The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas Volume I, II, and III

884 Neil Whitehead
controllers of gold sources or finished goldwork and known as anthropophages.
In this context we can say that the exchange of persons for
gold was a key element in chiefly ideologies, which underlay not just the
Caribbean exchange between guatiao and caribe but also stretched across
the whole of northern South America - just as the conquistadors intuited
from the intelligence they gathered on their armed reconnaissances into
the interior.
WESTERN TIERRA FIRME - THE TEUTONIC
CONQUISTADORES AND THE GREAT SOUTH SEA
As Spanish interests moved west from the pearl fisheries,the first substantial
occupation of the Gulf of Venezuela region was carried out by
Germans under license from the Spanish crown, an event unique in the
annals of Spanish colonialism. Ambrosio Alfinger, Jorge Spira, Philip von
Hutten, and Nicolas Federmann were the principal conquistadores who
initiated this enterprise, under the auspices of the House of Welser —
merchant-bankers who were creditors of the Spanish king, Charles V.
Alfinger, who was chosen to be the first governor, arrived at Coro in
1529, where the existing Spanish governor, Juan de Ampues, deferred to
the authority of the newcomers.
Initial reconnaissance by Alfinger was to the west and the regions
around Lake Maracaibo. In subsequent years the valley of the Rio Magdalena
was penetrated, and the true wealth of the native cultures was
uncovered; Alfinger's final expedition returned to Coro at the end of
1533. Alfinger was then succeeded by Jorge Spira (known in German
sources as George Hohemut), who pushed into the region to the south,
there garnering reports of a fabulous land called Meta, but losing many
men before his final return to Coro. During his absence Nicolas Federmann,
Spira's lieutenant, lead an unauthorized entrada (armed reconnaissance)
also to the south. He crossed some of the major rivers that
ultimately drained into the Orinoco Basin and at length managed to
ascend the cordillera and enter the plains of Bogota. However, he found
that he had been beaten to this objective by an expedition approaching
from the Magdalena Valley, led by Jimenez de Quesada.
Last in this line of German adventurers came Philip von Hutten. He
spent 4 fruitless years in journeying from Coro across the great llanos of
Colombia and Venezuela in search of the fabled lands of Meta and El
Dorado, only to be hacked to death with a blunt machete on his return
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008