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(^74) B Discovery of the Americas, 1492–1800
of Spaniards were killed in these skirmishes.
The rivers they had to cross were infested
with crocodiles, and the forests full of
jaguars. Three Spaniards were dragged
down by the crocodiles and another three
carried off by jaguars.
The landscape was too poor to support the
cumbersome expedition of 800. When they
eventually arrived on the verdant central
plateau, the starving survivors were eating their
leather belts to stay alive. Nevertheless, Que-
sada systematically conquered the Muisca peo-
ple, confiscated a sizable quantity of gold and
emeralds, and founded Santa Fe de Bogotá
(present-day Bogotá). Hewas waiting there
when Federman and Benalcázar arrived.
The three explorers decided not to fight
over the spoils of Muisca treasure. They sailed
to Spain and asked the Crown to divide con-
trol of Colombia among them. Ironically, Que-
sada had won the race to Bogotá, but lost his
share to the family of his dead patron, Pedro
Fernández de Lugo. The province he con-
quered was named New Granada.
ALMAGRO IN CHILE
The Spanish Crown’s division of Peru, or “New
Castille,” among its conquerors had less har-
monious results. Diego de Almagro was
awarded control of Cuzco and southern Peru.
Frustrated in his demands for spoils already
controlled by the Pizarro clan, Almagro
mounted a new expedition further southward,
exploring new lands that were rumored to
hold even more wealth than the Inca empire.
Almagro commanded his expedition
expertly but discovered only lands unfit for
settlement or exploitation. His main force
started southeast into the great highland
basin of southern Peru and western Bolivia.
Bypassing the fertile area surrounding Lake
Titicaca, the highest large mountain lake in
the world, he followed the Desaguadero River
toward the shallow, undrinkable saltwater of
Lake Poopó. The countryside became increas-
ingly bleak as Almagro continued south, find-
ing little but saline deserts and desolate
mountains. Ironically, he came within 100
miles of the Bolivian mountain of ore discov-
ered in 1544 at Potosí, which within a century
was the richest silver mine in the world.
As Almagro descended into the valleys of
northern Argentina, he lost men in ambushes
by Indian tribes unfamiliar even to the Incas.
Alarge portion of his supplies was washed
away in seasonal floods. Survival became
more important than conquest. Almagro
turned toward the Pacific coast, hoping to get
access to supplies by sea. He divided his expe-
dition into small groups and climbed over
deadly mountain ranges, such as the 15,492-
foot high Paso San Francisco. Contemporary
Spanish historian Agustín del Zárate
described one company’s crossing:
Many of those who had died remained,
frozen solid, still on foot and propped
against the rocks, and the horses they had
been leading also frozen, not decomposed,
but as fresh as if they had just died; and later
expeditions following the same route, short
of food, came upon these horses, and were
glad to eat them.
Finding no treasure upon descending from
the mountains, Almagro realized his mission
was a failure. To return to the Peruvian border,
he first had to cross the Atacama Desert, a bar-
ren 600-mile-long salt basin lying between
Chile’s coastal mountains and the cordilleras
he had just surmounted. Wisely dividing into
even smaller groups to conserve water, Alma-
gro’s men became the first Europeans to cross
the Atacama.
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