Antonio de Lebrija (conquistador)

Antonio de Lebrija (1507, Alcántara, Extremadura, Spain – 1540, Brozas, Extremadura, Spain) was a Spanish conquistador who participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca and Chimila. He was treasurer of the conquest expedition leaving Santa Marta in April 1536 following the high quality salt trail, the Camino de la Sal, along the Suárez River up the slopes of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes towards the Muisca Confederation.

Antonio de Lebríja is mentioned as Librixa in the early chronicle about the Spanish conquest, a work of uncertain authorship; Epítome de la conquista del Nuevo Reino de Granada.

Biography
Antonio de Lebrija was born in Alcántara in Extremadura in 1507, possibly as grandson of his namesake, historian and humanist Antonio de Nebrija. He left Spain for the New World with García de Lerma, arriving in 1529 in Santa Marta. Under the command of De Lerma's nephew, Pedro de Lerma, De Lebrija participated in the conquest of the Chimila in the Valle de Upar, Cesar. Here, he discovered the confluence of the Magdalena River with the tributary that received his name, the Lebrija River.

As captain and treasurer, with seven years of experience in Tierra Firme, De Lebrija joined the expedition in search of El Dorado, the journey lead by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada leaving Santa Marta in April 1536.

In 1538, on the Bogotá savanna]], De Quesada sent Juan de Céspedes, Juan de San Martín, Gómez del Corral, and Antonio de Lebrija ahead to locate the most favourable site to found the capital of the New Kingdom of Granada. They selected a location in Teusaquillo, where Santa Fe de Bogotá was founded on August 6, 1538. After the two conquistadors Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar arrived in Bogotá, De Lebrija left with them, leader Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, and fellow conquistador Juan de Albarracín for Guataquí, a town they founded. Guataquí, at the Magdalena River, was the port where De Albarracín ordered the construction of two small boats, elaborated by indigenous people. From here, the Spanish conquistadors left for Cartagena to sail back to Spain. In Cartagena, in July 1539, De Lebrija authored a letter to the Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo, describing the activities in the New Kingdom. De Lebrija died in 1540 in Brozas, Extremadura.

Named after Antonio de Lebrija

 * Lebrija, Santander
 * Lebrija River, Santander