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the Liberated Area, sustaining it out from the visual scope of physical of the Enemy.
Such precautions were not needless due to, even though Diego de Almagro not
represented any problem, and he had the joyless end that I mentioned, eight years later would
come another Enemy, who came with the manifested intention to localize the shelter of the
Lords of Tharsis. In 1543, indeed, the Governor of Peru, Cristóbal Vaca de Castro, knower of
the unsuccessful persecution carried out by Almagro, he decided to try better luck by mean of a
new expedition. Officialy, it would be tried to explore and occupy the territory of Tucumán, but
in secrecy the main objective would consist in the quest for the «other White Men» and the City
of the Caesars. The henchman of Vaca de Castro is the Captain Diego Rojas, Spaniard of Burgos
who participates in the conquest of Nicaragua and who in that moment was in La Plata, or
Sucre. From 1542 to 1543 is prepared the expedition that at the end would count only with two
hundred men, although well supplied, and was collected information about the populations of
the Quebrada de Humahuaca and the country of Tucumán. For this reason, even if, always
«officialy», he sends a fleet from Peru to wait for it in Chile infront of the port de Arauco, Diego
de Rojas proposed to enter the most possible in towards the South, following the trace of the
fugitives. He ascends in this way to the plateau of Titicaca and, thereupon, he descends to the
Quebrada de Humahuaca, sustaining permanent combats against the Indians, who had been
warned by the Amautas of the Black Bonnet about the intentions of the Spanish conquerors:
The ocloyas, humahuacas, pulares, jujuyes, etc., attacked them without brake during the
whole journey of the hill in Jujuy. However, they achieved to reach to Chicoana, today Molinos,
and the fate wanted that the chickens of Castile, which were in power of the Indians
Quilmes, be discovered by them. The chickens had been gifted by the Princess Quilla, what
determined the route of expeditionaries approaching dangerously to Pucará Tharsy. The
presence of the chickens convinced Diego de Rojas «other White Men», just as Almagro
believed, and that impulse him to cross over the Valley Calchaquí, from North to South, to
Tolombón and thereupon, through Fuerte Quemado, to Punta de Balasto, crossing the Nevados
de Aconquija to go out at the height of Concepción of Valley of Thafy. Fortunately, such route
took the Spaniards a too much to the South and was no necessity to test the magic defenses of
the Pucará of Tharsy, now converted in in permanent residence of the Lords of Tharsis.
Diego de Rojas faced the juríes of Tucumán bravely, without obtaining any news about
the «White King», and he continued his wrong march to the South, exploring the lands that
were denominated by the Race of their dwellers: «juríes» or Santiago del Estero; «Diaguitas» or
Salta, Tucumán, Catamarca, La Rioja, San Juan, and Northwest de Córdoba; and «comechingones» o
Córdoba. At their return through these sterile travels, at the height of Salavina, in Santiago del
Estero, the brave Diego de Rojas found his death caused by the poison that a Diaguita arrow
deposited in his leg. Three years after his departure, such expedition returned to Peru, at the
command of Nicolás de Heredia, who nevertheless the loss of Rojas had to pass a year travelling
through the Valley of Thafy seeking the City of the Caesars.
Soon is realized another attempt, in 1549, when Juan Nuñez del Prado moved to
Tucumán with seventy men, aome of them Golems, enthusiastic by the stories of many
members of the expedition of Rojas: they would not find the Citiy of the Caesars or the Pucará
of Tharsis neither. For twenty years, since the excursion of Diego de Rojas till the arrival to
Tucumán of Francisco de Aguirre, were realized unsuccessful similar attempts that,
nevertheless, have the virtue of going sowing the region of Spanish popualtions and cities. San

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