When you think of the Age of Discovery, the names Cortés, Pizarro and other famous conquistadors instantly pop up. Yet there are ten amazing tales of lesser‑known adventurers whose deeds, missteps and downright madness were eclipsed by the more celebrated figures. Let’s pull back the curtain and meet the daring, the brutal and the downright bizarre characters who helped shape the New World.
10 Amazing Tales of Forgotten Conquistadors
10 Juan Garrido
Most American‑history textbooks claim that the first Africans set foot on what is now the United States in 1619, when they arrived as enslaved laborers in Jamestown, Virginia. That story, however, overlooks a far earlier pioneer: Juan Garrido, a free African‑born conquistador who joined the inaugural Spanish expedition to Florida in 1513. Though the details of his early life are scarce, scholars agree he was born somewhere in West Africa around 1480. By 1495 he had migrated to Lisbon, Portugal, where he adopted the Christian name “Juan Garrido.” He later moved to Spain and, in 1508, embarked from Seville to the island of Hispaniola. Once in the New World, Garrido participated in multiple colonization ventures, most notably Hernán Cortés’s campaign against the Aztecs.
The Spanish Crown rewarded his service with a parcel of land in Mexico City, and when he wasn’t fighting, Garrido turned to agriculture. He is credited with cultivating wheat in the Americas—perhaps the very first to do so on the continent. He spent his remaining years in Mexico City, marrying, fathering three children, and passing away sometime in the late 1540s.
9 Francisco de Orellana
Francisco de Orellana served as a lieutenant on a 1540 expedition east of modern Quito, Ecuador, under Gonzalo Pizarro—half‑brother of the infamous Francisco Pizarro. Their mission was to hunt for gold, silver and the elusive cinnamon. When the party reached the Napo River, Orellana and fifty men were sent ahead to locate supplies. Their trek led them to the Amazon River, which they chose to navigate rather than turn back because the current was too strong.
The Amazon proved a treacherous highway, with constant raids by hostile tribes. Orellana’s men preferred looting and burning villages over diplomatic outreach. In one harrowing encounter, a band of female archers ambushed them; impressed by their ferocity, Orellana christened the river “Río de las Amazonas.” By August 1542 his crew had completed the first European navigation of the Amazon, later sailing to Trinidad and back to Spain. King Charles I granted Orellana permission for a new Amazon basin expedition, but his return voyage was disastrous: he lost men and ships, and ultimately drowned when his boat capsized at the river’s mouth.
8 Gonzalo Pizarro
After months of waiting for Francisco de Orellana to bring back supplies, Gonzalo Pizarro realized his lieutenant would not return. In August 1542 he and his dwindling force set off for Quito, only to discover that most of the 200 Spaniards and all 4,000 native allies had perished. Upon arrival, Gonzalo learned that his half‑brother, the famed Francisco Pizarro, had been assassinated a year earlier. The Spanish Crown, under King Charles I, was also tightening control over the colonies, issuing New Laws that limited encomiendas—grants of native labor and land to conquistadors.
These reforms angered many colonists, who turned to Gonzalo for leadership. He launched a rebellion against the new viceroy in 1544, and by 1546 his forces had defeated and killed the viceroy. The revolt lingered for two more years until Viceroy Pedro de la Gasca crushed it. Gonzalo Pizarro was found guilty of treason and beheaded on April 10, 1548.
7 Francisco de Ulloa
Early conquistadors were fed a steady diet of myths about fantastical lands of endless wealth. One such legend claimed a southern island called California, ruled by black Amazons, with golden weapons and griffins that devoured infants. The story originated from Garci Ordonez de Montalvo’s fictional novel, but the Spaniards believed it to be real. When they reached the coast of modern Baja California, they assumed it was the fabled island.
In the 1530s expeditions disproved the Amazonian myth, confirming only local tribes inhabited the area. Yet the belief that California was an island persisted. In 1539, Hernán Cortés dispatched Francisco de Ulloa to explore the region. Ulloa sailed up the Baja California coast, eventually realizing the landform was a peninsula, not an island. His discovery was largely ignored, and cartographers continued to depict California as an island well into the 18th century.
6 Sebastian de Belalcazar
Sebastian de Belalcazar’s origins are shrouded in mystery. Born around 1495 as Sebastian Moyano in southern Spain, his family belonged to the low‑nobility, while his father worked as a woodman. Young Sebastian helped his father sell timber, traveling the town of Belalcazar with a donkey‑laden cart. One day, a mishap with the donkey led him to beat the animal to death with a stick. Fearing retribution, he fled to Cádiz.
By 1519, he had crossed the Atlantic to Panama, joining an expedition. He later adopted the surname “de Belalcazar” after his hometown, claiming he’d forgotten his original one. Throughout the 1520s and 30s, he participated in conquests across present‑day Ecuador, Nicaragua and Peru, earning a reputation as a capable leader but also as a ruthless butcher. In 1534, during the Quito conquest, his troops discovered a village whose men were away at war; he ordered the massacre of the remaining women and children as a warning.
In 1541 Belalcazar retired from field command to become governor of Popayán. However, his tenure was disastrous: he mishandled land disputes and even executed fellow governor Jorge Robledo. Arrested and sentenced to death, he attempted to appeal to the Spanish Crown but died before his case could be heard.
5 Maria de Estrada
While the conquistador narrative is overwhelmingly male, a handful of women fought alongside their male counterparts. Maria de Estrada, dubbed the “Great Lady,” is believed to be the first white woman to set foot in the Americas. Together with her husband Pedro Sánchez Farfán, she spent time in Hispaniola and Cuba before joining Hernán Cortés’s 1519 Mexican expedition.
