By the time Sebastián de Belalcázar arrived in Huila, after founding Popayán in 1537, the territory was dominated from south to north by the Yalcones, Paeces and Pijaos, warrior tribes who fought to the death of the invaders. Belalcázar, in his attempt to unite Quito and Popayán with Santafé de Bogotá, crossed the Colombian massif fording the high course of the Cauca River until its source, where it descended along the riverbed of the Mazamorras River until its mouth in the Magdalena, territory dominated by the Yalcones, to the southwest of Huila. The conqueror ordered his lieutenants Juan de Cabrera and Pedro de Añasco to found Neiva and Timaná, a place occupied by the yalcones, who preferred death to conquest and annihilated Pedro de Añasco. This fact gave rise to the legend of the cacique Gaitana. The indigenous rebellion was general and the Paeces and Pijaos destroyed Neiva that, in 1550, Juan Alonso moved to the place where today is Villavieja, there was also razed ten years later by the same Pijaos. During the rest of the 16th century, the royal road that linked Quito, Popayán and Santafé de Bogotá was besieged by the indigenous resistance, which at the beginning of the 17th century was exterminated by Juan de Borja. Towards 1615 this took advantage of the enmity of the Coyaimas and Natagaimas to attack the Pijaos.