.
Birù escaped from his
burning habitation, rallied his people, kept up a galling fight throughout the greater part of that day, and handled the Spaniards so roughly, that, when he drew off at night, they did not venture to pursue him, but returned right gladly from his territory.
According to some of the Spanish writers, the kingdom of
Peru derived its name from this warlike cacique, through a blunder of the early discoverers ; the assertion, however, is believed to be erroneous. The Spaniards had pushed their bloody revenge to an extreme, and were now doomed to suffer from the recoil.
In the
fury of their passions, they had forgotten that they were but a handful of men surrounded by savage nations. Returning wearied