Dominic Sandbrook

They always stab each other in the back, and you have to be on hand.

And actually, Pizarro is a shrewd guy.

For somebody who's basically, you know, is illiterate and he's come from nowhere, he's not a fool.

Because he straight away knows, I must get the king on side.

I don't want to be Cortez and end up in constant lawsuits.

You know, I must have royal approval.

So he gets his brother Hernando and he gives him a written report.

Obviously, his secretary has written this for him.

And he gives him a load of gold and he gives him some ornaments and he says, go back to the coast, go to Panama, then sail on to Spain with all this gold, with this report, go to see the king, get him to re-approve my governorship of this province because we cannot afford to be cut out by somebody else.

There's a downside, though, if Hernando Pizarro, his brother, is going off, because Atta Walper has become great pals with Hernando.

They're both kind of alpha males, and they've kind of bonded over, I don't know, drinking from their skull.

Skulls.

Vampire bat.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Red trousers made of vampire bats, while just spitting into the hands of beautiful women.

Watching the rugger together.

Yeah, exactly.

Atahualpa actually bursts into tears.

And he says, you know, I'm worried that with you gone, the others will kill me.