Ñuflo de Chaves

In 1544 in Asunción (in today's Paraguay) he participated in the revolt against the Spanish governor Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.

In 1557 he planned an expedition to conquer Jarayes lands, and reached today's Brazilian federal state of Mato Grosso, where he thought that he would find gold mines.

In 1561 he moved to the southern Amazon Basin with a group of settlers, where he founded the town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, giving it the name of his hometown in Spain.

Ñuflo de Chaves settled in his new town with his family, being the first European to introduce goats and sheep to the region.

Today the Province of Ñuflo de Chávez in the Bolivian Department of Santa Cruz is named in his honor.