From 1533, belief persisted in the sense that Río Grande de la Magdalena was the trail to the South Sea, to Peru, and the legendary "El Dorado". To reach the latter was the goal of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, the Spanish conquistador who left Santa Marta on April 6, 1536 with 800 soldiers heading towards the interior of current Colombia. The expedition divided into two groups, one under De Quesada's command to move on land and the other commanded by Diego de Urbino would ascend the Magdalena River in four brigantine ships to meet De Quesada's troops at a site named Tora de las Barrancas Bermejas, present-day Barrancabermeja. When they arrived, they heard news about indigenous people inhabiting the south and making large salt cakes used to trade for cotton and fish. De Quesada decided to abandon the route to Peru and cross the Andes in search of "salt villages". They saw crops, trails, white salt cakes and then huts where they found farm fields (called "tá" in the Chibcha language) with maize, yuca and beans. From Tora the expedition went up the Opón River where the Spanish found indigenous tribes covered with very fine painted cotton mantles. When they arrived on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, of the expedition leaving Santa Marta only 70 men were left.