The Marquis Don Francisco Pizarro, when he heard that Belalcazar had risen against him, sent the captain, Lorenzo de Aldana,[1] as his lieutenant, with an order to arrest Belalcazar, and bring him to Lima; but Aldana found that he had already left the country. While Lorenzo de Aldana was in Lili, in 1539, the licentiate, Badillo,[2] arrived there from Carthagena, in search of Peru. Badillo saw that his enterprise was at an end, because the land which he had reached was already occupied by Christians; so leaving a part of his followers in Lili, he went on through Quito, embarked at Payta, and reached Santo Domingo. Lorenzo de Aldana learnt from Badillo that he had passed through a rich and populous country, and that, at a distance of forty leagues, there was a country called Birú (the same which I discovered from Panama). So, in the same year of 1539, Aldana sent Jorge Robledo with an expedition to that province, and another captain came from Carthagena in search of Badillo. When Robledo heard that other Spaniards were coming, he founded a town, which he called Santa Ana, although he had not received powers to form settlements. The next day, those of Carthagena arrived where he was, and finding officers of justice, they put themselves under their protection. Then the captain, and as many as chose to follow him, went on to Lili, restoring peace and security to the province of Popayan.[3]
I sent a captain to these provinces in search of Jorge Robledo, because his position was not known; and the captain arrived at this settlement, where there were thirty men with five horses, and the chiefs of the country were about to attack them. Jorge Robledo had crossed to the other side of the great river, and had gone down it, no one
