Tom Holland

He has one local chief fed to some dogs.

Because he's brought a whole load of war dogs, hasn't he?

Bloody love a dog.

A hound.

And then once he's had some fun there, he heads inland into the forest towards Quito, having enslaved hundreds of local people to act as his porters.

Big spoiler alert, this is not going to end well for the porters or indeed for anybody else associated with Pedro de Alvarado's expedition.

And the other Spaniards, the other conquistador leaders...

When Alvarado turns up, it's a bloody massacre, right?

I mean, you kind of go, oh, no.

They're shocked, actually.

And immediately, two other rival armies shoot off.

I mean, I say armies.

They're sort of expeditions to try to beat Alvarado to the gold of Quito.

So one of them goes from the coast, and it's 200 men under one of Pizarro's captains, a guy called Sebastián de Benalcázar, who is from Andalucía.

The chronicler Thiertha de León said he was a man of little knowledge, poor origin, and a low intellect, which doesn't really inspire confidence.

Yeah, but actually he does quite well, as we shall see.

And the other is Almagro, Pizarro's partner.

Imagine if you're Almagro, right?

You've already been cheated out of a load of gold once.

Now you think, well, at least I'll probably get the gold of Quito.