De Almagro's own reconnaissance of the land and the bad news of Gómez de Alvarado's encounter with the fierce Mapuche, along with the bitter cold winter that settled ferociously upon them, only served to confirm that everything had failed. He never found gold or the cities which Incan scouts had told him lay ahead, only communities of the indigenous population who lived from subsistence agriculture. Local tribes put up fierce resistance to the Spanish forces. The exploration of the territories of Nueva Toledo, which lasted 2 years, was marked by a complete failure for De Almagro. Despite this, at first he thought staying and founding a city would serve well for his honor. The initial optimism that led Almagro to bring his son he had with the indigenous Panamanian Ana Martínez to Chile had faded.
