The Captain Don Martin Galeano was the discoverer of San Gil around 1540. He battled Macaregua, Guanent and Chanchon. Description of the Battle of the Pozos. The golden horseshoes. Cradle, bravados and death of conquistador Galeano. Song of the poet Arciniegas to the Great Cacique Guanent. Luis de Lugo, Francisco de Rueda and Eulogio Entralgo de Leon were the comrades of the discoverer. Lugo made the distribution of lands.

Some chroniclers of Indias and others, contemporary ones, who are based on the former, relate the discovery of the region and the Guane people, and their conquest, after many bloody battles between the peninsulars and the natives. It is known, especially from Friar Pedro Simon who supplies his version of fresh references, that Captain Don Martin Galeano, founder of the city of Velez, went from this place to the Guane territory on January 20, 1540, attracted by the fertility fame of its soil, and its numerous population of characteristics a little bit different than the Velez subjects
One hundred and fty soldiers of cavalry and infantry integrated in his expedition. They followed precisely the Cobaraque and the Valley of Poima (Oiba) route by the Cordillera de Amansagatos Ridge and by the Mostrador de Piedra counter fort. to the Charales lands where they heard of the beautiful Macaregua region. They went around near San Gil and the area of Monas, crossed rivers and passed to the Geridas Plateau and Macaregua where they found the first Guane groups who were exterminated due to the conquistadors’ superiority.
Martin Galeano battled the Guanent Cacique in an area near San Gil, in between the lands of the Caciques Macaregua, Butaregua and Chanchon. Today the area is called “Los Pozos”, where the San Gil Airport is located. This is a dominant flat area from the rough geography formed by the Surez and Fonce Rivers. There, according to the chronicler’s tale, Galeano battled the Guanent Cacique whose name is not known, but, in my judgment, could have been the warrior Mochuelo,whose fame of intrepid has followed generations. He ruled in the middle of the Sixteenth century, during the time of the Guanes conquest.
With exquisite penmanship, the Santandereano chronicler Enrique Otero D’Costa states how that part of the drama happened: “There, far, where the teeth of the serrania seem to bite the sky. you can see, arising, the cacique’s hamlet blossoming over the lofty, rocky hills, like eagles’ nests. The soldiers advance above it. No prevention is discovered around it. The road is becoming harsher. The cavalry is obligated to separate from the infantry. Galeano leads through the bare back bone of the sierra which embraces the town. Meanwhile the pawns continue in the front through shrubs and gorges. A squadron of yanacomas or domestic Indians joined them. Felons of their race allied with the Hispanic army to help defeat and ruin his brethren. All ready near, all ready arrived, the invading cohort observes the homes of the people.They see a bigger one, supposedly of the Cacique. When they go in, suddenly, a squadron of valorous Indian pike men, on alert, stepped on, attacked with great courage, so that the Castilians had to grab their round shields very quickly. Several times, the Spaniards gained terrain and just as many they were rejected by that brave squadron of soldiers who fought with order, discipline and coordinated movements like the chieftains of the famous regiments of infantry of Flandes. What soldiers of Indian militia stated Friar Pedro Simon”.
“The skirmish continued without advantage from either side, until Pedro Velasquez impelled by young blood came forward with plans to do something decisive. But, unfortunately, in the moment when he charged an Indian, he uncovered a side from his round shield, and an enemy took advantage of the opportunity, pushed a lance under his arm pointing it to Velasquez’s throat cutting it from side to side,.killing him in the act. The Indians recovered strength with this incident, advanced and took the cadaver of the unfortunate conquistador”. “The Spaniards red with anger (according to Juan de Castellanos) delegating everything to God and their arms” charged with great decision on the Guanes breaking their les. The Indians resisted with all their valor but with bad luck. Suddenly, thirteen of their comrades laid dead and the rest started to back up with a shout: Everyone for himself! Each Indian fell where his luck pleased leaving the eld to Spanish control.
“While the ghting continued, the good captain Galeano went from cliff to cliff looking for a horse block which he did not nd. He arrived late. The Castilian Standard flapped in the wind over those, until then, inviolate mountains of Macaregua and Guanent. The victors slept the same night in Macaregua’s home. Later, they rescued Velasquez’ body and gave it a Christian burial in a secured and decorous place of peninsular honor. The injured were healed and rested. But Galeano would not rest. In the first quarter of the night, he called his soldiers and manifested to them the dangerous position they were in. They could not manipulate the horses and he proposed to move to a nearby savanna. All the comrades agreed and moved there. They rested and the horseshoes were jammed with gold for lack of iron by the farrier Don Hernando Gomez”. After the heroic resistance of the Guanent Cacique and the defeat of the Guane Indians, Galeano marched to Chanchon to ght the cacique of the same name. The poet Ismael Enrique Arciniega sings an immortal poem to the Guanent Cacique which reads: “At a distance with the Guane defeat, the day was brilliant as a flame.
Against the rocks in the arid ravine, the Chicamocha would break in white suds. Guanent with the Guanes would climb the rocky hills. He would make rocks roll with and angry look. Galeano and his soldiers followed the day, between the gorges of the sour serrania. In front of the harquebuses, his lines were cast aside. The cacique climbed a cliff showered in splendor, when he did not have arrows in his quiver, his ornament of red plumes he tore into pieces valiantly the wooden bow he threw to the invaders and jumped over them and hurled from above to the river”. Galeano’s expeditionary troops, relates the erudite writer Jose Manuel Rojas Rueda, returned to Velez by way of Simacota, Chima, Contratacion, La Aguada and Chipat. It took them four months and arrived in Velez when the inhabitants asked Santa Fe for help. The Saboy cacique had brought out in revolt all the Indians of the region, opening a campaign against the Spaniards. Hernn Perez de Quesada sent Captains Juan de Cespedes and Juan de Rivera to pacify the natives. With the same objective, Captain Gonzalo Surez Rendon left Tunja. Seven years later, in 1547, the Guanes brought out another revolt and elected Chanchon as their chief but Pedro de Ursua, sent by Miguel Diaz de Armendriz, subdued them with eighty infantry and two cavalry units. After some combats, the Indian chief was imprisoned and immediately killed on the hills near Socorro. According to the colonial genealogist Juan Florez de Ocariz, Galeano was born in Valencia a nobleman from the noble breed of the Republic of Genoa and the illustrious Sir Lucas Fernndez de Piedrahita. He served in Italy under Captain Antonio de Leyva and came, as an ensign, to the West Indies in 1535, probably in the Armada of Pedro Fernndez de Lugo, in Lzaro Fonte’s Company. The chronicler Rodriguez Freire adds in his Nobiliario that Captain Martin Galeano died of old age in Velez. He built a house which still stands and I saw somewhat abandoned. There, some descendants signed their name “Galiano”. In Velez the conquistador became captain of infantry, mayor, alderman and corregidor. The historian Rojas Rueda states “ The Galeanos had a blazon of a shield divided in half. The upper half had a golden lion in a red background and the lower half had three blue bands crossing a golden background”. I agree with this intellectual that the Guane Indians disappeared completely from their lands. There are a few left in the regions of Macaregua, Butaregua, Guarigua around San Gil and Barichara dedicated to ceramics and agriculture on a small scale. The rest of the Santander Department was populated by Spaniards, especially in the provinces of San Gil, Socorro, Zapatoca, Charal and Soto. Areas of Barrancabermeja and Puerto Olaya have been populated by people from the northern coast, Antioquia and Choco, mostly mulattos.