Baltasar Maldonado

Baltasar Maldonado, also written as Baltazar Maldonado, (c.1510, Salamanca, Castile – 1552, Santafé de Bogotá, New Kingdom of Granada) was a Spanish conquistador who first served under Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, and later in the army of Hernán Pérez de Quesada in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca. He married Leonor de Carvajal y Mendoza, and the couple had four children; two sons: Alfonso Maldonado y Carvajal and Alonso Maldonado; and two daughters: María Maldonado y Carvajal and Ana Maldonado de Carvajal. The sister of Leonor de Carvajal married successively Jorge Robledo, Pedro Briceño, and president of Audiencia Francisco Briceño. Tundama, other than the earlier caciques of the Muisca resisted heavily against the European invaders and punished one of his people who suggested to surrender by cutting off their ears and left hand. Tundama declared a "death war" against the Spanish soldiers and gathered an army of 10,000 guecha warriors. Tundama was killed by Maldonado wielding a large hammer.

The conquistadors passed the mountains of the Eastern Ranges and crossed the Guaviare and Papamene Rivers. While crossing one of the many rivers of the Llanos, a horserider of the expedition, Jorge Olmeda, drowned with his horse and an indigenous woman he had taken with him. The Spanish honoured him by naming this the Olmeda River. The soldiers reached La Fragua, a settlement populated by the Choque in the present-day department of Caquetá, where Hernán Pérez de Quesada decided to stay for a while to rest. He sent Maldonado ahead to search for other settlements in the area. Maldonado tried to cross a river but he was halted by the indigenous people living there, who shot poisoned arrows at the conquistador, forcing him to retreat. At night, Maldonado and his men attempted to defeat the indigenous a second time—this time successfully—by ambushing them on a small island in the river. The hurt natives fled and many drowned in the waters. Hernán Pérez de Quesada with the other remaining soldiers joined the troops of Maldonado again in Mocoa, Putumayo to the south. From here, the expedition went back into the Andes to search for food. He died in the capital in 1552.

The Maldonado family

The Maldonado family lived in Salamanca, Spain. Notable is Francisco Maldonado, who was a leader in the Revolt of the Comuneros. Various conquistadors and other people involved in the Spanish colonization of the Americas from the Maldonado family are known in history.

Bituima, Diego Carasquilla Maldonado — became an oídor for Santa Fe de Bogotá in Lima; (Francisco) Arias Maldonado — who also served under De Belálcazar and became encomendero of Sora in Boyacá; Francisco de Grado Maldonado – son of Isabel Maldonado, was a conquistador in Peru. Francisco Maldonado Dorado del Hierro — served under German conquistadors Georg von Speyer and Nikolaus Federmann, and was later made encomendero of Sasaima; and Isabel Maldonado, married to two conquistadors: Pedro Núñez Cabrera and, following his death, Miguel Holguín y Figueroa. Juan Maldonado — another conquistador in Colombia and son-in-law of Ortún Velázquez de Velasco; Juan Prieto Maldonado — conquistador in Tunja; Rodrigo Arias de Maldonado — conquistador in New Spain;