Belalcázar, Pizarro's lieutenant and fellow Extremaduran, has…
1534 CE
At the foot of Mount Chimborazo, near the modern city of Riobamba, he meets and defeats the forces of the great Inca warrior Rumiñawi with the aid of Canari tribesmen who, happy to throw off the yoke of their Inca rulers, serve as guides and allies to the conquering Spaniards.
Rumiñawi falls back to Quito, and, while in pursuit of the Inca army, Belalcázar encounters another, quite sizable, conquering party led by Guatemalan Governor Pedro de Alvarado.
Bored with administering Central America, Alvarado had set sail for the south without the crown's authorization, landed on the Ecuadorian coast, and marched inland to the Sierra.
Pizarro had heard of this competing expedition some time earlier and had sends Almagro north to reinforce Belalcázar.
Together, Pizarro's two representatives manage to convince Alvarado, with the help of a handsome amount of gold, to call off his expedition and allow the "legal" conquest to proceed as planned.
Most of Alvarado's men join Belalcázar for the siege of Quito.
Ruminahui leaves Quito in flames for the approaching conquistadors.
It is mid-1534, and, after the customary orgy of violence, in December the Spanish establish the city of San Francisco de Quito on top of the ruins of the secondary Inca capital.
Belalcázar is soon off on more conquests in Colombia to the north; it is not until December 1540 that Quito will receive its first captain-general in the person of Gonzalo Pizarro, the brother of Francisco.