…they follow the eastern flank of the cordilla, tracing the existing salt trade route where it crosses the Andes and enters the lands of the Muisca, whose realm has already been partially conquered by Jiménez de Quesada out of Santa Marta, now Colombia, under orders from Pedro Fernández de Lugo.

After marching together for about two hundred miles, Speyer and Federmann divide into two parties, agreeing to meet afterward.

Speyer experiences great hardships from hostile Indians, and the soldiers, unaccustomed to marching under a burning sun, mutiny several times.

When at last they reach the appointed place of meeting without finding any trace of Federmann, the soldiers are discouraged, but Speyer animates them with the hope of discovering the riches of the El Dorado, of which the survivors of Ehinger's expedition, Federmann among them, had brought the first reports.

They continues the march to the south, but, when the rainy season set in, the overflow of the rivers impedes progress, and the consequent fevers decimate their ranks.

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada was born in Cordova, Spain, into a Jewish family which had converted to Catholicism before he was born.

His father is a hidalgo relative of Gonzalo Francisco de Cordoba, and he has two known distant cousins: Hernán Cortes and Francisco Pizarro.

An Andalusian lawyer, trained in Granada, Quesada had been appointed chief magistrate in 1535 and second in command for an expedition to present-day Colombia, because in this period he isn’t in good standing with the people at home because he has just lost an important law case in which his mother’s family was economically involved.

The commander of the expedition, Pedro Fernández de Lugo (governor of the Canary Islands), has purchased the governorship of Colombia and has equipped a fleet and assembled over a thousand men.

Thus they set sail to Colombia, thinking they will find a very rich land, full of gold and pearls.

However, when, after two month of navigation, they reach the small coastal settlement of Santa Marta in early 1536, all they find was a conglomeration of hovels and filthy, disease-ridden colonists who go about dressed in skins or roughly woven and padded cotton clothes made by the Indians.

Soon food becomes scarce and tropical fevers began to strike down even the strongest.

From 1533, a belief has persisted that the Río Grande de la Magdalena is the trail to the South Sea, to Peru, to the legendary El Dorado.

Quesada, despite his lack of military experience, is chosen by de Lugo to command an expedition to explore into the interior of present Colombia, hoping to discover the dreamed El Dorado.

A land party of five hundred soldiers under Quesada, with Hernán Pérez de Quesada (his brother), Juan San Martín, Juan del Junco (as second in command) Lázaro Fonte and Sergio Bustillo, strikes south from Santa Marta on April 6, 1536, …

...crosses the Cesar River, and arrives at Tamalameque on the Magdalena River.

A support fleet of six (or five) ships commanded by Diego de Urbino has also sailed from Santa Marta with nine hundred men to navigate the Magdalena.

Only two of the vessels actually arrive at Tamalameque, and subsequently return to Santa Marta with many of Quesada's men.

Hearing news about Indians inhabiting the south and making large salt cakes used to trade for wild cotton and fish.

Quesada decides to abandon the route to Peru and cross the mountain in search of salt villages.

Hutten subsequently accompanies Speyer on a journey (1536-38) in which they reach the headwaters of the Japurá River, near the equator.

The men of Jiménez de Quesada's expedition, continuing up the Magdalena as far as La Tora (Barrancabermeja), see crops, trails, white salt cakes, then huts where they find corn, yucca and beans.

From Tora, …

…Quesada and his men ascend the Opón River into the cordillera, reaching the Opon hills, Chipata (near Vélez) (March 1537) and the valley of the Suárez River.

They find natives covered with very finely painted cotton mats.

Passing Lake Fúquene and Lake Suesca, they reach Nemocón and …

...Zipaquirá and ...

…finally penetrate the lands of the Muisca in the central plain of Colombia (at the site of present day Bogotá).

Only one hundred and sixty-six men out of nine hundred—and only seventy of the expedition leaving Santa Marta—have survived the eight month trek over four hundred and fifty miles (seven hundred and twenty-five kilometers), suffering terribly in the jungle: they have been forced to eat snakes, lizards, frogs, and even the leather torn from their harnesses and the scabbards of their swords.

At the site of Bogotá, Quesada resigns and calls for an election; he is elected captain-general, and throws off the last link that holds him to the governor.

They now set about about conquering the gold-rich Chibcha kingdoms.

Speyer has persevered for a long time in his search for El Dorado.

His progress is arrested at last by a mighty river, probably the Orinoco, or its confluent, the Apure.