Antonio Díaz de Cardoso (1495, in Santa Comba,

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

–1573 in Santafe de Bogotá) was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...

who participated in the

Spanish conquest of the Muisca The Spanish conquest of the Muisca took place from 1537 to 1540. The Muisca were the inhabitants of the central Andean highlands of Colombia before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. They were organised in a loose confederation of differe ...

people. Antonio Díaz de Cardoso is mentioned as ''Cardosso'' in the early chronicles of the Spanish conquest, a work of uncertain authorship; ''

Epítome de la conquista del Nuevo Reino de Granada ''Epítome de la conquista del Nuevo Reino de Granada'' (English: ''Summary of the conquest of the New Kingdom of Granada'') is a document of uncertain authorship, possibly (partly) written by Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada be ...

''.''Epítome'', p.82

Biography

Birth and name

Antonio Díaz de Cardoso, whose surnames are alternatively spelled Díaz Cardoso, Díaz de Cardozo or Díaz Cardozo, was born in Santa Comba in the

Kingdom of Portugal The Kingdom of Portugal ( la, Regnum Portugalliae, pt, Reino de Portugal) was a monarchy in the western Iberian Peninsula and the predecessor of the modern Portuguese Republic. Existing to various extents between 1139 and 1910, it was also kno ...

.Antonio Díaz de Cardoso
-

Banco de la República The Bank of the Republic ( es, Banco de la República) is the central bank of Colombia. It was initially established under the regeneration era in 1880. Its main modern functions, under the new Colombian constitution were detailed by Congress a ...

- Soledad Acosta Samper His parents were Diego Díaz and Marquesa Cardoso.Antonio Díaz Cardozo
- Geni

American expeditions

Díaz de Cardoso joined the expedition in search of ''

El Dorado El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king o ...

'', the journey led by

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada y Rivera, also spelled as Ximénez and De Quezada, (;1496 16 February 1579) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador in northern South America, territories currently known as Colombia. He explored the territory named ...

which left

Santa Marta Santa Marta (), officially Distrito Turístico, Cultural e Histórico de Santa Marta ("Touristic, Cultural and Historic District of Santa Marta"), is a city on the coast of the Caribbean Sea in northern Colombia. It is the capital of Magdalena ...

in April 1536.Lista de los que consiguieron el descubrimiento del Reino de Granada con el General don Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, en el año de 1538
-

Antonio Díaz de Cardoso was one of the captains of the three

brigs A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...

that De Quesada sent up the

Magdalena River The Magdalena River ( es, Río Magdalena, ; less commonly ) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about through the western half of the country. It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene. It is navigable through much of ...

; the other two were Gómez del Corral and Juan de Albarracín.Setenta y cinco por ciento sabían firmar
/ref> From La Tora, present Barrancabermeja, De Quesada sent troops ahead to investigate routes towards the then unknown Andes. Díaz de Cardoso and De Albarracín found the loafs of high quality

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

that would lead the conquistadors along the '' Camino de la Sal'' ("Salt Route") into the

Muisca Confederation The Muisca Confederation was a loose confederation of different Muisca rulers (''zaques'', ''zipas'', '' iraca'', and ''tundama'') in the central Andean highlands of present-day Colombia before the Spanish conquest of northern South America. The ...

.Hallar la sal fue como encontrar El Dorado
/ref>

Mayortlties

Díaz de Cardoso received the

encomienda The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish labour system that rewarded conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. The labourers, in theory, were provided with benefits by the conquerors for whom they laboured, including military ...

(mayoralty) of

Suba Suba may refer to: Groups of people *Suba people (Kenya), a people of Kenya **Suba language *Suba people (Tanzania), a people of Tanzania * Subha (writers), alternatively spelt Suba, Indian writer duo Individual people *Suba (musician), Serbian- ...

, and ruled over 900 to 1000

Muisca The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

.Los caballeros de la conquista
/ref> Antonio Díaz de Cardoso was three times encomendero (mayor) of Santa Fe de Bogotá; from 1540 to 1541 between the terms of Juan Arévalo and

Juan Tafur Juan Tafur (1500, Córdoba, Andalusia, Castile - ?, ?) was a Spanish conquistador who participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca people. He was a cousin of fellow conquistadors Martín Yañéz Tafur, Hernán Venegas Carrillo and Pedr ...

, between 1562 and 1563 succeeding Juan de Rivera and preceding Alonso de Olaya and from 1567 to 1568 as successor to Antón de Olaya and succeeded by Gonzalo de Ledesma.List of mayors of Bogotá - 1538-1599
/ref>

Personal life

Díaz de Cardoso was married to Felipa Almeida, or Felipa de Almeyda Cabral, and the couple had two daughters, Marquesa and Isabel Cardozo Almeyda, who married the two sons of Luis Fernández de Acosta.

Biography

Birth and name

American expeditions

Mayortlties

Personal life

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading