The Spanish army, following a long and difficult journey from Panama throughout which many had fallen to virulence, predation, and other hazards, had docked at the Inca city of Tumbes in April.

[3]: 142 The path to war was first triggered by Pizarro's native interpreters, who warned him, perhaps falsely, that several Punian chiefs had gathered to plan an insurrection.

Pizarro had the chiefs captured, interrogated, and, apparently satisfied with their guilt, delivered to their traditional enemies at Tumbes where they were duly massacred by the Incas.

As the natives approached, many were met head on with deadly rows of lowered pikes, the use of which the Spanish had long mastered in the great wars of Italy and Flanders.

[3]: 143 The natives regrouped in the island's forests and thenceforth waged a guerrilla war to some success, destroying Spanish provisions and waylaying several scouts.