Mayaba

Mayaba is associated with the Indigenous leader Mayiba, who governed people living on the Nechí River near the later town of Zaragoza. Spanish accounts described these communities as Yamesí and noted their work in the gold-rich district. In 1581 Governor Gaspar de Rodas founded Zaragoza, one of the settlements from which Spaniards exploited the alluvial gold of the lower Nechí. Campaigns against the Indigenous inhabitants accompanied the expansion of mining in the 1570s and 1580s.