From this desperate position they were at length relieved by the necessities of the besiegers. It was now the month of August--six months from the commencement of the siege,--and the _Inca_ Manco, whose multitudinous host was already straitened for provisions, saw that if his followers should not return to their fields at the sowing season, a famine would be the result. He accordingly gave orders that the greater part of his troops should return to their homes, to re-assemble when their agricultural labours were over. This measure, which was perhaps necessary for the Peruvians, was to the Spaniards a reprieve from death. With energy sharpened by apprehension and hunger, their foraging parties now scoured the neighbourhood for provisions, and, with the buoyancy naturally following such depression and long inaction, Hernando Pizarro was not slow in assuming the offensive. He even made a bold attempt, by a vigorous attack in the dead of night, to secure the _Inca’s_ person. This was defeated, and he was pursued by the Peruvians to before the walls of _Cuzco_; but with the necessity which compelled him to order his warriors to exchange their swords for the ploughshare, the _Inca_ lost the latest hope which remained to his countrymen of expelling the Spanish invaders. Almagro’s march, undertaken with the object of taking possession of his future government of _Chili_, was of the most arduous that could be conceived. The cold which he and his men encountered in the passes of the _Andes_ was intense, whilst the straits to which both Spaniards and their attendant Indians were reduced by hunger were so great that the former were glad of the carcases of the horses which fell victims to the climate, whilst the latter were forced to feed on the bodies of their comrades who fell. The accounts, too, received from the exploring expedition which had been sent on in advance, held out no immediate prospect of plunder; so that under these circumstances it was not difficult for his advisers to persuade Almagro to retrace his way to _Cuzco_. With the remembrance of his recent passage through the mountain defiles, he this time determined to follow the coast; but he had avoided one set of difficulties to encounter another, perhaps as great, for his route led across the great desert of _Atacama_. On reaching the town of _Arequipa_, Almagro learned for the first time the revolt of the Peruvians, and he was so fortunate, whilst on his way to _Cuzco_, as to inflict on the _Inca_ a final defeat. But before he could obtain possession of that city he had to encounter yet another foe. It was too important a prize to be yielded up without a struggle. Negotiations, it is true, took place between Almagro and the brothers of Pizarro who were in command; but in the end recourse was had to arms, with the result that the former remained master of the city of the _Incas_, whilst Hernando Pizarro and his brother were his prisoners. [Sidenote: 1537.]