Caxamalca was built near a beautiful river that flowed through the valley below, and its great stone fortresses and lofty temples, its palaces and towers, its beautiful gardens and wide, well-paved streets, and its large public square with its fountains and flowers, all showed Pizarro, on his arrival there, that he had come into a land whose people knew well how to be comfortable in peace as well as to defend themselves in war. He at once marched his soldiers into the great square, where he pitched his tents as if resolved to stay. The Inca's army lay upon the slopes of the mountains three miles from Caxamalca, and there was great excitement and wonder among the troops, as Indians from the town came into camp describing the appearance of the Spanish soldiers. The Peruvians had indeed looked with surprise and awe upon these invaders, whose white faces and long, brown hair, and glittering armor, were so different from anything they had ever seen before. And the greatest wonder of all was the fact that many of these strangers rode upon curious animals that were eager to rush into battle, and that the riders guided often with a word or motion, showing that the creatures understood human speech. These were the horses that Pizarro had brought, and they were well calculated to inspire the Peruvians with terror, for as the cavalry charged fiercely in battle, the innocent natives thought that the horse and man all formed one animal; and once, when a man fell from his horse, the Indians ran screaming away, saying that the strange animal had broken all to pieces. Even when they had grown more accustomed to seeing them their fear did not lessen, for the intelligence of the horse and his power to understand his master's speech always seemed like something half-human to the Peruvians, who had never seen horses before. The arms of the Spaniards seemed very terrible too; the flash and smoke and noise of the guns seemed to them like something supernatural, like the lightning or thunder, and frightened them so that at the first sound they were ready to throw down their weapons and fly.