The Spanish arrived in the 1520s. The first Spaniard to arrive here is said to have been Gonzalo de Umbria, sent by Hernán Cortés to explore the area to see if there was any gold. The conquest caused the native peoples to mostly abandon the area, and it is not known where they went. Those left to provide tribute were known in the Mexican highlands for their cotton shawls and decorated conch shells. The oldest document with Zihuatanejo's name is called the Matricula de Tributos (Record of Tribute). Today the local dialect has been lost and the only trace of the native population is a small archaeological site that was explored by INAH in the 1990s.