 Around 1656 he arrived at San Miguel de Tucumán in what is now Argentina.This city was one of the principal cities of a province that included the present-day provinces of Jujuy, Salta, Catamarca, La Rioja, Tucumán, Santiago del Estero, Córdoba and the western parts of Chaco and Formosa.This was a vast territory, but the situation of the Spanish colonists was precarious, partly because of the opposition of the native Calchaquíes, a warlike people of the "Diaguita" or "Pazioca" confederation who had been briefly subjugated to the Inca Empire.