JIMENEZ DE QUESADA, GONZALO (c. 1500-1579), Spanish conqueror of New Granada (Colombia), was born about the year 150o, probably in Granada, Spain, where he was care fully trained for the law. In 1535 he accompanied Pedro Fer nandez de Lugo, adelantado of Santa Marta (northern Colombia), as auditor and justicia mayor of his colony; and in the following year, although he had had no military experience, Lugo chose him to command an expedition to the headwaters of the Mag dalena. For 15o leagues Quesada forced his way through almost insuperable obstacles along the Magdalena, to its junction with the OpOn at La Tora. Here he sent the ships, which followed him up the river, back to Santa Marta with the sick, and set out with 200 picked soldiers and about 6o horses to scale the cor dillera. In Jan. 1537, he found himself on the great central plain of Colombia, inhabited by a race called Chibchas, who had attained a high state of aboriginal culture. The ruler of the country, the zips of Bogota, fled at the approach of the Spaniards and Quesada occupied his capital. From this strategic point the country was explored and subdued. On Aug. 6, 1538, a new capital, called Santa Fe de Bogota, was founded near the site of the old one, and toward the end of the year Quesada was pre paring to start for the coast, when two more conquerors sud denly appeared-Sebastian Benalcazar from Quito and Nicolas Federman from Venezuela. Quesada successfully maintained the priority of his rights, and on July 8, 1539, sailed from Cartagena for Spain to urge his claims to the government of the lands he had conquered, but his efforts were of no avail. The next ten years Quesada spent in France, Italy and Spain, engaged mainly in literary pursuits. In 155o, Philip awarded him the titles of marshal of New Granada and alderman of Bogota, and a salary, but no jurisdiction. On his return to New Granada he became at once the most influential person in the colony, protecting the colonists from the severity of officials, and restraining the impetu osity of the comenderos. In 1569 he set out with 500 men on a
quest for the fabulous El Dorado which carried him into the trackless swamps of the Orinoco, whence he returned after nearly two years' wanderings, with only 25 of his original company. Retiring to La Suesca, his country house, he turned to literature and composed Los Ratos de Suesca, and a series of Sermones. Early in 1579 he moved to Mariquita, where he died on Feb. 16, of leprosy. In 1598 his remains were removed to the cathe dral in Bogota. Quesada ranks with Cortes as one of the very few conquerors who combined intellectual discipline with physical prowess. He was religious and naturally humane.
Quesada is supposed to have been the author of several works, none of which have been preserved to us. Besides Los Ratos de Suesca and the Sermones, already mentioned, there are attributed to him Apuntamientos y noticias sobre la historic de Paulo Giovio (1568-69?) ; Anales del Emperador Carlos V.; Las diferencias de la guerra de los dos mundos; and, questionably, with Epitome de la conquista del Nuevo Reino de Granada.
No critical treatment of the life of Quesada has yet appeared in Eng lish, though R. B. Cunninghame-Graham, The Conquest of New Granada (Boston, 1922), and C. R. Markham, The Conquest of New Granada (1912), give interesting accounts of his career. In Spanish, see F. M. Groot, Historia eclesifistica y civil de Nueva Granada (2nd ed., Bogota, 1889) ; Joaquin Acosta, Compendio historic° del descubri miento y colonization de la Nueva Granada en el siglo decimosexto (2nd ed., Bogota, 1901) ; Soledad Acosta de Samper, Biografias de hom bres ilustres o notables (Bogota, 1883). (W. B. P.)