Tom Holland

Unfortunately, it's a very different story with Marlborough College's Pedro de Alvarado.

He has absolutely disgraced himself.

Even by his previous standards.

So basically, after he left the coast, he got completely lost in the jungle.

His men were hacking their way through the jungle, being attacked by insects and ravaged by disease.

All their stuff rusts in the humidity.

They're caught in a volcanic eruption and covered with ash.

They get through the jungle.

They emerge into the Andes.

Then they go the wrong way.

And they go up the highest mountain pass into the Andes.

So they're wading through snow drifts covered with snow.

85 Spaniards died of exposure or hypothermia because they'd gone the wrong way in this mountain pass.

But just as that bloke in Panama had predicted...

All of the Guatemalans and Alvarado's native porters and a huge mob of female camp followers literally freeze to death as well.

It's classic Alvarado.

It is.

They've all died.

He hasn't died, however.

He finally approaches Quito where he finds the other Spaniards waiting for him.