The Rest Is History - The Fall of the Incas: Massacre in the Andes (Part 2)

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

What happened when the Spanish conquistadors lead by Francisco Pizarro came face to face with the ruthless emperor of the Incan Empire, Atahualpa? How did the Incas treat their strange, pale, alien visitors with their horses? And, why did a brutal, bloody fight to the death break out between the two sides after the meeting? Join Dominic and Tom, as they discuss one of the most totemic meetings of all time - the emperor of the Incas Atahualpa and the Spanish buccaneer Francisco Pizarro. Would either survive the confrontation that ensued? Become a member today and join us at The Rest Is History Festival at Hampton Court Palace on the 4th and 5th of July 2026. This is a members-only event. Join the Athelstans for guaranteed entry or become a Friend of the Show to enter the ballot. You'll also get ad-free listening, bonus episodes, exclusive miniseries and more.Sign up now at ⁠therestishistory.com and find out more about the festival here.UTM: http://therestishistory.com/club?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=trihfestival&utm_term=listeners&utm_content=episodedescription _______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Video Editors: Jack Meek + Harry Swan Social Producer: Harry Balden Producers: Tabby Syrett & Aaliyah Akude  Executive Producer: Dom Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Searchlight Pictures presents in the blink of an eye on Hulu on Disney Plus, a sweeping science fiction drama spanning the Stone Age, the present day, and the distant future, about the essence of what it means to be human, regardless of our place in history. The film is directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Andrew Stanton and stars Rashida Jones, Kate McKinnon, and David Diggs. Stream in the blink of an eye now only on Hulu on Disney Plus. Sign up at Disneyplus.com. Hello everybody. Now we promise that we would be back with more news about the thrilling Rest is History Festival. And we can now reveal some more of the massive names who will be joining us at Hampton Court Palace on the 4th and 5th of July this year. One of them is the brilliant Tracy Borman who will be joining us to talk about the secrets of the Tudors. And the other, another massive fan favourite is Katia Hoyer, who will be talking about. her new work on Weimar, Germany. So I will be joined by Mary Beard to talk about what else Rome.

And I will also be joined by friend of the show, Ali and Sari, to talk about what else Persia. I will also be joined by massive fan favourite and Irish national treasure, Paul Rouse, who will be joining us to talk about the history of Ireland. And I will be joined by Helen Castor to talk about very appropriately, considering that we're at Hampton Court, Elizabeth I first. A few names left to announce and you'll be able to find the full lineup on the new Rest Is History website very soon. But Tom, the one thing that's puzzling me, how will our listeners be able to join us at this new festival? Well, Dominic, the answer is very simple. They will have to become members of the Rest Is History Club because this festival is exclusive to members of the Restless History Club.

If you are a member, you can enter the ballot for two tickets. Now, you might think, I'd actually don't want to enter the ballot. I'd like guaranteed tickets. And the way to do that is to become an Afflestan, because if you're one of our Athelstan members, then you are guaranteed access to two tickets. So you are going to receive full details via email. And if you would like any extra information on the festival,

on the ballot, on the guests, whatever, then click the link in the episode description. So for a chance to join us at the inaugural Rest Is History Festival, sign up to the club today at therestishistory.com because believe me, this is something that you won't want to miss. Have you ever climbed a mountain in full armour? Well, that's what we did. Pizarro going first the whole way up a tiny path into the clouds with drops sheer on both sides into nothing. For hours, we crept forward like blind men. The sweat freezing on our faces, lugging, skittery, leaking horses, and pricked all the time for the ambush that would tip us into death.

Each turn of the path, it grew colder. The friendly trees of the forest dropped away. and there were only pines. Then they went two, and there just scrubby little bushes standing up in ice. All round us the rocks began to whine with cold, and always above us or below us, those filthy condor birds hanging on the air with great tasseled wings.

Then night, we lay down twos and threes together on the path and hugged like lovers for warmth in that. burning cold and most cried. We got up with cold iron for bones and went on, four days like that groaning, not speaking the breath a blade in our lungs, four days slowly like flies on a wall, limping flies, dying flies, up an endless wall of rock. A tiny army lost in the creases of the moon. So that was Old Martin in Peter Schaffer's play The Royal Hunt of the Sun, which came out in 1964. I'm going to confess I had no idea really how to play him. I've tried out a range of tones and accents and voices.

The voice changed from line to line, no? Yeah, I did. Dominant, I'm assuming that all the readings for the series are going to be coming from this play, are they? No, I don't think they are. No. Oh, because I thought that over the process of the six episodes we're doing, I could, maybe by episode six, I would finalise how old Martin should actually have spoken. Because his narrative stops too soon.

Oh, okay. Yeah, we'll have to find some other readings for the later episodes. Okay, so whatever one thinks of Old Martin and how he should be speaking, what he is doing there is describe the point in our story, where the Spanish conquistadors are inching their way through the Andes towards their showdown with the Inca Emperor at Hualpa. And Dominic, we've said it before. we're going to say it again, this is one of the most dramatic confrontations in history.

It is up there with Cortez meeting Moctezuma. It is that seismic. It is. It is an amazing scene in the play, actually. So it ends with the Spanish on the hillside above the town of Chiamauga, where they're due to meet at a whelper. And Martin says, you could almost touch the silence. Up on the hill, we could see the Inca's tents and the light from his fires ringing the valley. It's the sense of gathering tension and excitement.

very, very dramatic moment. And that is the story we are telling today. So they're meeting with Atta Welper and what happens next. So let's just remind listeners where we got to. So the years 1532, the veteran conquistador Francisco Pizarro has landed in Peru with around 200 men looking for adventure, for glory and for gold. And he is convinced that somewhere south along the Pacific coast is this rich and sophisticated kingdom. And of course he is right. This kingdom is Tawantinsoyo, the land of the four quarters, or as we would call it, the Empire of the Inca's. One of the largest empires in the world at this point, from their heartland in Cusco, the Inca's ruled about 12 million people, all the way from Colombia and Ecuador in the north

to Chile in the south. Pizarro has made a stunning discovery. He's landed at a place called Tumbes, and he has discovered that the empire is in chaos. There's been ravaged by smallpox and by this fratricidal civil war between two claimants to the throne, Huasca, the older, brother, who is based in Cusco, and Atahualpa, the younger, who is formerly his viceroy in Quito in Ecuador. So a very Game of Throne-style struggle for the throne. And now Pizarro and his men. So that is his brothers, Hernando Gonzalo Arjuan, and his lieutenant, Ernando de Soto, great horseman, posh, but sinister, and short. They can see their opening.

If they can profit from the Inca's divisions, then maybe they can emulate Pizarro's cousin, Ernan Cortez, the conqueror of the Aztecs. So let's pick up the story from where we left off. It is midwinter, which means it's what we would call summer in Peru. Pizarro is still in the far north-western corner. He is about 900 miles north of modern-day Lima, so that is about 1,300 miles. north of Cusco, the Inca capital. Is there a road that goes straight there, though?

No, a series of roads. The Incas have built this incredible road network. So it's actually not as far as it might sound. Well, it's still far, but it's... Yeah, but it's, you know, you don't have to hack your way through jungles or anything to get. No, there's not too much hacking, but there's a lot of crossing of rope bridges. And everyone knows that's dangerous. Fatiginous ascents and dissents and stuff like that.

