Note 209 — Chapter XII

It will be as well here to give, in a few lines, the fate of Vadillo’s expedition. He led his men up the left bank of the Cauca, suffering terribly from want of proper food, the difficulties of the road, and the constant attacks of the Indians. At last his gallant lieutenant Francisco Cesar died. His death filled the soldiers with consternation, and they clamoured for a retreat to the coast. This, however, did not at all suit the views of Vadillo, who knew that imprisonment was awaiting him at Carthagena; and, when the discontent of his men became formidable, he drew his sword and rushed alone into the woods, crying out that, let who would go back, he should press on till he met with better fortune. The men were ashamed and followed him, and eventually reached Cali. Here at last Vadillo was deserted by most of his people, he went on nearly alone to Popayan, was sent by sea to Panama, and thence to Spain for trial. He died in poverty at Seville, before the termination of his trial. This soldierlike lawyer thus completed the discovery of the course of the river Cauca. Though harsh and obstinate, he was a brave commander, and cheerfully shared all privations with his men.

Meanwhile the licentiate Santa Cruz, who had arrived at Carthagena with orders to arrest Vadillo, sent two officers in chase of him in 1538. It is of one of these officers, named Juan Greciano, that a story is told at p. 42. Their troops met those of the captain Don Jorge Robledo, who had advanced down the Cauca from Cali, and joined them.

The expeditions of Cesar and Vadillo, the first discoverers of the valley of the Cauca, thus came to an end without a foot of ground having been permanently conquered. The same fate did not attend the next invader, Don Jorge Robledo. He had accompanied Belalcazar from Quito to Popayan, and in 1541 set out from Cali with one hundred and thirty men, for the conquest of Antioquia. Our young author, on the breaking up of Vadillo’s expedition, seems to have joined that of Robledo, whose fortunes he followed for some time; and he witnessed the conquest of many Indian tribes, and the foundation and settlement of several Spanish towns in this valley of the Cauca.