This brought them into contact with the Chibcha Indians. In the end
these unfortunate beings were completely subdued, their civilization
destroyed, and they themselves divided as slaves among the Spaniards.

Quesada, accompanied by a band of mercenary Indians, started on his
journey in order to seek for gold. He was, in the first place, received
in a friendly way by the natives; but in the end these, dreading the
greed which the invaders took no trouble to conceal, attacked them. The
warfare between the Spaniards and the natives commenced, with the
conquest of the natives as the result, as given above. It has already
been explained that many of the characteristics of the Incas and of the
Chibchas were curiously alike. In history this extended even to the fate
of the respective Royal Families. Pizarro slew Atahualpa; Quesada was
even more thorough. For not only did he destroy the Prince of the
Chibchas, but the whole of the Royal Family as well.

These acts do not appear to have lain very heavily on the conscience of
Quesada, if fruitful years be any test. The tough old _conquistador_
lived to the age of eighty, expiring in the year 1579. In 1597 it is
said that his body was taken to Bogotá Cathedral.




CHAPTER IV

THE DISCOVERY AND EARLY HISTORY OF BRAZIL


It still remains a point of dispute between the Spanish and Portuguese