Lama action. Exactly. But Pizarro wants to make sure that his governorship, that he has been awarded by, the Spanish king is on firm foundations. So the first thing he does is to establish a new town. This is from his cousin Cortez's Mexican playbook. This is what Cortez had done. You establish a town, you establish a municipal government, and that gives you the legal foundation that means you can't be challenged for governorship of this country. Can I ask you, Dominic, what has Charles the fifth licensed Pizarro to do? Is the notion that Pizarro will turn up, found a city,

and that the Inca's will be so peaceable that they'll just go, that's great. And if they don't, is there a license to kind of attack them with horses and gunpowder and stuff? So as we will discover, under the regulations from I think 1513, the Council of Castile, you read in this thing called the requirement, which explains to them the history of the world, the story of Jesus and the fact that Charles V, the King of Spain, has been licensed by the Pope to export Christianity. to the Americas. When you read them this, they are legally bound to submit to Vasselage. And if they don't, you can kill them. So that essentially is the legal framework? Yes, exactly. But is

is bizarro expecting that he's going to have to fight? Yeah, I'm sure he is. Or is he hoping that perhaps they could arrive at a mutually acceptable accommodation? I think ideally they'll reach an accommodation, but violence is always part of the Spanish repertoire. And everywhere the Spanish have been, so in the Caribbean, in Ivory Island, in Meso America, in Central America, everywhere they have been, theatrical terror has been an important part of their armory. I just wonder, they, because it is very punchy even by the stance of the Spanish, to invade an empire consisting of 12 million people with under 200 people. Yeah, it is. I mean, some people might say, you might say bonkers,

If it were not for the fact that we all know that they do it. I know. He's thinking he's going to get reinforcements, that they're going to arrive at any moment. Are the Spanish going to think of Atulper as a usurper? So does that invalidate him as someone with whom they can negotiate? No, I don't think so straight away. But I think the further they get, the more they realize the divisions of the Civil Wars are a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for them.

Initially, they think of Atwalpa as a potential collaborator. Yeah, that's what they want, really. That's what all empires want. They don't want to fight unnecessarily. they may have to, but ideally everyone will collaborate with them. And in fact, the Spanish will find pensive people who collaborate with them in the Inca Empire, as they did with the Aztecs. It's kind of opportunistic militarism, then, is basically their mood. Yeah, I think that's the right way of putting it.

So Pizarro moves out on the 24th of September with his men. He's left some men behind to found this new town, San Miguel de Tangarada. And what that means is that he now has, what is it, 167 men plus him. So 61 horsemen, 106 infantry. And there's a brilliant book of historical detective work called The Men of Kayamaka by James Lockhart, American historian, in about 1970, where he really dug into where they were all from and what they all did. Most of them are from the poorer, more rural, western and southern parts of Spain to extra madura, you know, Andalutia 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. Yeah. These are not trained soldiers by and large. There's loads of accountants, tailors, merchants, craftsmen. There's a barber.

There's a stone mason. 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. There are some, aren't there? There's the Creighton guy, the artillery man. So it's good to have him on the scene. He's come with Pizarro and some guns. 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. And that involved basically killing defenseless indigenous people, natives. That's the action that they're used to. They're not trained professional soldiers by any means. And why are they here? They are here really for money. Some of them are there for advice. venture. Some of them may be there for crusading zeal. You know, the Dominicans, for example. There are

five or six Dominicans who are with them. Yes, of course, Dr. Valverdey among them. Exactly. But there's a transactional element. When they've got their gold, they either settle down with a farm in Peru, or a lot of them will go back to Spain. That's the plan. So anyway, they set off 24th of September. It's a grueling, grueling trudge. So as one account puts it, there was much sun, little shade, much sand, and no water. Because this part of Peru is a kind of coastal desert plain. So they're making good time, about 14 miles a day. They're absolutely fascinated by what they see.

I mean, they write these fantastic accounts, the temples, the llamas, the very well-ordered roads and bridges, the storehouses of food by the roadside. I mean, that's a very good sign as far as they're concerned. Because that means there is a lot of order and civilization if there are sort of well-maintained storehouses. Do they note with surprise the lack of wheels? I think it becomes obvious why there's no. the wheels because there were no horses. And whenever they go, people shy away from the horses are absolutely astonished and horrified. A horse is a very frightening thing, I think, if you've

never seen a horse. And we know throughout the Americas, when the Spanish turned up with horses, people were absolutely stupefied and amazed and frightened. So they're beginning to attract attention. At one point, a messenger hails them on the road, and he says, I have been sent by Huasca, the defeated brother, by his faction at least. He has heard that you have come to bring justice to Peru, and he wants to ask for your protection. And Pizarro gives him a kind of non-committal answer. He says, where there's injustice, you know, we'll put it right,

but nothing more than that. There's also a very weird incident quite early on, when the Spanish notice a kind of young man hanging around their camp and sort of lurking generally, and he's dressed as a sort of street peddler and he has this huge shawl that he wears over his head and shoulders to protect him from the sun

and he's always trying to get him to buy his trinkets and they call him Apu Apu is very interested in their horses and their swords and actually it turns out that Apu is a spy sent by Atta Welper. So not a very good one. Not a terribly good one, no. Now, I mentioned Atta Welper,

what's he up to, the emperor? Or at least the would be emperor. He's been fighting his brother. He has made camp about 300 miles away in the mountains near the town of Kayamaka. His priority is not the Spanish. It is the civil war. So he's waiting for news from the south

where his commander, who has the excellent name of Kiskees, is leading the final assault on Kuzko. So when he gets news that a load of blokes with beards have turned up on the coast, they've been looting villages, they've been behaving poorly in storehouses, helping themselves to the food, they've been very rude to some of the locals.

he's perturbed, you know, what's all this, but he's not especially frightened. Apu reports back and says the Spanish are an absolute shambles, actually. Yeah, he says they're kind of villains, aren't they? Kind of indigence and robbers. Yeah, exactly. He says they're just an absolute bunch of rogues. Apu actually says, I think we should let them come, kill them all, except for three, because three of them are worth something.

They've got a blacksmith who makes swords, amazing swords. amazing swords. We should keep him. We should keep the guy who's the horse tamer because he can control these incredible beasts. And quite sweetly, he says we should keep the barber because he makes men look young again. Nice. By shaving them. By shaving them, presumably. So there are people in Peru who do have beards. I guess so. I don't know. I was thinking about this. Surely. And Ian's a clean shaven, surely, relatively clean shaven. I don't know. But I mean, because the whole stuff about bearded men coming. Yeah, exactly. It's important, isn't I suppose a Spanish beard is larger and bulkier than an Andean beard.

An Andean beard? You never really would see an Andean beard particularly, would you? It's always about beards, isn't it, in history? Anyway, Atte Welp is entreat by all this, and he sends one of his senior officers called Sikin Chara to investigate. Confusingly, some chronicles say Sikin Chara is the same person as Apu, and some chronicles say he isn't. So, listeners can decide for themselves. The rich unknowability of history, isn't it? Of the past.

