Alonso de Alvarado Alonso de Alvarado Montaya González de Cevallos y Miranda ( 1500 – 1556 ) was a Spanish conquistador and knight of the Order of Santiago . He was born at Secadura , now part of Voto , Cantabria . After a period in Mexico under the orders of Hernán Cortés , he joined the campaign of Francisco Pizarro . He went to Peru with Pedro de Alvarado in search of gold in 1534 . There he fought against the armies of Manco Inca Yupanqui that were besieging Lima in 1536 , against Diego de Almagro in 1537 and at the Battle of Las Salinas in 1538 . He later fought at Chupas and Jaquijahuana . While charged by some contemporaries with avarice and cruelty , it is undeniable that during the period of civil wars in Peru ( about 1537 to 1555 ) Alvarado was an unflinching and determined adherent to the interests of the Spanish crown . He always sided with those whom he thought to be sincere representatives of the crown , and it was not always profitable and safe to be on that side . Thus in 1537 , he commanded the troops of Pizarro ' s followers , when Diego de Almagro claimed the mythical Inca city of Cuzco . Defeated and captured by the latter at Abancay , after effecting his escape under great difficulties as well as dangers , and rejoining Pizarro , whom he looked upon as the legitimate governor of Peru , he took part in all the bloody troubles that followed , always as a prominent military leader and always unsuccessful when in immediate command . Still , he was counted upon as a mainstay of the Spanish cause , and occupied a high military position . Alvarado married in Spain while on a short visit , in 1544 . When Francisco Hernández Girón initiated a rebellion in 1553 , Alvarado was put in command of the forces to oppose him . At Chuquinga , in 1554 , Alvarado suffered a signal defeat at the hands of the insurgents . Overcome by melancholy in consequence of that last disaster , he pined away and died in 1559 . His principal achievement was the pacification of Chachapoyas in northeastern Peru , in the years 1535 and 1536 , this being the first step taken from Peru towards the Amazonian basin . Search for Eldorado . Alonso de Alvarado was the precursor of the expeditions that penetrated Amazonía : he departed from Trujillo , Peru and , crossing the Andes , came in 1535 to the land of the Chachapoyas , where a few years later the city that today is the capital of the department of the Amazon was founded . The account of the chronicler Pedro Cieza of León mentions the first foundation of the city of Chachapoyas : On the fifth of September in the year of the Lord one thousand five hundred and thirty eight Ihsu Christo , with sixty Spaniards under the control of captain Alonso de Alvarado arrived in [ . . . ] " Xalca " and made the first foundation of Chachapoyas . Also present at the foundation was Captain Luis Valera , father of the Cachapoyana Jesuit Blas Valera , of whose chronicles the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega nourished for the description of the Tawantinsuyo in his " Real Comments of the Incas " . In Chachapoyas , Alvarado had knowledge of the fabulous treasures that a legendary city was keeping in the thickness of the forest , the mythical " El Dorado " and from there he organized new expeditions that mended the High Cashew and that came up to grounds of the lay - brothers , next to Moyobamba . Civil Wars in Peru . Alvarado also took part in the civil wars that faced Diego de Almagro and Francisco Pizarro . He was made a prisoner by Almagro in 1537 but he managed to escape . Later with the followers of Pizarro and in support of his allegiance to the king , Alvarado defeated the followers of Almagro in the Battle of Las Salinas in 1538 . On the order of Francisco Pizarro , he looked in 1539 for the ideal place for the foundation of a city halfway between Lima and Cusco . Thus , along with Francisco de Cárdenas , he took part in the foundation of Huamanga . Avenging the death of his father , Diego de Almagro II , " El Mozo " ( The Lad ) , killed Francisco Pizarro in 1541 . In the following year , the governor Cristóbal Vaca de Castro , allied to the Alonso de Alvarado , defeated " El Mozo " in the battle of Chupas . The loyalty and the merits of Alvarado were honored by Carlos I of Spain who he named a member of the Order of Santiago and Marshal l of Peru . In April 1548 , Alvarado had to prove again the allegiance to the Crown fighting against the rebellious younger brother of Pizarro , Gonzalo . Under the control of Pedro de la Gasca , he ensured victory in the battle of Jaquijahuana , but this victory did not calm the many discontented Spanish settlers opposed to the increasing control of the envoys of the Spanish court , and some years later a group of them , led by Francisco Hernández Girón , revolted . Sent to fight them , Alvarado was defeated in the battle of Chuquinga and he fled to Lima , where he died in 1556 . Chachapoyas was , from his foundation , a city - port of that numerous expeditions that left for the forest . The legend of " El Dorado " inspired the thirst for wealth of the first Spanish explorers . Although the enthusiasm for the tasty reward was commanding his sleep , his companies met frustadas for unsuspected enemies : the famine , the illnesses , the Indians and the forest itself . " El Dorado " described from the imaginary one of the conqueror , is a city which streets and temples are covered of gold and he keeps , in his constructions and squares , made pieces of massive gold . Sometimes he was looked to the north , from Chachapoyas ; others , from Quillabamba ; in other occasions , some more recent explorers located his track ( that later they " lost " ) in the central forest and inclusive in Colombia . Nevertheless , this golden legend opened the doors for the initial colonization and evangelization of some of the most extensive and remote regions of South America .