In 1534, a few hundred Spaniards, many enslaved Africans, and several thousand forcibly conscripted Indigenous guides, porters, soldiers, and slaves labored upward from the tropical forests of Ecuador's Pacific coast into the Andean sierra snowpack. Pedro de Alvarado had left Guatemala chasing a slice of South America's wealth. The group was bound for Quito. Their route directly through the mountains left them vulnerable to the bitter winds, difficult footing, and labored breathing of the alpine environment. Sadly, many individuals, mostly Indigenous and African, did not make the descent back down. W. George Lovell lays the responsibility for the disaster, as well as the wider destruction wrought by the expedition, at the feet of Alvarado and his relentless pursuit of fortune and fame. Drawing from Spanish chronicle sources, archival materials, and transcribed primary source collections, Lovell delivers a highly readable, biographically driven narrative of the little-known episode, and throughout he centers...
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