ever more strenuous labours than those to which
they were accustomed even at the hands of the Spaniards. In the end the
country became depopulated. The Welzers shrugged their shoulders, and
admitted that their utility was at an end in that district. With this
the Spaniards took possession of the country once again.

Gonzalo Jimines de Quesada now became prominent as a _conquistador_ in
the territory to the north of Peru, known then as New Granada. Quesada
himself, although he lacked nothing of the courage and determination
(frequently of a merciless order) of the average _conquistador_, was
undoubtedly endowed with certain attributes which were possessed by very
few of these hardy pioneers. For one thing he was scholarly; he had been
given an elaborate education, and knew well how to put it to the best
purposes. Quesada led an expedition up the Magdalena River. He had for
companion Benalcazar. They approached the country from the south,
occupied Popagan and Pasto, and founded Guayaquil. They also penetrated
the Valley of Curacua and Bogota, and thus traversed the whole Province.
This brought them into contact with the Chibcha Indians. In the end
these unfortunate beings were completely subdued, their civilization
destroyed, and they themselves divided as slaves among the Spaniards.

Quesada, accompanied by a band of mercenary Indians, started on his
journey in order to seek for gold. He was, in the first place, received
in a friendly way by the natives; but in the end these, dreading the
greed which the invaders took no trouble to conceal, attacked them. The
warfare between the Spaniards and the natives commenced, with the
conquest of the natives as the result, as given above. It has already
been explained that many of the characteristics of the Incas and of the
Chibchas were curiously alike. In history this extended even to the fate
of the respective Royal Families. Pizarro slew Atahualpa; Quesada was
even more thorough. For not only did he destroy the Prince of the
Chibchas, but the whole of the Royal Family as well.

These acts do not appear to have lain very heavily on the conscience of
Quesada, if fruitful years be any test. The tough old _conquistador_
lived to the age of eighty, expiring in the year 1579. In 1597 it is
said that his body was taken to Bogota Cathedral.

CHAPTER IV

THE DISCOVERY AND EARLY HISTORY OF BRAZIL

It still remains a point of dispute between the Spanish and Portuguese
natio