Sikincharra, whether he's a person. poo or not, he arrives at this provincial capital called Kashas on the 10th of October and he finds that Anando de Soto, the dashing horseman, has already arrived with a scouting party. And who have we here? Now, unfortunately, Sassoto is behaving very poorly. So Kashas, this place, has a college attached to its sun temple. And the college houses 500 Ayayas, which are young women from noble families who are have been chosen for their bloodline or their beauty.

And basically they will spend four years weaving cloth and brewing beer for the emperor. They're sort of virgins of the temple, I suppose. Vestal virgin equivalent. Exactly. Soto and his men have dragged them out into the square and are busy divvying them up among themselves. Sikin Chara is appalled when he sees this, but obviously he can't really do anything about it because he can't match the Spanish muscle.

He introduces himself to Soto. Soto says, great. when we're finished with his women, I'll take you back to Pizarro, which he does. They go back to Pizarro's camp. Sikincharra is very cool, actually, and we're told he entered as casually as if he'd been brought up all his life among Spaniards. This is because, of course, he's on home territory, and he's an important person, he's used to being treated with respect.

This leads me to believe, by the way, that he's not Apu, because if you'd been hanging around and ashore pretending to sell trinkets and then you return, you would look shame-faced, I think. But, I mean, not to do him down. I mean, he's obviously very, very cool. customer. You have to have incredible courage to turn up and confront these terrible men. He's brought them some nice gifts, though. He's brought them two pots that are shaped as forts, weirdly, and some skinned ducks. And the Spanish take the gifts, and it's amusing, actually.

The Spanish are convinced themes must have some secret meaning or overthinking. So they're kind staring at the pot. They're massively overthinking at. They're like, did the pots mean? There were a lot of castles. And what about the ducks? They were skin. alive. That's what the Spanish say. They think that they're going to be skinned alive like the ducks. Actually, I think he's just giving them something to eat. Anyway, Sikin Chara spends two days in the camp. He makes a note of everything. And finally, he says to Pizarro, listen, the emperor would like you to continue to Chiamaka and he will grie you personally. And Pizarro is like, brilliant. This is what he wants. So he sends Sikin Chara back. He says, here's a lovely gift for the you and for

the emperor, a nice linen shirt. We've got two glass goblets from Venice and some scissors. and some combs and a mirror. So back they go with the gifts. Now, important to say at this point, some people may be listening to this and thinking, do the Inca's believe that the Spaniards are gods, which is a thing you often hear as you do about the conquest of Mexico. There was absolutely no evidence for this whatsoever.

The Inca's definitely didn't think they were gods. But they thought they might be, I mean, some Inca seem to have thought they might be messengers of the gods. So the Vera Koccha, the creator god, they call them, these are viracotchas. Yeah, Viracotas messengers or sons of Viracotta, exactly. And there is that kind of Quetzal-comatal stuff that you have in Mexico with the idea of bearded men coming from the sea and that these are veracotches. I'm not sure about that, Tom. I don't agree

with that. I think for a couple of reasons. First of all, I think people end up, even in the 16th century, conflating the two conquests and taking details from one and putting them in the other as the stories are repeated and written down by other chroniclers, by basically, it's that classic thing that historians do. The myths are repeated in secondary histories, and then people stop questioning them. But the thing about they are the sons of Viracotta or the messengers of Viracotta or whatever,

this is almost certainly either a literary formula or it's a courtesy. I don't think people think they are literally sent by the gods because the way the Inca's behave towards them is exactly as they would behave if they thought there were other human beings like themselves. Yeah, accepted. But just to kind of slightly push on this,

the Inca's are living among chaos. Their empire is being swept by plague. There is this terrible civil war. And now these peculiar people with mad animals have turned up. Yeah. Is there a sense of the kind of the Incan cosmology of different ages of cycles of time? And might this be presaging a new cycle of time?

a kind of apocalyptic sense. I think there is. I mean, there's definitely an apocalyptic there. There's definitely a strain. There were stories of the end of the world and things like that. But you don't get a massive sense that people think this is the end of days. These people are the heralds of some terrible doom, all of this kind of thing. I think actually most people are making much more pragmatic political considerations.

I mean, you can do both, can't you? Rather than apocalyptic or eschatological ones. We don't have really that much evidence of people thinking in apoconial. But we do have evidence about them making kind of Machiavellian calculations about what they can do with this new variable of 168 people with the horses in particular. I think that's what Atta Welper is doing, by the way. I think Attawelper is sitting there in Chiamarker. He's thinking about the Civil War. All the evidence actually for the next year or so is that that's pretty much all Attawelper is thinking about is the Civil War. I think he thinks

these will be excellent mercenaries. Or if he can kill him. them, get their horses, get the guy who can make the swords for him. Yes, of course. You know, it's literally a cutting edge, isn't it? Exactly. That, I think that's, I think their military technology really interests him and he thinks brilliant. I can use this to finish off Huascar's faction, complete my victory in the civil war.

There's no reason for him to think this is an existential threat. The Spaniards, of course, know what happened in Mexico to Montezuma. He doesn't know. He's never heard of the Spaniards before. I mean, even at this stage, they are maybe. thinking, a decapitation strategy, you capture the top man, maybe some of his family, some of the elite, and then you leave the empire leaderless, it worked for Anne-Cortez, it worked for your cousin, Francisco, maybe it'll work for you.

I guess that kind of, you know, capturing leading people is in the DNA of the Spanish. I mean, it's in the DNA of all Christians. I mean, all that 100 years of all stuff. Yeah. Capturing people and using that to get money is what European social. just do. Isn't it 1527? They invaded the Rome, sacked Rome, took the Pope prisoner. Thereby causing the English Reformation. Yeah. Exactly. So the Spanish are coming closer and closer just as old Martin describes in that reading from the play. They turn inland from the

Pacific and they go up into the Andes. They go up through this valley through the cotton fields, into the canyons. They're now about 13,000 feet above sea level. So they're breathless, they're cold. It's absolutely freezing. There's no shelter. They're very, very anxious because they can see people watching them the whole time from kind of watch towers. I cannot imagine doing it. It's crazy. It just seems insane behavior. Anando Pizarro said, you know, they could have finished us off at any time.

We couldn't use the horses on the mountain roads. Off the roads, we could take neither horses nor foot soldiers. We were completely vulnerable snaking along these kind of mountain passes. And the incabs are watching us, but they're not acting. And actually we know from, well, we get a sense from later chronicles and things, that some of Atalpa's counsellors said, why are you letting these people come? Why not just strike now and kill them all? And Attaelper says to them, it is folly to be so concerned about 170 men. Let's find out who they are. What are we got to lose? Let them keep coming. He really wants to see the horses. He wants to see these guys who have strange weapons that make an explosion and everyone runs away. And it's a bit different from Montezuma. Montezuma was in his capital in the palace. Atta Welper is with his army. He's in a military camp with 80,000 men. Why would he be frightened about fewer than 200? He's just won a very bloody civil war. I mean, no one can be in any doubt that he's ready to crush his enemies if he has to. Right, exactly. On the 9th of November, they get another messenger from Atta Welper. The messenger brings them 10 lamas as a gift. And he's a He says, the emperor is at the hot springs near Kiamauga outside Kiyamauga. Their five days march away, he's looking forward to seeing you.

