Many months had passed, and many grievous misfortunes had fallen upon the Children of the Sun since Atahuallpa had been done to death in the square of Cajamarca. De Soto and his companions had returned after performing their mission only too well, since they had by fair words and splendid promises convinced the youth and inexperience of Manco that the sole object of the Spaniards and the only wish of their lord and master in Spain was the conquest and punishment of the Usurper and an honourable alliance with the true descendant and lawful heir of the ancient line of Huayna-Capac. No sooner had this end been attained by the wily conquerors than it produced just that result which they expected. The nobles of Quito, enraged at the death of their prince and the collapse of their dream of universal empire, at once asserted their independence of Cuzco, and even persuaded the old chieftain Quiz-Quiz to forget his promises to Manco and undertake single-handed the tremendous task of driving the victorious invaders back over the mountains and into the sea whence they came. Such falsehood and treachery on the part of a warrior so well proved is but one of many incomprehensible incidents in this most wonderful of all conquests. At every step the student of this last dark period of the history of the Incas is confronted and bewildered by events which, according to European ideas, ought never to have happened. At one time he sees the Inca princes and nobles acting like warriors and statesmen, at others like children and cowards. No doubt it would be possible to find many plausible reasons for their extraordinary conduct, but to seek and find such is the business of the philosophical historian. The romancer has nothing to do with them. The first result of the secession of the army of Quito was the arrest of Challcuchima by the Spaniards after they had invited him as a guest to Cajamarca to be present at the obsequies of his murdered master. They then compelled him to accompany them on their triumphal march to Cuzco, whither they set out some five hundred strong, inflamed to intoxication by the splendid accounts of the incredible wealth of the city which had been brought back by de Soto and his companions. On the road Quiz-Quiz with his own forces and those that had been Challcuchima’s beset the advancing conquerors at all the most difficult points on the way, and more than once came near to overwhelming them, but again and again the courage and discipline of the Spaniards, aided by their irresistible weapons, triumphed over all difficulties and dangers, though not without considerable cost both in men and horses, till at last in a great battle on the plain of Jauja the army of Quito was cut to pieces and scattered in fragments over the mountains. These fragments gradually came together again, and Quiz-Quiz led them back to Quito, and there at length his treachery was rewarded by a miserable death under the knives and spears of his own mutinous soldiers.