Pudahuel Region Metropolitana Chile

Almagro, on reaching the Mapocho Valley in 1536, sends Gómez de Alvarado with an expedition of two hundred Spaniards, one hundred cavalry and one hundred foot, with a large group of Indian auxiliaries to the south of Chile with the mission of exploring the country to the Strait of Magellan.

The group advances without encountering much resistance from the Promaucaes.

Almagro's own reconnaissance of the land and the bad news of Gómez de Alvarado's encounter with the fierce Mapuche, along with the bitter cold winter that settles ferociously upon them, only serves to confirm that everything has failed.

He never finds gold or the cities that Incan scouts had told him lay ahead, only communities of the indigenous population who live from subsistence agriculture.

Local tribes put up fierce resistance to the Spanish forces.

The exploration of the territories of Nueva Toledo, which will last two years, is marked by a complete failure for Almagro.

Despite this, at first he thinks staying and founding a city will serve well for his honor.

The initial optimism that had led Almagro to bring his son he had with the indigenous Panamanian Ana Martínez to Chile had faded.

Some historians have suggested that, but for the urging of his senior explorers, Almagro would probably have stayed permanently in Chile.

He is urged to return to Peru and this time take definitive possession of Cuzco, so as to consolidate an inheritance for his son.

Dismayed with his experience in the south, Almagro makes plans of return to Peru.

He never officially founds a city in the territory of what is now Chile.

Some accounts say that when Almagro found out about Felipillo's betrayal and his subsequent confession about purposely misinterpreting Pizarro's message to Atahualpa, he ordered his soldiers to capture Felipillo and tear his body apart with horses in front of the region's Curaca.

Nowadays, among Peruvians, the word "Felipillo" has taken a meaning similar to "traitor."

The withdrawal of the Spanish from the valleys of Chile is violent: Almagro authorizes his soldiers to ransack the natives' properties, leaving their soil desolate.

In addition, the Spanish soldiers take natives captive to serve as slaves.

The locals are captured, tied together, and forced to carry the heavy loads belonging to the conquistadors.