Page:The gilded man (El Dorado) and other pictures of the Spanish occupancy of America.djvu/74

60 sent out from Quito to explore the region that Louis Daza met the Indians who told the story of the dorado. The immediate result of this was the slow advance of Belalcazar to the north in 1538, which took him, as we have seen, by Pasto, Popayan, Cali, etc., to the Rio Cauca, and over the cordillera to Neyva, and then to Cundinamarca—a march which is usually described as an act of insubordination on his part. It took place, at all events, without the knowledge of Belalcazar's chief, Francisco Pizarro, who was no little exasperated by it.

On the other hand, it may not have been unpleasant to the cunning, although mad, conqueror of Peru to be relieved in this way of a subordinate who was his equal in craft and not far behind him in skill and energy. He therefore immediately sent his brother, Gonzalo Pizarro, to Quito to take the chief command there. Gonzalo was, according to his instructions, more solicitous to prevent Belalcazar's possible return than to pursue him; and when he learned, in 1539, that Pascual de Andagoya and Jorge Robledo had occupied southern New Granada (Cauca), while Belalcazar had gone on "to find the valley which was called the Valley of the Gilded One," he, considering himself secure against the return of his formidable companion in arms, determined upon an expedition on his own account.