Leaving a garrison to protect his retreat to the ocean, Pizarro advanced by forced marches along the great central plateau toward Cuzco. Quizquiz and the army, which had defeated and captured Huascar two years before, tried to oppose his progress, but all the calculations of the Indian general were overthrown by the incredible speed of the Spanish cavalry. The horsemen reached the neighbourhood of Cuzco without encountering any considerable force of the enemy. Here the advance guard was surprised, lost a fourth of its number, and was on the point of being overwhelmed, when the opportune arrival of the main body dispersed the Indians. Though only a small part of Quizquiz's army had taken part, this defeat badly demoralised his soldiers; it seemed impossible to make any headway against these strangers clothed in steel, mounted on great beasts, and armed with weapons which slew their opponents before the latter could got in a blow. Moreover, Quizquiz was in a hostile country, where sympathies were all with the Huascar party and where the executioners of Atahuallpa were regarded as deliverers. Manco Capac, Huascar's brother and legitimate successor, went in person to the Spanish camp to propose a formal alliance and a joint war of extermination against the Atahuallpa faction, Pizarro received him with every mark of honour and respect and renewed his assurances that the sole object of his march from Cajamarca was to crush the enemies of the rightful emperor. Quizquiz tried hard to get his forces into shape for resistance, but his position near Cuzco was untenable, and after a slight skirmish he was obliged to leave the way open to the capital. Just a year from the day he had reached Cajamarca, Pizarro entered Cuzco by the side of the legitimate emperor amid the acclamations of the people. Manco's inauguration was splendidly celebrated with all the ancient rites, but among the procession of rejoicing Incas rode an ominous cavalcade--the Spanish soldiers, who now numbered nearly five hundred.