Dominic Sandbrook

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.

They're thousands of miles from home.

They're surrounded by 12 million people.

They're absolutely terrified now this gold is going to be taken from them and they're going to be attacked.

They've never fought an Inca army, actually.

They've attacked effectively unarmed Incas in the square.

But that's not the same as a pitched battle where the Incas are attacking them.

I mean, I'd be paranoid in their shoes.