Tom Holland

The Spanish go into Xaucha and they find that the northerners have left behind 600 men to set fire to the storehouses.

So the Spanish charge, they drive off the northerners and they save some of the gold.

And then there's a bit of a chase as the Spanish are chasing basically the rear guard of the northern army through this valley.

And this is clearly one of many little, you get this little snippet

behind which lies a much bigger story that is unknown to us.

The pursuit continued for four leagues and many Indians were speared.

We took all the serving people and many beautiful women.

There was a good haul of both gold and silver.

And just in those words, we took all the serving people and many beautiful women.

You don't have to be too cynical to imagine that what the fate that befalls the many beautiful women is not a pleasant one at all.

There's probably a lot of this stuff happening offstage.

Now, during all this, when the Spanish are probably behaving very badly, a wholly unexpected development.

During the journey, the young emperor, puppet emperor Tupac Hualpa, has fallen ill.

And we have no idea whatsoever what he fell ill with.

Isn't there a rumor that Chalcochima had poisoned him?

Yes, I think almost certainly rubbish.

I think this is part of the blackening of his name.

I mean, the blackening, he's already blackened, remember?

Yeah.

But now they're blackening him metaphorically.