Dominic Sandbrook

And there's a brilliant book of historical detective work called The Men of Cuyamaca by James Lockhart, American historian, made in about 1970.

where he really dug into where they're all from and what they all did.

Most of them are from the poorer, more rural, western and southern parts of Spain.

So, Extremadura, Andalucia, and so on.

They're quite young, by and large.

They're in their 20s.

The more senior people are in their early 30s.

So, Pizarro, he's unusually old then.

He's a real outlier.

He's about 52, I would say.

These are not trained soldiers, by and large.

There's loads of accountants, tailors, merchants, craftsmen.

There's a barber.

There's a stonemason.

These are people who basically were... They weren't the poorest of the poor.

They were artisans, I guess, who have decided to...

you know, seek a new life and a new fortune.

And Pizarro's brother, Hernando, who fought in Italy.

So there's a couple of people with military experience.

And a lot of these people will have seen action in the Caribbean.