ommanded by Diego de Urbino would go up river in four brigantine ships to, later on, meet

Quesada troops at the site named Tora de las Barrancas Bermejas. When they arrived, they
heard news about Indians inhabiting the south and making large salt cakes used to trade for wild
cotton and fish. Jiménez de Quesada decided to abandon the route to Peru and cross the
mountain in search of salt villages. They saw crops, trails, white salt cakes and then huts where
they found corn, yucca and beans. From Tora, the expedition went up the Opón River and found
indigenous people wearing very finely painted cotton mantles. When they arrived in Muisca
territories in the Andean Plateau, on 9 March 1537, of the expedition leaving Santa Marta, only
162 men were left.[33]
The zipa at the moment of Spanish conquest was Tisquesusa. His main bohío was in a small
village called Bacatá with others in Funza and Cajicá, giving name to the present day capital of
Colombia. Bacatá was actually located near to the modern location of the city of Funza. A
prophecy in his life came true; he would be dying, bathing in his own blood. Defending Funza
with a reduced army of guecha warriors against the heavily exhausted but heavily armed
strangers, his reign fell in the hands of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and his younger
brother Hernán Pérez on 20 April 1537. Upon his death, his brother Sagipa became the last zipa,
against the inheritance tradition of the Muisca. Sagipa used to be a main captain for Tisquesusa
but quickly submitted to the Spanish rulers. The first encomenderos asked high prices in valuable
products and agricultural production from the indigenous people. On top of that epidemics of
European viruses razed through the population, of which in current Boyacá 65–85 % of the
Muisca were killed within 100 years.[34][page  needed]
Jiménez de Quesada decided to establish a military campament in the area in 1538, in the site
today known as the Chorro de Quevedo square. The foundation was performed by the
construction of 12 houses of reed, referring to the Twelve Apostles, and the construction of a
preliminary church, also of reed. With the celebration of the first mass in the campament,
celebrated by Dominican friar Domingo de las Casas the city was founded with the name of
Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza (Our Lady of Hope) on 6 August 1538. [17][20] Quesada placed his
right foot on the bare earth and said simply, "I take possession of this land in the name of the
most sovereign emperor, Charles V."
This founding, however, was irregular as no town council was formed nor were town officials
appointed, as well as lacking some other juridical requirements for an official founding. As a
consequence, the official founding only occurred about eight months later, on 27 April 1539, in a
site close to one of the recreational lands of the zipa, called Theusa or Theusaquillo.[17] This
official founding involved an official ceremony appointing a council and officials, and the
demarcation of streets and lands, and in it fellow conquistadores Sebastián de
Belalcázar and Nikolaus Federmann were present. While this was the official date of founding,
traditionally it is the 6 August 1538 that is considered the date of the actual foundation.
The village obtained the title of City by way of a decree from Charles V on 27 July 1540, which
changed the name of the city from Our Lady of Hope to Santa Fe (Holy Faith), after the name of
a town nearby Granada where Jiménez de Quesada grew up.[20] Jiménez de Quesada and
conquerors De Belalcázar and Federmann left for Spain in April 1539,
founding Guataquí together on 6 April 1539. The rule over the newly created Ne