Francisco Pizarro - Expeditions To South America

Expeditions To South America

The first attempt to explore western South America was undertaken in 1522 by Pascual de Andagoya. The native South Americans he encountered told him about a gold-rich territory called Virú, which was on a river called Pirú (later corrupted to Perú) and from which they came. These reports were related by the Spanish-Inca mestizo writer Garcilaso de la Vega in his famous Comentarios Reales de los Incas (1609).

Andagoya eventually established contact with several Native American curacas (chiefs), some of whom he later claimed were sorcerers and witches. Having reached as far as the San Juan River (part of the present boundary between Ecuador and Colombia), Andagoya fell very ill and decided to return. Back in Panama, he spread the news and stories about "Pirú" – a great land to the south rich with gold (the legendary El Dorado). These revelations, along with the accounts of success of Hernán Cortés in Mexico years before, caught the immediate attention of Pizarro, prompting a new series of expeditions to the south in search of the riches of the Incan Empire.

In 1524, while still in Panama, Pizarro formed a partnership with a priest, Hernando de Luque, and a soldier, Diego de Almagro, to explore and conquer the South. Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque later renewed their compact more explicitly, agreeing to conquer and divide equally among themselves the opulent empire they hoped to discover. While historians agree their accord was strictly oral (no written document exists to prove otherwise), they are known to have dubbed their enterprise the "Empresa del Levante" and determined that Pizarro would command the expedition, Almagro would provide the military and food supplies, and Luque would be in charge of finances and any additional provisions they might need.