They make slow progress, and five days later, they reached the last village before the Valley of Kaimarka, which is called Zavana. They've now been on the road for 52 days, six months in total since they left the coast because they've dalled at first. Another messenger brings them food from Atuelpa says he can't wait, looking forward to seeing you. And Pizarro says to his men, right, get ready for battle now. We're pretty close.

So that's the 14th. The next day is the 15th. The path rises for the last time in the mountains, and they reach the highest pointed around midday. And they look down and they see the valley of Kiamauga. It's only a few miles wide. It's very fertile, fields of cotton plantations. They can see the stone buildings of the town glinting in the sunlight.

And then beyond that, four miles behind the town, they can see this what looks like a sea of white shapes. And these are the tents of Attewell Pazami. tens of thousands strong. So to quote one of the conquistadors, so many tents were visible that we were filled with great apprehension. We never thought that Indians, his terminology in not mine, could maintain such a proud estate, nor have so many tents in such good order. It filled all of us Spaniards with fear and confusion, but it was not appropriate to show any fear, far less to turn back. And so Pizarro says, come on then, let's do this. And they spur their horses, and they're

to descend the path towards the town of Kiamauga. God. So they approached the wall of Kiamauga. They go through the gate. Carmarka today is a very kind of handsome Spanish colonial town. At the time, it was an Inka town of about 2,000 people. And when they get there, there's hardly anybody there. The streets are deserted, quiet.

There are no people to be seen. One Spanish memoirist said later, all we could hear was the ghostly keening of women. singing of the death that awaits the strangers who have provoked the wrath of the great Inca. I mean, that's pretty terrifying. So they press on, they go past a sun temple, they go past another of these convents, and they emerge into this main square of Chiamarkham. Now, very important for people to get this into their heads.

This square is surrounded on three sides by these kind of long, low stone buildings, which were basically, they're 200 yards long, and each of these buildings had about 20 doors in it. And basically what they were, they were called Kalankas, and they were used as dormitories for people who came through the town to work in the kind of labor gangs or in the army, or even pilgrims arriving for religious festival or something like that. They're there surrounded by these long, low buildings in the middle of this square. And there's no one else there. And it starts to rain. And they say, well, let's go into these buildings. And they go and take shelter in the barracks.

Dominant, also, can I just ask, in the middle of this square, there's a, kind of a ceremonial platform, isn't there? So that's also going to play a part. Exactly. So Pizarro and his captains gather around. They have for a little council of war. And they're all very nervous. You know, there's no one here. What's going on? I mean, how could you not be nervous? Of course. I'm not knocking them. That's the sound like you're judging them. I wouldn't be nervous. From the heart of the Cotswolds. Yeah. He sends his lieutenant, Anando de Soto, he says, I want you to go over to Attawell, go over to his camp, wherever he is. He's at these hot springs or whatever they are. Take 15 of your best horsemen. Take one of the

interpreters with you. The Spanish can't agree, whether it's Felipe or Martineo. Don't they know the difference. Find out what he wants, what his plan is, you know, where does he want us to stay, all of this. Soto goes off with the cavalry, 15 men. And Francisco goes for a walk with his brother Anando. And Anando goes with him and says, I think we made a mistake, actually. You've just sent our best horsemen off to Atta Welper. But there's only 15 of them. And if the Inca's turn on them, you know, it's curtains for them.

And Francisco says, yeah, you're right, actually. You go after them. Take 20 more men and go after them. And Anando does. And that's very lucky for us and for everyone listening to this podcast, because among the men that Anando takes are people who wrote books about it afterwards. So there's a guy called Miguel de Estete and there's a guy called Diego de Trujillo. And they both wrote long Iowinnous accounts of the meeting,

which of course, in traditional Spanish conquistula fashion, disagree with each other on the details. But anyway, so Anando is following Soto along the stone road, which goes out for four miles from the town to a place called Pulta Marka. Today it's called Banyos del Inca, the baths of the Inca, which tells you what it was like, because it's basically a spring. It's a spa. Attawalper is taking the waters there.

And to get there, they have to go pass through Atowalper's army. It's all the tents. And Estete in his account says, you know, we were absolutely terrified, advancing through these ranks and ranks of soldiers who are just staring at us in silence. But having to kind of convey a sense of cool and fortitude. Yeah, of course. Imagine. It's like the bit in apocalypse now when they arrive at Marlon Brando's camp and all the tribesmen

are just sort of staring at them silently. It's like that. And finally, they get through the camp and there's Attauilper's sort of palace building. his country house or whatever it is. This stone building with two towers and there's about 400 warriors guarding it and all they can hear is the water bubbling in the pipes and pools of the hot springs,

just this deathly silence. And their interpreter says we'd like to see the emperor and no one, you know, Atta well but doesn't come out. And Anando Pizarro, who's very hot-tempered, start shouting, tell that dog to come out. God, it's lucky they didn't speak Spanish.

Yeah. And eventually, a nobable, There are a nobleman appears, and it's their old mate, Sikincharra. And there's some form of interaction, very garbled, actually. And eventually the moment comes where they will see the emperor. Though what's unclear from the accounts is if they go in or Atalpa comes out, I think they go in, actually. Apu isn't around. Well, Apu may be Sikincharra.

This is the confusing thing. So, while all the accounts so garbled, this cuts to the confusion of the story. The Spaniards themselves are very confused because they don't really. really know what's going on. They don't speak a word of Ketua. They're in this new land. They might as well be on an alien planet. Weird people, weird customs, all this. And their interpreters are useless. So whoever is there, either Felipe or Martineo, they stumble and stutter, they must be frightened themselves. They're stumbling and stuttering over their words. And actually, when they do talk to Attawalpa, Attawapa at one point says, off the interpreter,

what does this fellow mean stammering from one word to another and from one mistake to the next as if he were dumb? How do we know he said that? Because the interpreter must have translated. How can we trust the interpreter if they're useless? Well, I think it's highly unlikely you'd make that up about yourself. The emperor is saying that I'm a useless translator. You're not going to make that up.

But anyway, throughout this story runs this thread of misunderstanding, possibly deliberate misinformation. In the Aztec story, listeners will recall that Melinchei, may well have been manipulating the whole thing. And we just don't know about these interpreters, these boys, whether they were making stuff up or whatever. Anyway, this is now the moment when they first lay eyes on the emperor. To quote one conquistador, he was seated on a small stool very low on the ground

as the Turks and moors are accustomed to sit, with all the majesty in the world, surrounded by all his women and with many chiefs near him. And they describe him, probably in his early 30s. He's got long black hair. He wears his hair long because he's been injured in the Civil War in the ear and he's covering that up. Oh, that's bad if you're a big ear, isn't it? Yes, I guess so, exactly.