Maria refused any special treatment based on gender, serving as a full‑time soldier. She fought bravely in every battle, most notably during La Noche Triste—the disastrous 1520 retreat from Tenochtitlán. After the conquest of the Aztec Empire in 1521, Cortés rewarded her with two towns in Morelos. Other women, such as Beatriz Bermúdez de Velasco, also fought alongside their husbands, while Isabel de Rodríguez tended to the wounded.
4 Rodrigo de Bastidas
Rodrigo de Bastidas earned the nickname “Spain’s Best and Noblest Conquistador” for his comparatively humane conduct toward indigenous peoples. Unlike many of his peers, Bastidas was educated and approached the New World as a businessman. In June 1500, he funded his own expedition, agreeing to surrender 25 percent of any profit to the Spanish Crown.
His voyage led to the discovery of Panama, where his crew amassed gold and pearls. In early 1502, both of his ships sank off Haiti; although most cargo was lost, the crew rescued valuable gold and pearls. However, the native slaves chained aboard drowned as the ships went down.
Afterward, Bastidas traveled to Santo Domingo, where he was arrested for violating his license, which only permitted trade in territories he personally discovered. The charges were later dropped, and he was granted the title of governor. He settled his family in Santo Domingo, becoming a cattle rancher. In 1524, he founded Santa Marta, the first European settlement in present‑day Colombia. While surveying the region, his party encountered a village called Tarbo. Refusing to allow his men to loot, Bastidas accepted a gift of 600 pesos in gold from the chief and used it to benefit the colony.
His insistence on fair treatment angered over fifty of his men, who conspired to murder him. They broke into his home one night and stabbed him. Though he survived the initial attack, he succumbed to his wounds shortly thereafter. The conspirators were executed.
3 Francisco de Carbajal
Francisco de Carbajal, known as “The Demon of the Andes,” met a grim fate at 84, executed for his role in Gonzalo Pizarro’s rebellion of the mid‑1540s. Prior to his New World exploits, Carbajal spent four decades fighting the French in the Italian Wars. Once in the Americas, his age did not deter him from battle; he earned a land grant in Cuzco from Governor Francisco Pizarro for helping suppress a Peruvian uprising.
When Gonzalo Pizarro’s revolt erupted in 1544, Carbajal attempted to flee Peru but was barred from leaving. Reluctant yet compelled, he became a key lieutenant for the rebels, leveraging his knowledge of the terrain and ruthless tactics. He took a perverse pleasure in watching enemies suffer, reportedly mocking captives before their execution. Contemporary accounts claim he personally carried out over 300 of the 340 executions attributed to the rebel forces, though numbers may be exaggerated.
After the rebellion was crushed, Carbajal was sentenced to be drawn and quartered. Even in prison, he remained defiant, scoffing at pleas for a priest, declaring he bore no guilt save a forgotten half‑real debt to a Seville shopkeeper.
2 Lope de Aguirre
Lope de Aguirre, a Basque conquistador who styled himself “The Wrath of God,” lived a life of relentless violence and madness. After being publicly flogged for defying the New Laws, he spent three years hunting down the judge who ordered his punishment. He finally tracked the magistrate to Cuzco, broke into his home and stabbed him to death while the judge slept. Aguirre then hid for over a month, disguising himself as a black servant before escaping.
In September 1560, Aguirre joined Pedro de Ursúa’s Amazon expedition, which sought the legendary city of El Dorado. A year later, Aguirre murdered Ursúa and his successor, seizing command and proclaiming himself prince of Peru. He ruled with terror, killing anyone who opposed him. After capturing the island of Margarita in Venezuela, Spanish forces surrounded him at Barquisimeto. In a final act of cruelty, he slashed his own daughter with a dagger, declaring, “I am about to kill thee, that thou mayest not be pointed at with scorn nor be in the power of anyone who may call thee the daughter of a traitor.” Aguirre was executed on October 27 1561, shot and then dismembered.
1 Francisco Vazquez de Coronado
Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and three other survivors of his disastrous 1527 Florida expedition were rescued in 1536. Their tales of a fabled “Cibola,” a land of seven golden cities to the north of Mexico, sparked the imagination of Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza. He commissioned a modest scouting party led by Franciscan monk Marcos de Niza, who traveled with Estebanico, a black slave and linguist from the Narváez expedition.
Estebanico forged ahead, leaving messages on crosses. His last report spoke of Cibola, but he vanished mysteriously—locals claimed he was killed, and his body was never recovered. Undeterred, Niza pressed on, eventually spotting a “very beautiful city” perched on a rounded hill. Too frightened to approach, he returned to Mexico, convinced he had found Cibola.
Enthused, Mendoza partnered with Governor Francisco Vázquez de Coronado to fund a grand expedition in February 1540. Alongside Marcos de Niza, Coronado led 300 Spaniards and 1,000 native allies on a four‑month trek to the reported city. After a clash with its inhabitants, they discovered the settlement was Hawikuh, a modest Zuni pueblo. Outraged, Coronado expelled Niza from the mission, forcing him to trek back alone.
Seeking further riches, Coronado pressed westward to the legendary Quivira, now Kansas. Though he found only another poor village, his party became the first Europeans to witness the Grand Canyon and Colorado River. The expedition’s failure bankrupted Mendoza, Coronado and their investors. Disgraced, Coronado resigned his governorship, his reputation in tatters.