Dominic Sandbrook

They've got no investment in him.

They say he'll be a focus for resistance.

The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that his people will turn on us.

And crucially, we want to go to Cusco to get our share of the gold.

Can we please stop hanging around?

Can we get rid?

The Spaniards can't agree, and Pizarro sends out a scouting party under Hernando de Soto to see if this northern army really is coming.

And while de Soto is away, the tension mounts.

It's cut to the chase.

There's an evening when they're playing cards, and a Spaniard comes in and says, there's more rumors.

There's people saying there are Inca troops approaching the town.

And Almagro and Pizarro have a huge row.

And then a couple of evenings later, there is another such incident.

Local people say they've seen the villagers outside fleeing before an Inca army.

The Inca army will be in Cajamarca in two days.

The moment has come.

Now, this army does not exist.

There is no attack on Cajamarca.

But as John Hemmings says in his book, the key to the story is the hysteria and the paranoia that has now seized the Spaniards.

They're in the middle of nowhere.