So that's probably why he grows his hair. He has a brightly coloured cloak. He's got this thing on his brow, which is the crown, this circlet of red wool, threaded with gold and this kind of red tassel that hangs above his eyes. And this crown is called the mascapecha, which is the crown of the Sapa Inca. but he's sitting on the stool and he doesn't move. He doesn't even look at them. And they advance closer. Strangely, they're still on horseback. I don't quite know how this works, whether he's come out or they've gone in, but they're still on their horses because we are told Soto's horse was so close to Attawelper that the breath from its nostrils stirred the tassel. But still,

Attawalpa doesn't show a flicker of emotion. Well, that speaks very well of his courage, doesn't it? Very well, because they're terrified of the horses. Toto takes a gold ring off his finger and he hands it to Atta whelper. And he says, with the translator speaking, he says, I give you this as a token of peace and friendship. Atta Welper puts out his hand. He takes the ring, but he still won't meet Soto's eye and he doesn't show a flicker of emotion. And Soto then gives a prepared speech. He says, I come on behalf of the mighty king, King Charles.

He has appointed Francisco Pizarro as governor of these lands. And Pizarro would be absolutely thrilled if you would come and see him in the town. Atalpa says nothing, and he still doesn't raise his eyes. And one of his nobleman speaks up through the interpreter and says, you know, the Sapa Inca is not going to be going anywhere. This is the last day of his ritual fast in celebration of his victory in the war. And he will not be accompanying you. And Anando Pizarro at this point completely loses patience.

And he says, well, for God's sake, man, when you look at us or whatever, He shouts at Atta whelper. And now for the first time Attawalper raises his eyes to meet them. His eyes are blazing with fury. They are implacable. And they are, if they could be cold and blazing, they're both blazing and cold. And his eyes meet theirs. And now, at last, he speaks.

Are you leaving us on that cliffhanger? On that, yeah. Oh, my God. Unbearable tension. Well, we're better going to have a break and listen to some adverts or something. Unless, of course, you'll remember of the rest of history club. Anyway, we will be back to find out what Atada Welper has to say to the Spaniards. This episode is brought to you by Claude, by Anthropic.

Now, history lives in the contradictions. Yeah, I've always been fascinated by the great mysteries of history. Like, what happened to the Maya civilization of Central America? Why were all those great cities deserted? But Tom, there's one mystery that's all. fascinated you, isn't there? Yes, Dominic. I've always been fascinated by the question of how humans came to make and use fire. How did that originate? And a tremendous discovery was announced just last year that the place where it seems fire was invented was Suffolk. Well, do you know,

one of the things that makes history so fascinating is the kind of back and forth between sources to try and explain these great mysteries. And you know what's built for that kind of thinking? Claude is built for that way of thinking. It doesn't smooth things over. It helps you dig into the disagreement to reveal something new. Anthropic just committed to not running adverts in Claude. So your thinking stays yours. Try Claude for free at clod.a.ai slash rest is history. Hello everybody and welcome to the book club, a new podcast from Gollhanger. Hosted by me, Dominic Sambrook. And me, Tabitha Siread.

As some of you may know, I've been Dominic's producer on The Rest's History. And we even did a mini-series last year about all things books. And since we enjoyed that so much, we have decided to roll it out as its own show. So it'll be coming out every Tuesday. We'll be doing a different book each time and digging into all the stories behind them. And we are going to be talking about the historical contexts behind some of the greatest and most famous books of all time. We're going to be digging into the remarkable people behind them, the unexpected stories behind the stories, and also unraveling the plot of each book a bit and delving into the depths of the story.

Now, you don't have to have read the books to listen to the show, but we hope that by the end of each episode, you will be able to pretend to people that you've read them. That is the key thing. And either way, whether you read them or not, we hope that you'll learn lots of fascinating facts, you'll do lots of great stories, and maybe Tabby, the odd laugh. We will be looking at thrilling, gothic bodice rippers like Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein, as well as iconic stories like The Great Gatsby or Little Women. And then also some more modern stuff.

So Game of Thrones, Normal People, The Hunger Games, Hamlet, all manner of exciting stories. So please join us on our journey into all things books, wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for The Book Club every Tuesday and hopefully we will see you there. You don't need AI agents, which may sound weird coming from Service Now, the leader in AI agents. The truth is, AI agents need you.

Sure, they'll process, predict, even get work done autonomously. But they don't dream, read a room, rally a team, and they certainly don't have shower thoughts, pivotal hallway chats, or big ideas. People do.

And people, when given the best AI platform, they're freed up to do the fulfilling work they want to do. To see how ServiceNow puts AI to work for people, visit ServiceNow. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to The Rest is History. It is the 15th of November 1532. We are outside the town of Kamaka and Anando de Soto and Anando Pizarro are face to face with the emperor of the Inca's the redoubtable, terrifying Attawalper with his, what was it, Dominic, his blazing and ice cold eyes. Yeah. And so there's been a very tense standoff and now Attawalper has raised. those blazing and ice-cold eyes to meet the eyes of the Spaniards. He's about to speak. And Dominic, what does he say? Nothing good. He says, I've heard complaints about you from my men in the north. My captain in San Miguel sent to tell me that you've treated the chiefs badly and threw them into chains.

And he sent me an iron collar. He says that he killed three Christians and one horse. And Anando Pizarro now does all the talking. And he is a very undiplomatic man. He says, your men in San Miguel were women. They were no better than women. One horse was enough to conquer the whole land. And when you see us fight, you will know what kind of men we are. And Attau Elper then says, and this goes back to something you were saying in the first half-ton. He says, I could have stopped you coming, but I chose not to. I know you are the sons of Viracoccha. You are messengers from our God king, Pachucati. Your coming was foretold by my father, Hwena Capac. So I gave orders that nobody. was to stop or harm you. But you think this is fabricated by a Spaniard who is muddling it up with what Moctezuma had said to Cortez, do you? Or do you think this is authentically what he might have said? I think there are multiple explanations of this. So one of them is he genuinely thinks they're messengers from the god king, Patrick Goody. I think this is extremely unlikely. Nothing that Attawelper does. If he genuinely thought that, would he not have met their eyes earlier?

Would he not be a bit more polite? I think, of course, he would have behaved. differently if he genuinely thought that. So I think there are two possibilities. One is that this is a literary flourish and that, you know, this has now become the formula. That when you write a chronicle of Spanish conquest of somewhere in the Americas, the king greets you with these kinds of words and this is what the reader's like. Number two is, he does say this. Actually, I think number two is probably right. He probably does say something a bit like this and it's a courtesy. I would have said so too because, I mean, who or what is viriculture to the Spaniards? Yeah. I mean, they don't care.

It might be embellished or whatever. I think it's a little bit like, to borrow what the great historian Matthew Restle said about when this happened in Mexico, he said it's a little bit like, it's an exaggerated version of when someone comes to your house and you say, oh, do what you like, you know, fete comche-vous, you know, relax and joy.

You don't really mean it. You don't mean do whatever you like. You say, you know, flowery things to make people feel welcome. And this is what Atta Welper is doing. Anyway, when he does something, this. Anando moderates his tone. And he says, my brother, the governor, they always call Francisco Pizarro, the governor. The governor loves you dearly. If you have any enemies, we will send horsemen to deal with them for you. With ten horsemen, we could defeat all your enemies.

Your own men will only be needed to mop up the people who run away. And Anando says this to Atualpa, and Atalpa just gives this cold smile. Anando himself, we wrote a memoir of it, recalls. he smiled as someone who did not think much of us. Of course, Attau'alpa may be very excited by this deep down because he may be thinking, you know, these horses were a big deal. And I could really finish off my brother's faction with these horses. And of course, he doesn't need the Spaniards to ride them in the laurel. Exactly.

