Rodrigo de Bastidas
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Known for | Discoverer of Panama Founder of Santa Marta, Colombia |
Children | Rodrigo de Bastidas y Rodriguez de Romera (son) Isabel de Bastidas y Rodríguez de Romera (daughter) |
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Rodrigo de Bastidas (Spanish pronunciation: [roˈðɾiɣo ðe βasˈtiðas]; Triana, Seville, Andalusia, c. 1465[1] – Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, 28 July 1527) was a Spanish conquistador and explorer who mapped the northern coast of South America, discovered Panama, and founded the city of Santa Marta.
Personal life
Rodrigo de Bastidas was a well-to-do merchant and mariner from the town of Triana near Seville. Because of a mistake by historian Martín Fernández de Navarrete, Bastidas is still sometimes misrepresented as a notary.[2][3] He was born around 1465 and married Isabel Rodríguez de Romera sometime before 1500.[4]
Exploration
After sailing with
At the South American coast he sailed westward from
Foundation of Santa Marta
In 1520 the governorship of Trinidad was granted to de Bastidas, but this was opposed by Diego Columbus, the son of Christopher, and de Bastidas waived the grant. He received instead permission to exploit a region from Cabo de la Vela westward to the Magdalena River; however this expedition was delayed for several years.[6] In 1524 he returned to the New World and accompanied by Juan de Céspedes founded the city of Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. He named the city Santa Marta because it was on Saint Martha's feast day (July 29) that the city was founded.
De Bastidas has been called Spain's Noblest Conquistador because he had a policy of respect, humanity and friendship towards the native people; he maintained pacifistic relations with his neighbors, the native Taganga, Dorsino and Gaira, although it is said he had slaves too. The following quote related to the founding of Santa Marta does not support this appellation:[citation needed]
"I assure you that with the help of God I will enter powerfully against you, and I will make war on you in every place and in every way that I can, and I will subject you to the yoke and obedience of the church and their highnesses, and I will take your persons and your women and your children, and I will make them slaves, and as such I will sell them, and dispose of them as their highnesses command: I will take your goods, and I will do you all the evils and harms which I can, just as to vassals who do not obey and do not want to receive their lord, resist him and contradict him. And I declare that the deaths and harms which arise from this will be your fault, and not that of their highnesses, nor mine, nor of the gentlemen who have come with me here."
On a trip to the interior and the territories of Bonda and Bondigua in present-day Colombia, he traded a substantial amount of gold. De Bastidas had a policy prohibiting his troops from brutally using the indigenous people or robbing them of their goods. His troops, many of whom had gone adventuring in the hopes of obtaining gold, asked de Bastidas for a share. He refused to share it with his men, saying that he needed it to help defray the costs of the colony.
Death
De Bastidas' refusal to share the gold that he had acquired greatly angered some of his men, among them his lieutenant Villafuerte,[8] who led a conspiracy of some fifty men to murder de Bastidas. One night, while Bastidas was asleep, he was attacked and stabbed five times. He was able to cry out, and his men rushed to his aid. Although seriously wounded, he did not die immediately.
Owing to a lack of adequate medical facilities in Santa Marta, Bastidas attempted to sail to Santo Domingo, but bad weather forced him to land in Cuba, where he died from his injuries. Later, his only son,
See also
- List of conquistadors in Colombia
- Spanish conquest of the Muisca
- Taganga
- Spanish conquest of the Chibchan Nations
- Juan de Céspedes
References
- ^ (in Spanish) Biografía Rodrigo de Bastidas
- ^ Morison 1974, pp. 198–199.
- ^ Vigneras 1976, p. 99.
- ^ Romoli 1953, p. 365.
- ^ (in Spanish) Rodrigo de Bastidas Archived 2013-10-15 at the Wayback Machine - Soledad Acosta Samper - Banco de la República
- ^ a b c d Charles Loftus Grant Anderson (1911), Old Panama and Castilla del Oro, Press of the Sudwarth Company
- ^ Floyd, Troy (1973). The Columbus Dynasty in the Caribbean, 1492-1526. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. pp. 134, 138, 225.
- ^ Andagoya, Pascual de. Narrative of the Proceedings of Pedrarias Davila. The Hakluyt Society. p. 81. Retrieved 21 June 2019 – via Wikisource.
Further reading
- Harris, Lewis D. (1984). "Rodrigo de Bastidas and the Discovery of Panama". Geographical Review. 74 (2): 170–182. JSTOR 214098.
- Morison, Samuel Eliot (1974). The European Discovery of America, The Southern Voyages. New York. ISBN 0-19-501377-8.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Romoli, Katheen (1953). Balboa of Darien, Discoverer of the Pacific. Doubleday and Company.
- Sauer, Carl Ortwin (1966). The Early Spanish Main. University of California.
- Vigneras, Louis-André (1976). The Discovery of South America and the Andalusian Voyages. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-85609-7.
External links
- Ruiz, Bruce C. "Rodrigo de Bastidas (1460 – 1527)". Historic Panamá La Conquista & Exploración. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
- The Inscriptions at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. San Francisco, 1915.
- "Genealogías hispanas" on Gure Arbasoak.