Georg von Speyer

Georg Hohermuth of Speyer ( Jorge de Espira; * in 1500 in Speyer, † June 11, 1540 in Coro, Venezuela ) was a German conquistador and governor of Venezuela.

Life

Hohermuth was in Augsburg, Lyon and Sevilla in the service of Bartholomew VI. Welser, received in 1530 by Emperor Charles V in 1534 a coat of arms, and was appointed governor and captain-general of Welser 's province of Venezuela and Cabo de la Vela. Together with Philipp von Hutten and Nicholas spring man he reached 1535 Coro. In addition to his duties in the areas of justice, peace, settlement and mission, he turned primarily in search of the legendary " El Dorado " to; an expedition failed. During his absence to 1538 replaced by spring man in his office, confirmed him Charles V in 1539 again as governor and captain-general. Hohermuths expedition discovered some western tributaries of the Orinoco.

He probably reached the territory of the present province of Putumayo on the border between Colombia and Ecuador and discovered the Río Caquetá and the Río Putumayo, both tributaries of the Amazon.

In his notes, the speech in which he was attacked by a tribe of Indians called Omaguas of a mountain range. However, his expedition team was so decimated that he forced from the remaining participants had shortly afterwards repent. It was presumably at this mountain to the today almost inaccessible Serranía de Chiribiquete, located in the east of the present Colombian province of Caquetá. He died during the preparations for a second expedition to the land of gold.