After journeying for several days without coming within sight of Cajamarca, Pizarro sent Hernando de Soto to reconnoitre, and, a week later, was delighted to see his comrade approaching the camp in company with a personage of evident rank, who was attended by a considerable retinue, and whom De Soto presented as an ambassador from the Inca Atahuallpa. This distinguished messenger had come with his royal master’s greeting to the strangers, and an invitation for them to visit the Emperor’s camp at Cajamarca. Pizarro, through his interpreter, Felipillo, made known to the ambassador his appreciation of the Inca’s fine courtesy; at the same time, he gave strict orders that as long as the ambassador remained in the Spanish camp he was to be treated with all the respect due to the representative of a great and powerful sovereign. When the Peruvian departed, he was charged to convey the compliments of Pizarro to his royal master and to tell him that the Spaniards were the subjects of a powerful prince, who ruled beyond the sea; that they had heard of Atahuallpa’s prowess and had come to pay their respects to His Majesty and to offer the service of their army against the Inca’s enemies; and that they would wait upon the great monarch with the least possible delay. Having dismissed the Inca’s messenger, Pizarro resumed his march, choosing the route which he had been advised to take in order to reach Cajamarca as soon as possible. Embassies from the Inca continued to arrive with presents of gold, silver and rich vicuña cloths, the Spaniards sending in return ornaments of glass and other articles brought from Europe for the purpose. As they ascended the slopes of the great Andes, they observed that, instead of buildings of sun-dried bricks, such as were seen in the coast valleys, the temples and palaces were constructed of huge stones, taken from the solid rock, and so wonderfully adjusted that not a knife blade could be inserted between them, though no mortar was used in setting them.