1. The traitor was beginning to have some fears of his ultimate success, seeing that his men were deserting him, that the king's men showed so bold a front, and even came up to the walls of his quarters, and that his Indian servants were taken from him. With the concurrence of those he considered as his best friends, he resolved that sixty of them should sally forth in search of provisions that night, and fire into the king's camp, in the hope of doing them harm, and that about daybreak they should be retiring, for at that hour he would come out with the rest of his people to their help.

He gave the command of this expedition to Roberto de Susaya, the captain of his guard, and to Christobal Garcia, captain of infantry. They commenced their foray in the direction of the king's camp, when, after a time, they passed, near to the captain Romero (who had settled Villa Rica, which he afterwards removed to another spot), who, with some companions, were coming from his town to help the king's party. Romero, in the stillness of the night, heard the trooping sounds of the sixty Marañones, and, putting spurs to his horse, he and his followers lost no time in galloping to the king's camp, and giving the alarm; however it is said by some, that what Romero heard was not a noise caused by the Marañones, as they were far from the road he travelled on, but that it was caused by some wild mares and foals, which, scenting the horses of Romero's party, began to run about.