He says, Atoalpa now says, will you dine with me? And they say, no. We have to go back. He says, will you like drinks? I'll get women to bring them jugs of this beer, this chicha. And then the sun is setting, and Attawelpa, says, would you like to stay the night? And Anando says, no, we'd like to go back to our friends in the town in Kiamauga. And Attaelpa says, okay, you can stay in these barracks around the town square.

Brilliant. And then he says, I'll see you tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll come into Kaia Marka to meet your leader. But there's one more moment before they leave. Atalpa clearly fascinated by the horses. So Anando de Soto, dressage champion of Spain, gives him a little riding demonstration. He wheels around, on this horse, we're told that Atta Welper was amazed and amazed at seeing the agility with which it wheeled. But the common people showed even greater admiration. There was much whispering. So there's clearly a little crowd. One squadron of troops drew back when they saw the horse coming towards them. And there's actually a dark side to this story. So when the Spanish had gone, Atta Welper says, those soldiers who drew back, ran them all up, please, and execute them

because they showed fear and we can't show fear at the strangers animals and some sources say he said find their wives and children and kill them too I want to make sure

that nobody does this again and that we don't show the slightest flicker of fear when we see the Spaniards horses so end the bloodline of these cowards exactly

you said that with real relish Tom I could see you saying that actually if one of our producers showed fear of a horse I think that'd have been a good Inca. So nightfalls in Kayamaka, but the Spanish can't sleep. So Pizarro has a young cousin called Pedro who acted as his page, and Pedro described a

council of war in Pizarro's quarters. We took many views and opinions among ourselves about what should be done. All were full of fear, for we were so few and so deep in the land where we could not be reinforced. Of course, let's remind ourselves, there are 160, eight of them. They are thousands of miles from help. There are several million people between them and the coast. And they are basically up against 80,000 Inca's camped in the tents just outside the town. So quite a tight corner. It's, yeah, the odds are against them, I think it's reasonable to say.

And Pizarro encourages his men, says, come on, we've got this. We can do this. And one of the chronicles says, you know, that night, he went around and he said, you know, every man a night. Every man is a knight. It's very like the kingdom of heaven, if you've seen that film, the Orlando Bloom Crusades film, where at the end, he knights everybody in the defense of this city. So even though he's saying all this, they must be thinking, Jesus, this is going to be tough. So the question is, what will they do when morning comes, when Attawelper turns up? Now, some Spanish chroniclers said later, Pizarro is hoping that Attawalpa will submit, will agree to accept Charles V, that's overlord, and Jesus is the master of all.

I think this is highly unlikely that Pizarro thought that would actually happen. I mean, he'd be mad if he thought that would happen. I think he was always going to use some form of violence. He knew what his cousin Cortez had done in Mexico. And as Matthew Restle says in his excellent books about the Spanish conquest of the Americas, standard practice was theatrical terror. You strike first. You use surprise.

You use your military technology, which is your horses, your swords and so on. And your guns. Yeah, and your guns. and you hope that that will prevail. You can frighten people into acquiescing. And so this is what Pizarro says to his men. He says, look, we're going to take advantage to the geography. When Aso Elper and his men arrive, we'll allow them to filter into the main square.

Whereas you rightly said, Tom, there's a platform in the middle. And Ato Elper will probably go up onto the platform or something like that. We'll see. Now, meanwhile, we will be in the barracks, which are on three sides of the square. Everyone will wait for my signal to burst out of the doorways. On two sides we'll have most of the horses under Soto and my brother Hernando and the other big cheeses

and they can deal with the Inca troops On the third side I'll be there with a smaller group of people And our job is to snatch at a welper And as for the rest of the men And we're not talking about huge numbers You hide in the alleys around the square When the fighting starts

Try to seal off the square And that will mean that the Inca's can't escape And they'll be the mercy of our cavalry And as for the signal, when Atta whelper has taken his place in the centre of the square, Pedro de Candia, the guy from Crete, the artilleryman, he can fire his guns, blow a load of trumpets. And when you hear that, it's game on and we'll do this. And Pedro de Candia is on this raised platform. Yes, he is.

He's on the platform. So kind of relatively speaking, commanding heights. Exactly right. Now, Miguel de Estete, who's one of the memoirists, described the mood after their meeting, broke up and darkness drew him. Few slept and we kept watching the square from which the campfires of the Indian army could be seen. It was a terrible sight. Most of them were on a hillside and close to one another. It looked like a brilliantly star-studded sky. So they're kind of looking out at these campfires, these tents and they're absolutely, the Spanish, you know, they're absolutely

terrified. So the hours passed, they don't get much sleep. Dawn breaks the 16th of November 1532. Attawalpa's ritual fast is over. He and his closest friends have been drinking to mark the end of the fast. He's in no hurry to go anywhere, actually. Probably got a bit of a hangover. So all morning the Spanish wait, their Dominicans have held mass. Everything is ready.

The tension, you know, mounting all the time. A messenger arrives mid-morning from Attawalpa's camp and he says, Atta whop is still coming. He's coming with his men, and his men will be armed. Pizarro says, fine, you can come however he likes. I will welcome him as a friend and a brother. That's nice. Another hour goes by, no one comes.

Then another messenger arrives, and he says, actually, they've changed their mind. They're going to leave their weapons behind. And why is that, do you think? I genuinely don't know. I think it never really occurs to Attawalper that he need the weapons. He's got so many men. Yeah, I suppose. Got so many men.

I mean, the Spanish would be mad to attack him. Just thinks, highly, 168 men against 80,000. I mean, you'd never do that. Still, they don't come, though. At midday, there's movement in Atu Elper's camp, and the Spanish lookouts say, the entire plane is full of men. Now, Pizarre's men have all taken their places

in the barracks and then hiding and whatnot, and you can imagine how nervous they are now. Pedro Pizarro said, I saw many Spaniards urinate without noticing it out of pure terror. So the Inca's start to advance towards the town. And I quote, they all wore large gold and silver discs like crowns on their heads. They were apparently all coming in their ceremonial clothes with a livery of checkered colours like a chessboard. And as they march, the Inkers are kind of doing this motion to sweep the ground, as if clearing rubbish off the ground or something.

And they're singing a song, which the Spanish. don't understand, but one of them said it was by no means lacking grace for those of us who heard it. Half a mile outside the town, the Inca's stop, and Pizarro can't believe it. He sends out an interpreter, why have you stopped? Natoalpa's men say, well, we've been told to halt. It's mid-afternoon now, and the emperor has decided he'd like to spend the night outside the city and come in tomorrow. And Pizarro is horrified by that. He doesn't want the Inca's right outside the town overnight, because the one thing the Spanish are dreading is a night attack. And he sends another Spaniard to go and implore Atalpa, please come and visit us before nightfall.

You know, we won't harm you, we won't hurt you. You can come without fear. A slightly weird thing to say, why would Atta Welper be frightened? There's no reason for him to be afraid. The Spanish rather giving themselves away there, I think. They are, aren't they? Yeah. I mean, it's betraying their secret thoughts.

