The most notorious events associated with the discovery and exploration of the Amazon were those connected with the expedition of Ursúa in 1560, embracing the conspiracy and revolt of Lope de Aguirre, the projected creation of an independent state under the nominal headship of Fernando de Guzmán, the tyrannical domination of the expedition by Aguirre after the murder of Ursúa and other members of the company, and the riotous pillaging of Venezuelan towns. A reliable narration of these events is the _Relación verdadera de todo lo que sucedió en la jornada de Omagua y Dorado_, written by El Bachiller Francisco Vásquez, who was a soldier of the expedition, but who refused to take the oath of allegiance to Fernando de Guzmán, or alienate himself from the kingdom of Castile, or renounce his loyalty to the king. Having served in this company until his escape from it at Margarita, Vásquez wrote with personal knowledge of the events he describes. His title of bachiller and the form of his narrative indicate that, although a private soldier, he possessed a degree of cultivation superior to that acquired by the majority of his comrades. His account was still in manuscript when Bollaert translated Simón’s _Sixta noticia historial_, which contained the history of Ursúa’s expedition. From it Simón derived the principal part of his information on the subject in question, and he did not hesitate to copy considerable parts of it and present them as his own in his _Conquistas de Tierra Firme_.[114] [Sidenote: Ortiguera’s _Jornada_] Another account of Ursúa’s expedition is found in Toribio de Ortiguera’s _Jornada del río Marañón_. This is more extensive than Vásquez’s narrative, and two of its chapters deal with the expedition of Gonzalo Pizarro and Orellana. Like the narrative by Vásquez, it remained many years in manuscript, but is now readily accessible in the _Nueva biblioteca de autores españoles_.[115] Other narratives of Ursúa’s expedition are found in Castellanos’ _Elegías de varones ilustres de las Indias_ (Part I, Elegía XIV), and in Piedrahita’s _Historia general del nuevo reino de Granada_. The following paragraph is Francisco Vásquez’s description of Lope de Aguirre: [Sidenote: Vásquez on Lope de Aguirre] [Sidenote: Character of Aguirre] [Sidenote: A Lutheran]