Manco Capac finding that Almagro was too strong to be easily ejected, retired to the mountains, but his brother Paullu remaining at Cuzco, was raised to the throne of Peru by Almagro. It was some time before all these untoward tidings reached the ears of the new Marquess Pizarro; he first heard of the attack of the city by the Inca, and imagining it to be a trivial affair, detached small parties at different periods to the assistance of his brothers; none of these reached their destination, being always cut off by the Peruvians in the narrow and difficult passes of the mountains. Some few of these people escaping from the massacre, which always took place on their being surprised, returned to Lima, and related the fate of their companions to the Marquess, who recalling all his outposts, nominated Alvarado to the command of the army, and sent him towards Cuzco, with 500 men; but being closely invested at Lima by the Peruvians, under Titu Yupanqui, a brother of Manco Capac, he sent off all his vessels to Panama, fearful that the troops might otherwise desert, and by these ships he implored assistance from the governors of New Spain and the West Indies. Alvarado, after a harassing march, and fighting severe battles with the Peruvians, halted near the bridge of _Abancay_ on the Apurimac; at which place he was met by a messenger from Almagro, insisting on his acknowledging the title he bore to the government of Cuzco. An unsatisfactory reply being sent, Almagro advanced to attack the army under Alvarado, and by dint of bribery, corrupting the greater part of it, obtained a bloodless victory on the 12th of July, 1537. Pizarro hearing nothing of his general, and receiving a strong reinforcement from Hispaniola, marched from Lima with 700 men to relieve his brothers at Cuzco from the Peruvians, not having yet heard of the usurpation of Almagro. Having marched twenty-five leagues, he received the intelligence of the death of one of his brothers, the imprisonment of the other two, and of the determined opposition of Almagro; this news so much alarmed him that he immediately returned to Lima, and dispatched a messenger to Cuzco to treat with Almagro; but that officer instead of returning an answer marched to within twenty leagues of Lima, where he was met by Pizarro who seemed earnest to heal the breach amicably; but after various endeavours to obtain this end, he found it necessary to have recourse to force; and Almagro, finding himself unable to cope with him, retreated to Cuzco, whither Ferdinand Pizarro pursued him: a dreadful battle then took place near that city, on a plain called _Salinas_ or _Cachipampa_, in which Almagro was defeated and taken prisoner, and was soon afterwards brought to trial and beheaded.