It is. Exactly, it is. Anyway, the sun is beginning to sink and at last Atalpa moves. He advances now with about 6,000 men leaving most of his army outside the town. His men, as they promised, they've left there as a way, the heavier weapons behind. They've got slings, they've got stones, and they've got little axes, maybe kind of ceremonial axes almost. They come through the gate, they come along the street. At last they enter the central square.

The vanguard, then the emperor's party. them wearing these big feathered headdresses and stuff. And Attauilpa himself, he is sitting and I quote, on a very fine litter lined with feathers of many colours and embellished with plates of gold and silver. Eighty lords carried him on their shoulders, all wearing a very rich blue livery. He was seated on the litter on a small stool with a rich saddle cushion, very richly dressed, with his crown on his head and a collar of large emeralds around his neck. Very like Montezuma on the causeway being brought out to me, Anne and Cortez. I mean, it is amazing how many parallels between those two stories there are.

It is, isn't it? I agree completely. You do wonder, did it actually happen? Or are the two accounts bleeding into one another? They're not making it up, but... Yeah, I think the two accounts do bleed into each other a bit. Actually, I think that's what makes it quite hard to discern the truth. That said, there are enough Spanish accounts of this incident.

Of course. For us not to doubt it. And the example of what Cortez did with Moctezuma is obviously an inspiration here. Completely. So the sun has now almost set. There are thousands of Inca's in the square. Atta Welper signals from the litter, and he's raised up high above people's heads, and one of his captain steps forward with his personal standard,

as if to claim this kind of central platform. Now, what is Attauelper thinking at this moment? Everything we know of him is that he is a very ruthless and proud, and, if necessary, violent man. I don't think he senses any danger. I think he thinks the Spanish are shambles and are undisciplined. I think his plan is that, At some point this evening, he will take Pizarro prisoner.

Possibly he will kill him. Possibly he will kill the Spaniards. But what he wants are the horses to use in his war. What he doesn't expect is that the Spaniards won't be there. And he calls out in Quechua, where are they? You know, where are you? And two Spaniards come out of one of these barracks. One of them is a guy called Enando Dladana, who had learned a little Quechua.

So he could work as a, he could help with the interpreting. And the other is the Dominican friar Vicente de Valverde. Great to have a Valverde back on the show. And he is with one of these interpreters, either Martineo or Philippio. And he is holding a cross in one hand and a prayer book in the other. And he advances towards Atta Welper. And there are different accounts, very confusing accounts of what happened next. But here is, I think, a way through.

Valverde kicks off by saying to Attaelper, would you like to, to come inside and have dinner with Francisco Pizarro. And this is obviously a ploy to get him apart from his men. And Attau Alpa says, no. And Attau Alpa says straight away, he's less conciliatory today. And he says, I've come to tell you to return everything you've stolen since you entered my kingdom. I mean, clearly I think he's getting gearing up for a fight. And Valverde, who must have been very nervous, begins to recite something.

and the interpreter is translating all the time. And Valverdi says, I'm a minister of Christ, and he starts gabbling about the history of the world. Jesus came into the world, crucified to save sinners. My king, Charles V, that sent me to tell you all about this. You must accept Christ as your master in heaven. You must accept my king, Charles V, as your master on earth. You must become his vassal.

You must give up your gods. And if you don't, quote, if you refuse and seek to resist, then you and all your people will be destroyed, just as the Pharaoh of old and all his host perished in the Red Sea. I mean, if the translator is interpreting all this to Atta Walpa, Atta Welper must have been listening to this thinking,

what is this? I can't believe he said that. Yeah, well, of course, it just seems extraordinary. But it's signaling how the Spaniards will cast the downfall of Atta Walper, right? Of course, of course. Now, I think what Valverdi is doing, I think what a lot of historians think what Valverdi is doing, is he is reciting a version of the requirement, which is this bizarre legal document we mentioned

already that since 1513, Spanish captains are legally bound to read out to the peoples of the Americas before they kill them. Now, even at the time when the Council of Castile approved this, lots of Spaniards said, are you mad? You're going to read this out to people before you attack them. I mean, expect them to understand it. And of course, the interpreters are useless. in Chiamauga. So they're kind of mistranslating things. And Atta Welper, listening to this must have just thought, what? gibberish.

Yeah. Now, Atta Welper is looking, confused, angry, impatient. And Valverde says, perhaps you'd like to have a look at my prayer book. Making chat. Small talk. Atta Welper, to stress, has never seen a book before or writing of any kind. No, because he's only got cords with knots in, hasn't he? we're not. Valverdi gives him the book and it's one of those books that it must have like a buckle

or a clip or a lock or something like that on it. And Atta Welper tries to open it and he can't open it. He's never seen an object like this. And Valverdi reaches out to help him. Attawelper hits him contemptuously, manages to open the book and stares at it and we are told he looked with great interest at the construction of the book, the sort of what it was. But obviously, he doesn't know that these symbols are words or that there's a story or that they're prayers or whatever. It's just madness to him. Now, what happens next is unclear. Some people say Attauilpa threw the book down in the dust and with contempt. Some say that actually Valverdi took the book back and dropped it or dropped it while handing it to him or something like this. Anyway, at some point,

the book ends up on the ground in the dust, and this is the pretext that the Spanish need. When the book falls, Attaualpa shouts something to his own men, but Valverde is already running back to the barracks, and he's shouting to Bizarro. Come out, come out, Christians, the dogs have rejected the word of God, that proud dog has thrown my book of holy law to the ground. He has become a Lucifer, all words to that effect. That is the trigger for Pedro de Candia on the platform to fire his gun. into the crowd at the Inkers. At the Inkers. Now, of course, the Inkers must have seen the guns,

but they didn't know what they were. So what a shock that is. Suddenly the guns, there's a huge, you know, bang, bang, bang. The Inkers are reeling in the crowd. Then Pedro de Kandir says, sound the trumpets. The trumpets blasts. So there's a sort of sensory overload. And it's at that point that the Spanish horsemen

burst out of the barracks on their horses. They've got their swords drawn. They're all screaming, Santiago, Santiago. which is their kind of walk rye. And it's very like the bit at the end of the two towers, Helms deep, when the riders are Rohan kind of burst out of the fortress, cutting a sway through the orcs. This is the scene in the square.

So the Spanish have tied bells and rattles to their horses' bridles to make the maximum possible noise. And the Inkers, of course, who are not used to horses, who are frightened of horses. Straight away, they're in total chaos. They're screaming. They're running everywhere. They're stampeding and crushing each other.

Well, it's come as a complete surprise, right? Total surprise. The Spanish have come from nowhere. Guns, horses, this is stuff they've never seen before. The swords are flashing. The Inkers are slipping and falling everywhere. There's bodies piling up. There's blood everywhere.

People are literally suffocating each other in the crush and the carnage. And when they get to the ends, to the gates, to the ways out of the square, Pizarres, other men are there, swords drawn to block them. Now, some of the Inca's managed to break through a low wall. and to get out of the square into the fields beyond. So thousands of people start streaming out into the fields. But the Spanish horsemen are following them out and the captains are shouting, and I quote,

ride them down, don't let any of them escape. And this is a scene of utter slaughter. The cavalry riding them down one by one, without mercy, cutting them down. The whole thing takes two hours and it is a complete and utter walkover. The Wikipedia entry calls it the Battle of Cayamaca. But it's not a battle.

