At the age of sixty, he organized an expedition to present-day Colombia in the New World. Backed financially by Cristóbal Francesquini and Juan Alberto Gerardini, a Florentine residing in Tenerife from 1510, Pedro Fernández de Lugo departed in 1535 appointed as Governor of Santa Marta. Fernández de Lugo appointed Licentiate Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada as General Lieutenant of the expedition whose purpose was to find the source of the Magdalena River and a land path to Peru. The expedition ended up discovering and conquering the Muisca. Fernández de Lugo died in 1536, before receiving news of the newly discovered Muisca.