Spanish Conquerors Hear of a Golden King

In March 1537, a Spanish expedition under the lawyer-turned-general Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada ascended the Eastern Cordillera from the Magdalena River valley and climbed onto the high plateau of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in present-day Colombia. Guided by trade routes marked by cakes of rock salt, Quesada entered the heartland of the Muisca, an agricultural civilization structured into chiefdoms ruled predominantly by the zipa in the south and the zacque in the north. Although the Muisca lacked local gold mines, they possessed extensive quantities of golden objects and tumbaga, an alloy of gold and copper, acquired through commerce in exchange for salt and woven blankets. These metalworks held deep spiritual value, functioning as funerary goods, temple ornaments, and votive figures known as tunjos.

The Spanish invaders seized considerable hoards of treasure, looting settlements and capturing the zacque at Tunja. When two Spanish soldiers entered the sacred Sugamuxi temple at Sogamoso at night to strip its golden decorations, their lit torches caught the grass flooring and burned the sanctuary to the ground, though official tallies still recorded forty thousand pesos of fine gold recovered from the town. Meanwhile, the southern ruler, Tisquesusa, abandoned his palace at Bacata with his riches and was later slain during a night assault after troops failed to recognize him in the dark. His successor, Sagipa, allied briefly with the Spaniards but was tortured to death after failing to produce the hidden wealth, an execution Quesada claimed occurred without his sanction.