Tom Holland

I mean, historians, first of all, they can't agree when it happened.

Possibly 3rd of May, 1534.

They don't even agree what to call it.

So some historians call it the Battle of Teocas.

Some people call it the Battle of Mount Chimborazo.

They can't agree.

It's a massive battle that no one knows anything about.

So the Spanish chronicler, Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, claimed that there were 50,000 people fighting there.

Nine out of 10 of them were indigenous.

The Spanish are only a tiny element of this battle.

But the Spanish, because it's on the high moors, that favours the Spanish horses.

And Oviedo's account is great, actually.

He says it started with this sort of Lord of the Rings, Battle of the Pelennor Fields, charged by the Spanish cavalry.

They were all shouting, Santiago.

And I quote, "'They attacked fiercely, trampling the Indians under their horses and causing great bloodshed with their lances.

Terrible bravery and fury were shown by either side.

The Indians rallied to a cry that this was the moment to fight for their liberty.

The Spaniards shouted that their very lives were at stake.'

The Indians' bravery was exceptional, although they saw the battlefield soaked in blood and covered with the bodies of their dead.

And although they realized their doom, they fought on with marvelous vigor, lacking neither strength nor spirit.