Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada | |
|---|---|
 Oil portrait of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada (Ricardo Gómez Campuzano, Colombian Academy of History, Bogotá) | |
| Born | 1509 |
| Died | 16 February 1579 (aged 70) |
| Other names | Gonzalo Jiménez de Quezada Gonzalo Ximénez de Quesada |
| Occupations | Conquistador, Explorer |
| Years active | 1536–1572 |
| Employer | Spanish Crown |
| Known for | Spanish conquest of the Muisca Spanish conquest of New Granada Founder of Bogotá First mayor of Bogotá Quest forEl Dorado |
| Notable work | Apuntamientos y anotaciones sobre la historia de Paulo Jovio, obispo de Nochera (1566) |
| Parents |
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| Relatives | Hernán Pérez de Quesada (brother) Francisco Jiménez de Quesada (brother) Melchor de Quesada (brother) Catalina Magdalena de Quesada (sister) Andrea Ximénez de Quesada (sister) Isabel de Quesada (half-sister) |
| Mayor of Bogotá | |
| In office 1538–1539 | |
| Preceded by | Position established; previously the finalzipaSagipa. |
| Succeeded by | Jerónimo de Inza |
| Signature | |
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Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada y Rivera, also spelled asXiménez andDe Quezada, (Spanish:[gonˈθaloxiˈmeneθðekeˈsaða]; 1509[1] – 16 February 1579) was a Spanish explorer andconquistador in northern South America, territories currently known asColombia. He explored the territory named by him,New Kingdom of Granada, and founded its capital,Santafé de Bogotá. As a well-educated lawyer he was one of the intellectuals of the Spanish conquest. He was an effective organizer and leader, designed the first legislation for the government of the area, and was its historian. He was governor ofCartagena between 1556 and 1557, and after 1569 he undertook explorations toward the east, searching for the elusiveEl Dorado. The campaign didn't succeed and Jiménez then returned toNew Granada in 1573. He has been suggested as a possible model for Cervantes'Don Quixote.[2]
His father, Luis Jiménez de Quesada,[3] was ahidalgo relative of Gonzalo Francisco de Cordoba, and he had two well-known distant cousins, the conquistadores ofMexico andPeru respectively:Hernán Cortés andFrancisco Pizarro. He had three younger brothers;Hernán and Francisco, who also were conquistadors, and Melchor, a priest, and a sister, Andrea.[4]
De Quesada was an Andalusianlawyer, trained in Granada.[5] He was appointed chief magistrate in 1535 and second in command for an expedition to present-day Colombia, because in that period he was not in good standing with the people at home because he had just lost an important court case in which his mother's family was economically involved.[6] The commander of the expedition,Pedro Fernández de Lugo (governor of the Canary Islands), had bought the governorship ofSanta Marta and had equipped a fleet and assembled over a thousand men. And so they set sail to Santa Marta, thinking they would find a very rich land, full of gold and pearls. But when, after two month of navigation, they reached the small coastal settlement of Santa Marta, all they found was a conglomeration of hovels and filthy, disease-ridden colonists who went about dressed in skins or roughly woven and padded cotton clothes made by the natives from surrounding areas. Soon food became scarce and tropical fevers began to smite down the strongest.
In 1536, De Quesada was chosen byDe Lugo to command an expedition to explore into the interior of New Granada, hoping to discover the dreamed El Dorado. A land party under De Quesada, with Hernán Pérez de Quesada (his brother), Juan San Martín, Juan del Junco (as second in command) Lázaro Fonte and Sergio Bustillo, struck south from Santa Marta, crossed theCesar River, and arrived atTamalameque on theMagdalena River. A support fleet of 6 (or 5) ships had also sailed from Santa Marta with 900 men to navigate the Magdalena.[5] Only two of the vessels actually arrived at Tamalameque, and subsequently returned to Santa Marta with many of De Quesada's men. Continuing up the Magdalena as far as La Tora (Barrancabermeja), De Quesada and his men ascended the Opon River into thecordillera, reaching the Opon hills, Chipata (nearVélez) (March 1537) and the valley of the Suárez River. Passing Lake Fúquene and Lake Suesca, they reachedNemocón andZipaquirá and finally entered theMuisca Confederation (ruled from Muyquytá, present dayFunza and Hunza, on which the Spanish cityTunja was founded).
Only 180 men out of 800 survived, suffering terribly in the jungle: they were forced to eat snakes, lizards, frogs, and even the leather torn from their harnesses and the scabbards of their swords. In Bogotá, Quesada resigned and called for an election; he was elected captain-general, and threw off the last link that held him to the governor. The Muisca had two rulers. ThepsihipquaBogotá, ruled in Muyquytá; the other, thehoaEucaneme, ruled inHunza. Taking advantage of a war between the two chiefdoms, Quesada's force subdued Muyquytá and then successfully attacked Hunza. At this point it was time to establish a settlement so that the earth itself might properly belong to De Quesada and his men. They chose a spot next to the towering peaks of the east, where the land was high and the rains would quickly run off, where the mountains would protect them from attackers and the jungles below. Quesada placed his right foot on the bare earth and said simply, "I take possession of this land in the name of the most sovereign emperor, Charles V."
Quesada remained in the region until the arrival of two expeditions at the end of 1538:Sebastián de Belalcázar from Quito, modern-day capital of Ecuador, one of the captains of Pizarro who had mutinied against his leader; andNikolaus Federmann, a German fromVenezuela. The three captains met on the savanna of New Granada. All three wanted to claim New Granada for themselves. In order to resolve their dispute, De Quesada persuaded them to go back to Spain with him and to submit their rival territorial claims to the arbitration of the crown. In July 1539, they sailed forSpain fromCartagena. However, none of them obtained the governorship. De Quesada, after nearly a dozen years of wandering disconsolately through the gaming halls of Europe, returned to New Granada in 1550. Here, he settled down to live for nearly thirty years. He was a respected settler, becoming the most influential man in the Kingdom. He protected his fellow colonists from the severity of the officials and restrained theencomenderos (large landholders) greed. But his own desire for wealth and gold continued to live inside him.
In 1569, at the age of 63, De Quesada received a commission to conquer theLlanos to the east of theColombian cordillera. From Bogotá in April 1569 with 500 mounted soldiers, 1500 natives, 1100 horses and pack animals, 600 head of cattle, 800 pigs, a large number of negro slaves and 8 priests, he first descended toMesetas on the upperGuejar River. There most of the livestock was destroyed by a grass fire. De Quesada's expedition then moved to nearby San Juan de los Llanos, where a course was set for east-southeast (by the guide Pedro Soleto), and maintained for the following two years. After a year or so some men returned with Juan Maldonado, reaching San Juan after six months with few survivors. De Quesada eventually reached (San Fernando de) Atabapo at the confluence of theGuaviare and theOrinoco (in December 1571), any further movement requiring the construction of ships. He therefore dejectedly returned to Bogotá, arriving in December 1572 with only 25 Spaniards, 4 natives, 18 horses and 2 priests. The expedition had been one of the most expensive disasters on record. After a brief period of service in a frontier command (during which he suppressed an indigenous uprising) De Quesada, affected byleprosy, overcome with despair at his debts, owing more than 60 thousand ducats, was forced to seek a milder climate and died quietly, aged 70, inMariquita, an importantmarket town in the New Kingdom of Granada.
After his death inMariquita, he was buried in the Santa Lucía Abbey. His remains were there until 1597, when they were exhumed and transferred toBogotá, the city founded by him.
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In English
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