That chief, on entering Caxas, found the inhabitants mustered in hostile
array, as if to dispute his passage. But the cavalier soon convinced them
of his pacific intentions, and, laying aside their menacing attitude, they
received the Spaniards with the same courtesy which had been shown
them in most places on their march.
Here Soto found one of the royal officers, employed in collecting the
tribute for the government. From this functionary he learned that the
Inca was quartered with a large army at Caxamalca, a place of
considerable size on the other side of the Cordillera, where he was
enjoying the luxury of the warm baths, supplied by natural springs, for
which it was then famous, as it is at the present day. The cavalier
gathered, also, much important information in regard to the resources
and the general policy of government, the state maintained by the Inca,
and the stern severity with which obedience to the law was everywhere
enforced. He had some opportunity of observing this for himself, as, on
entering the village, he saw several Indians hanging dead by their heels,
having been executed for some violence offered to the Virgins of the
Sun, of whom there was a convent in the neighborhood.17
From Caxas, De Soto had passed to the adjacent town of Guancabamba,
much larger, more populous, and better built than the preceding.
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