Note 187 — Chapter XLV

According to Garcilasso de la Vega, the Chancas encamped on the plain of Sacsahuana (Xaquixaguana), on the spot where the battle was afterwards fought between Gonzalo Pizarro and the President Gasca. The plain is described by Cieza de Leon in his first Part (p. 320 of my Translation). It is now called the plain of Surite. Here Garcilasso says that the great battle was fought between the Ynca Huira-ccocha and the Chancas (ii, p. 34). The fight raged with desperate fury from dawn until noon; when five thousand Quichuas, who until then had been in ambush, attacked the Chancas on their right flank. More reinforcements arrived, until the Chancas began to think that the very stones were turning into men. At length they broke and fled. It was called the battle of Yahuar-pampa (plain of blood).