But it's not a battle. It's a complete massacre. So Spanish sources themselves said, you know, once the cavalry had done their work and then burst out following the people who were running away, the foot soldiers went into the square and they put every single person there to the sword. During all this, no Indian even raised a weapon against a Spaniard. Attawalpa's nephew, Titu Kuzi, who wrote his own version of a sword. events long time afterwards said it was said that the Spanish went about their business like slaughter men with cattle just killing them grimly methodically without any pity. I mean that metaphor it shows how long after it must have been for an Inker to come up

with that. Exactly. Yeah. John Heming in his brilliant book, The Conquest of the Inkers said, you know, how do you know how many people died somewhere between 2 and 8,000, even if you take a kind of lower estimate. Each Spaniard must have killed probably 10, 12, 14, 15 Peruvians each. I mean, there's a lot of bloodshed. It's a dreadful, dreadful story. And among the people who are killed, of course, at Atta Welper's elite, his stewards, his servants, his friends, his counsellors, his chief

advisors, his chief nobleman, his chief captains, all of these people who would have been with him, who would never have, they would never have thought that anything like this could happen. So it is a complete decapitation. Yeah, complete catastrophe for the Inca state. And Dominica, I have to ask, what about the emperor? Well, so right at the beginning, Pizarro and his men had made straight for the litter. And they'd been shouting Santiago as well. They hacked their way through the crowd.

And Pizarro, were told, grabbed hold of Attawelper's left arm. But he couldn't pull him out of the litter, which of course has been held up quite high. And loads of Inca's are clinging to the litter to stop them taking the emperor. And the Spanish, I mean, a hideous scene, are literally hacking at the Inca's arms, cutting off their hands, cutting off their arms in an attempt to get the litter down. But more Inca's rushing around to protect him. Eventually, one of the Spaniards, Miguel de Estete, who wrote a really good memoir about all this, he pulled the crown off Attau'alpa's head, and then he slashed at Attauelper with his knife,

and Pizarro shouted, no, don't kill him. And he put his hand in the way. So his own man cut his hand, which is now dripping with blood. Eventually in the chaos, seven or eight, Spaniards managed to kind of weigh down one side of the litter,

and they dragged Attaweb out, and they bundled him away through the chaos towards the temple of the sun. And they locked him in this temple while the rest of their comrades went about their murderous work in the square. And then when the fighting

had totally died down, they brought him out again. They dragged him to one of the barracks. He's covered with you know, blood, his clothes are ragged, all of that. They give him new clothes. Are they European clothes? That I don't know, actually.

It just says new clothes. I'm guessing maybe European clothes. And then they bring him in to see Pizarro, who like a Bond villain, set up... We meet again, Mr Atta Walpa. Set up with a table and chairs for dinner. Actually, it's interesting, the table and chairs. The Inkers didn't eat with the table and chairs.

So are we led to believe that the... the Spanish had brought a table and chairs with them? I mean, yeah, that sounds improbable. It's a mad detail, but so much of this story is mad. And actually, it's going to get madder. Because Attau Alper sits down to dinner with Pizarro, surrounded by Spanish guards and servants. As John Heming says in his brilliant book, what a weird scene. The Spaniards are caked in blood and sweat.

And Pizarro is having dinner. And Attaweper is sitting there, I mean, completely traumatized, right? Do we know what they're eating? I don't know a guinea pig, surely. Guinea pig? Guinea pig and sweet potatoes. And then, if that's not weird enough, Pizarro says a sentence that I don't think anyone and listen to this will expect, you'll sleep with me tonight.

This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Because basically he says to the servants, make up a mattress for the emperor, he will sleep with me, next to me, we will sleep side by side. And so you have this incredible scene, the most powerful man in South America, bedding down for the night right next to this illegitimate, illiterate Spanish veteran who was just pulled off one of the most amazing coups in all history. Do you think either of them get any sleep? I see Pizarro as a snorer, to be honest, so I think it's a tough night for Atta Welper. Night falls over Kiamauga. Outside the city in their camp, the Inca army is just in disbelief

of what's happened. In the square, the carrion crows are feasting on the bodies of the dead. And in Pizarro's quarters here and Attauilipra lying, you know, a few inches away from each other with Spanish guards by the door. It has been one of the most incredible days in history. One chronicler said, truly it was not accomplished by our own forces. For the worst, so few of us, it was by the grace of God. But of course, it wasn't really the grace of God. It was the recklessness, the ingenuity, the daring of Pizarro and the brutality of the conquistadors that had brought all this about. And I suppose the complete miscomprehension

that Attawalpa had of what he was up against. I mean, cruel and brutal, though he is as well. Yeah, of course. I mean, my heart doesn't bleed for Atalpa, but what happened to the Inca's in that square is still pretty brutal, pretty horrible. But the story, of course, isn't over because there are still only 168 Spaniards and they are still surrounded by tens of thousands of Inca warriors and they're still at the heart of a country of more than 10 million people, you know, not necessarily very friendly to them. So Pizarro now has some choices to make. And we will soon find out what his plan is and what he has in mind for Attawelper, Emperor of the Inca's, but we won't find out until the next episode. So members of the Rested History Club can hear that episode right now.

And a massive excitement, they will be able to get the next three episodes on Thursday. and if you are not a member of The Restis History Club, not a member of our happy band of Conquistadors, and you would like to join them, then head to The Restis History.com to sign up. But for now, adios. Adios. Troy, the Odyssey, the Iliad,

all of these great ancient epics depict a monumental claps that destroyed the interconnected empires of 3,000 years ago. And to understand the Bronze Age apocalypse that Homer wrote about 400 years after it happened, subscribe to Empire, world history, a fellow gollhanger podcast where we are deep diving into the biggest imperial collapse in ancient history. To get a flavour of the series, here is a clip from our episode with none other than Stephen Fry. It is one of my favourite subjects, the story of the Greeks and the Siege of Troy and Odysseus's return home, of course.

I say Greeks. Homer called them the Achaeans, the Danians, the Argyves. the word Greeks is a much later one, but it refers really to the Mycenaeans, a warrior aristocracy essentially, obsessed with honor and reputation that would give them an eternal glory, a Cleos, as they call it. It's the Cleos that's in the name of so many Greeks, you know, Cleopatra and all the sort of tea, you know, all the Cleese, Heracles, who's Hercules, you know, Herra's Glory. He was actually named Heracles because she hated him because. he was a love child of Zeus, and she never liked Zeus's love child, her husband, her

errant husband. And so as an attempt to placate her, Tariasius, because he was born in Thebes, suggested that he changed his name, as a baby, this was, to Heracles, the glory of Heron. It didn't help much. It didn't help at all. And then Athena even put her on Hera's breast when Hero was asleep, because it would bond them if he suckled her milk. But she woke and saw it and tossed him away, and her breast milk spread across

the sky to form the Milky Way. I didn't know that story. Because galaxy, of course, is from the Greek for milk, galactic, as in lactic. So the chocolate makers are right. Anyway, this is completely separate. Lovely. Cleos. Keep going.

Don't stop. Well, we really hope you enjoyed that clip. Here more on the Bronze Age apocalypse and how it shaped the ancient Greek epics. Just subscribe to Empire, wherever you get your podcasts.