At this time the Chile faction, after they had despatched those who
were to treat for peace, were very watchful in their camp. They sent
scouts out in all directions, that their enemies might not take
them unprepared; and one day it fell to the lot of Juan Diente, an
excellent soldier and great walker, to go out scouting. He struck away
to the right of the position of Vilcas, near some snowy mountains, and
went up to the crest of a ridge to see if by chance any Spaniard might
be coming in the direction of Guamanga. Alonso García was then coming
along, and had a mind to pass that way; he was seen, however, by Juan
Diente who thought he was an Indian, as the man's dress led him to
assume. Nevertheless Diente went briskly down towards the place where
he had seen him. Alonso García, who travelled by no means unwarily,
raised his eyes to the high crests and snowy tracts above and noticed
the Spaniard coming down. Seeing that he was one of the enemy he
turned back into another path which led to some great rocks and deep
caves. Diente, who excelled him in agility, got down with no little
difficulty; and following the other's trail, his great experience
told him that the man in front was not an Indian. He went forward and
presently he overtook him already hiding in one of the caves. Though
Alonso García was a tremendous walker and a unique spy, he came at
last to be captured by Juan Diente, who was a better, though no other
man in the country was his equal. Having secured him, Diente took him,
as a prisoner, to the camp at Vilcas; where, in obedience to military
exigency, and notwithstanding that he had been a soldier of the old
Adelantado's, they tortured him until he confessed that he came as
a spy, and with letters from Vaca de Castro, and other things. In
payment for his activities, and the mischief those activities would
have brought upon the men of Chile if Juan Diente had not outwitted
and captured him, Don Diego ordered that Çamarilla should be hanged.
When they were about to fix the rope round his neck he said these
words: "By the pass in which I am, I tell you that there are a
thousand and one hundred fighting men against you, very well equipped,
and thoroughly bent on your destruction. This I say because, although
you are taking my life, it irks me that you should be undone." Then
the rope was tightened, and he yielded up his soul.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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